How do you curb a case of the "gimmies" and the "wants"

[Naisy68]

Buy the book "The Berenstein (??spelling) Bears Get the Gimmies." It's great. After reading it to my son a couple of times, he'd get the gimmies in the store and I'd refer to the book. It helped a lot.

Myrtle

See now that's two of us that it worked for -great idea Myrtle!!

 

[hollyb]

This will be the kids first trip down. They will $50 a day each to spend on whatever they want. They are such good kids hardly ask for anything on a normal day. I took DD to Toys R Us for her 6th birthday to pick out whatever she wanted. She picked out 3 stuffed animals all for less then $20 bucks. I even tried to get her to pick out more stuff, nope she was happy with what she picked.

 

[PollyannaMom]

taragl - I love your coupon idea!

For our last trip, we lessened (can't say totally eliminated) the gimmes by explaining to DS that we would be doing most of our shopping at DTD, and making sure to tell him when that would be. He also had a few Disney Dollars of his own to spend as he wished, and the pressed penny effect someone mentioned earlier really helped too.

 

[katied]

We were there last April with DNiece and DNephew (age 7 and 8 then). It was their first WDW trip, and we do generally buy them gifts every time we see them, every time we go to Target, etc., with them, etc., and are generous at b-days and christmas (however, we normally buy them clothes & books, with makes DNiece very happy, and DNephew less so).

For this trip, we gave a set amount of spending $ for the trip, kept it separate, and kept a running tab of what each kid had bought. This should work fine for age 10, but not so well for age 3.

We did not have any problems with the "I want this" because it was clear that they were only getting that amount of spending money. If they wanted to spend it on an ice cream treat, or a ball cap or a toy gun, up to them. For the purchases which seemed to be poor ideas, we would strongly suggest they wait until another day or the end of the day and "think about it." Most of the time they decided to pass. The one time DNiece bought something against our advice, she realized pretty quickly she was not happy with it, and listened to our advice more next time.

No ideas for age 3...

We'll see how it goes this year, when the kids get a much smaller spending budget. We gave them $20/day last time because it was their first trip (first real vacation ever, in fact) but this year I think we'll limit it to $50 or $75/kid for the entire trip...

 

[OceanAnnie]

See now that's two of us that it worked for -great idea Myrtle!!

Make that 3! It's a cute book that really gets the point across.

 

[pixiewytch]

Everyone has given great advice!!

I am a bit Disney obsessed and have the gimmies myself, not so different from when I was a child. Since I know that my budget doesn't allow me to buy whatever I want I set limits for myself....and my child of course. For an older child an allowance sounds like a fantastic idea. That's what I do for myself to keep from overspending. When it's gone, it's gone. Period. No negotiating after that.

For the little one, that is too much responsibility. Tell him he can choose one thing and one thing only. Thank goodness my 4 yr old hasn't graduated to expensive taste yet. Last time we went to MK he picked out a $6 plastic peter pan sword and he was completely content with that. DH and I joked about how funny it was that he had to have picked the cheapest thing in the entire park. Of course that won't last forever but for now it's a good plan. Whether we go to the park for the day or DTD, he knows that he gets one thing and one thing only so choose well. If he picks something too outrageous and expensive we just immediately tell him it is too much and he's not getting it. He moves on to something different fairly quickly.

 

[madcat]

we have envelopes on the fridge door that has each childs name on them with disney stickers. when ever they get help around the house or do something extra special they get money to take to disney with them(we dont have a disney store near buy so no disney dollars just cash) that way they will have thier own money. Im also planning on shopping the disney online site to pick up a few suprise things for them as well before we go.

 

[stacy6552]

Our kids have always earned their spending money ahead of time. Have the 10 yr old earn her Disney dollars, which is priceless for cooperation before and during the trip. Then she knows what she has to spend. The little one can have about what the big girl can have. Our older son even bought his brother somethng himself once. Dh and i will pick up something extra along the way, usually, but the gimmes are nowhere to be found on our trips.

 

[AllyCatTapia]

the problem with some of the suggestions here is that often something that is wanted is only in THIS ONE STORE- Ie mexican mickey at mexico...so it's hard to say "we will get sounvenirs on our last day" because, well, we're not going back to Epcot on the last day!!!

 

[taximomfor4]

the problem with some of the suggestions here is that often something that is wanted is only in THIS ONE STORE- Ie mexican mickey at mexico...so it's hard to say "we will get sounvenirs on our last day" because, well, we're not going back to Epcot on the last day!!!

True, but except on ONE occasion (which I will tell in a minute), once we hit DTD on our last day, the kids decide that what they REALLY want is in one of the big stores there!

Now our exception: DD2 loved the "Giant Heyyow Racas" (giant yellow maracas) at ASMu. In Mexico, they sell yellow maracas. She really wanted them, but it was not our last day. My kids' spending money is always less than $30 for the whole trip so nothing they realistically were planning to get costs more than $30 anyway. I had DH sit with the kids with beverages at Cantina, and I ran over and purchased 2 yellow maracas. I figured if she REALLY wanted that for her souvie, I already had it. If she chose something in DTD (which she did), I had a Christmas gift to stick in the attic.

I guess if my kids' spending money was more, they might pick something huge from World Showcase or something, and I would have more trouble hiding it in the stroller -- and it might be more than I want to spend pre-buying a Christmas gift. But for now, the way things are in my family, it does work.

 

[raspberrysharpei]

I love all the advice on this thread. I too am taking my Dniece(11) & Dnephew(4.5) on their first trip this August. I plan on having a spending discussion prior to leaving about shopping & souvenirs, more so for the 11 yr old, who wants everything & it doesn't help when grandma lines her pockets with a couple hundred dollars!!!

So to add to the thread, am I the only one who thinks a couple hundred dollars is EXCESSIVE for an 11 year old child to have for spending money at WDW???? I understand the excitement & letting children have fun with shopping, but I know my Dniece has really poor money management & will come home with no money if her spending is not supervised.

 

[taximomfor4]

I love all the advice on this thread. I too am taking my Dniece(11) & Dnephew(4.5) on their first trip this August. I plan on having a spending discussion prior to leaving about shopping & souvenirs, more so for the 11 yr old, who wants everything & it doesn't help when grandma lines her pockets with a couple hundred dollars!!!

So to add to the thread, am I the only one who thinks a couple hundred dollars is EXCESSIVE for an 11 year old child to have for spending money at WDW???? I understand the excitement & letting children have fun with shopping, but I know my Dniece has really poor money management & will come home with no money if her spending is not supervised.

When my dd was 11 (and the other kids were 2, 5, and 6) they each got around $30 each, total to spend. For our family, a couple hundred $ is very excessive. For other families, it may not be. But then again, that is more than I spend on one of my kids on their birthday or Christmas, so of course it would seem excessive as souvenir money!

 

[MickeyNicki]

I was talking to my sister about this and she said she will pack some of their disney toys that I have bought them before and she will pack the clothes that she has bought them from the disney store so that will help me out. If they want another stuffed animal, I can remind them that they have that one back at the hotel.

The younger one is not too much trouble, she loves the little stuffed animals that are only a few bucks but the older one loves snow globes and that can get expensive (she collects them).

What I am worried about is the trading pins......that can be very expensive! and they are all over the place! The little one will not want them UNLESS the older one does, she cannot be left out of anything!