How do you handle $ for kids souvenirs?

[sarahmae3]

Hi all,
I'm wondering what would work best as far as having the kids be able to get some souvenirs while on a budget? Do you all set a certain amount per child, per day, make them wait until the last day to pick out one thing? I have four kids and all are very different ages, and I want them each to be able to get something special but we are on a tight budget.

 

[katie111]

I give each of my kids a gift card (sometimes $25 each, sometimes $50). They know that is all they get & it works beautifully. Usually they wait till the last day to get something but sometimes if we're in a certain park for the last time for that trip, they'll get something park specific there. Sometimes I let them each pick out a T-shirt too but that's usually only when they do something extremely brave, i.e. my youngest rode ToT last time were were there when he was 5 so he got a ToT t-shirt. That comes out of a separate budget. Kids seem to want much less when it is coming out of what they percevie as their "own" money.

 

[ZephyrHawk]

Do your kids get allowance? I was always told to use my allowance money. My parents would, generally, buy me one or two small things as well to supplement, but that was not guaranteed. If I wanted something, I paid for it.

 

[andieb0602]

Both of mine were given a gift card ($50) and were allowed to bring along any money they had in their piggy banks. It worked out really nicely because once it was gone, it was gone. One of mine is a spender and the other is a saver and it kept the begging down to a minimum. Anything they wanted, including those whirly light things for the parades, had to be purchased with their own money. The only things we bought for them were some flip flops when their shoes became soaked in a downpour. (We were on the DP so snacks were already taken care of.)

 

[jeffbear]

Put me in the gift card camp. In the past I have set them a limit that I would give them ... usually $50 ... and then they could save up and buy another card for themselves if they wanted. I think that works better than kids trying to keep up with cash.

 

[joannamet]

It shouldn't differ that much from your usual parenting rules even though its Disney. I took my daughter and a friend to a large children's museum yesterday. They wanted to look around the gift shop at the end of the day so I warned them that they had 10 minutes and we would not buy anything. I gave them exactly 10 minutes and told them no every time they asked for something during that time. They had each gotten 4 smashed pennies and those were their only souvenirs. They left perfectly happy and I felt good that I didn't give in.
For our Disney trip, DD will have her own money to spend and limited time to shop throughout the trip. She tends to ask for a lot of things so she's used to hearing a lot of no's regardless of where we are. I can say no at Disney just as easily as at our grocery store at home or Target.

 

[Aliceacc]

We've been saving for two years for this trip.

And my kids tend to be very good about not getting the "gimmes."

So at WDW, we tend to be a lot more generous than normal. They've been getting Disney gift cards for birthdays and Christmas and every other occasion that's come up for a while.

Each will probably end up with a sweatshirt. My older daughter will get a snowglobe for her collection, not sure what special thing the other 2 will find. And they'll want some odds and ends for their friends.

 

[pkelly6]

Traveling out of state to visit family. Each DD is getting $40 for souveniers whether purchased at the tunpike, gas station, zoo, museum. When it's gone, it's gone.

However, at WDW I'm giving DDs (4 and 7 at time of travel) $150 gift cards. In addition, I will likely purchase ears and a t-shirt for them.

I know it's a lot. Since we may not go as a family again, I wanted to be a bit indulgent with them.

 

[lovewdwdvc]

Generally we have a rule that the kiddos have to wait until the last day to get their goodies. The anticipation is good for them. We do make an exception if one of the kiddos finds something at a park that we do not think that we will find someplace else. Light saber is an example of a souvenir that the kiddo can get early.

 

[MSSANDRA]

We really limit souvenirs for a few reasons. We really do not like vacations to turn into shopping trips. We avoid gifts shops pretty well. As we leave a ride, we start talking about what we are going to do next as we QUICKLY exit through the shop at the end of the ride. There are TONS of these. We don't like to give a set amount of money because then he becomes fixed on how he is going to spend it and how much if left etc. What works well for us is to have an idea of what we might want to purchase before hand. Most of the time for DS7 it is one thing at the Star Wars store at HS. Sometimes we even research and he already has a good idea before we go. Last trip he wanted something from the lego store and one trip he wanted to do the Mr Potato Head box. We encourage things that will get played with a lot later. I really do not like clutter and things like sit around statues and stuff animals just are not my favorite, though we did buy a few of the later when he was little. We mostly say one thing, mostly toward the end of the trip, but if it is only at the park we will be at once, we go ahead and get it. Parent lesson 324 is NOT to do the build a light saber too early in your HS day! We do say yes sometimes for small treats, mostly consumable like the 5.00 slushie or the fill your own candy sticks. My BIL works at the disney store and buys us lots of goodies and treats so we never fill too deprived.

 

[EMode]

I just give them a GC with a set amount on it and when its gone, its gone. Mine are older now so they really don't go home with alot of souvenirs, my one ds traded his GC in for money for the arcade at the resort. (they don't take GCs in the machine).

 

[libinatorsmom]

I bought my DD10 gift cards for $75 which was her limit - she had the gift cards and I let her spend them however she wanted on whatever she wanted when she wanted! In the end I had to give her about $5 cash for her final purchase but it worked out FANTASTIC and she ended up with GREAT things I thought and she really thought about it as they were HERS and she was able to pay for the items with the cards etc... I totally recommend it

 

[JustCallMeMommy]

I am a big fan of letting Alison control her own money - this is a great way to learn to save and make good choices. For trips that she knew about far enough in advance, she was encouraged to save. For the others, she was given a set amount, depending on my budget for the trip.

When DD was 8, I came up with the "brilliant" idea to double any money she saved before the trip. I expected her to save $50 or something like that. Silly kid managed to save $225. So, that's what NOT to do.

On our last trip, we decided not to buy any souvenirs immediately. We planned to do all our shopping on the last day. As we toured the parks, I used a list app on my phone to record anything we thought we might want, then we narrowed down the list each day as we realized we would like X better than Y. At the end, we had a good list of our very favorite items.

 

[katyjeka]

We are another family who wait until the last day. They look the entire vacation, change their minds at least a hundred times, and buy at the end.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

For our one & only trip (so far), each kid got:

1 tshirt
1 pair ears
$20 to spend however they wanted

 

[MikL99]

This was our first trip and i was on a budget but didn't concern myself with spending. I didn't look for cheap things to buy. I looked for quality.

I have 2 boys. 10 and 3.

The 3 year old was easy. We bough Mickey ears with his name. He loved it. Then i bought him a shirt that he picked out. Then he got to pick a toy from Animal kingdom. That was his stuff.

The 10 year old was a bit harder. He wanted a lot of stuff but to me most of the stuff he could have gotten anywhere and to be honest i thought he was too old for.

Now what he ended up getting was a Hat, a shirt he picked out, and finally he found a mickey watch. The watch was 30 bucks and i thought that was a good price and a good item for him to get.

Oh, i also let them both get a pearl at the pearl factory in Epcot. They really liked that.

Hope that helps.

 

[sarahmae3]

Thanks all, you've given me some good ideas. It seems like a gift card with a set amount would work for our kids. Do you get your GC's before you go to Disney? If so, where is the best place to buy them?

 

[HopperFan]

Dating myself but we used Disney Dollars when the kids were old enough to ask ... 3 years old and up (have 3 spread out). They each had about $25-30. Initially during the trip they said they wanted something we reminded them that was all they had maybe they would like to wait until the end. About day 2 we never heard another peep. On the last day we always scheduled time for the resort gift shop or Downtown Disney. They always bought nice, usually one quality item.

Before we left I always shopped clearance for tshirts etc to coordinate in the parks. So each day they were putting on a new shirt and that was exciting to them. Since we always drove we brought a bag for each in the car and each hour they were good they got to open a new gift. It was always Disney related like pencils, book, etc like dollar store stuff. So by time we were there they already had the little pile of new Disney items. It saved lots of money and lots of whining.

They are all in the 20's and say that was the best thing we ever did. They remember being excited the whole trip to pick that one special item and they probably each still have what they bought. Not to say a few years they didn't wait. One year my DD bought the passport at EPCOT so she could collect the stamps and signature from CMs - she was too old for the craft. As they got older and had holiday and birthday money they were welcome to bring it and spend as they wish.

 

[MinnieMouse100]

I give them each a $25 Disney gift card to buy what they choose. They are also welcome to bring money they have earned if they want more.

 

[itutorfortravel]

We really only travel once every one to two years, so we don't have a regular plan in place for this sort of thing. However, we just got back from Disney today, and this was the first trip where we knew DD would be asking for things. It worked well this time since we left right after school let out for the summer. We don't normally pay her for grades, but we decided to reward her a certain dollar amount for each A she earned for the year and each B she earned. Lucky for her, she earned all A's!!! Her grandparents also gave her some money to spend. We don't give her an allowance, so she didn't have anything to save up.

She did great this week at Disney. She did a lot of window shopping before deciding what to spend her money on. The only thing we gave her extra money for was to buy the Vera Bradley Disney print backpack, because honestly we as her parents buy her backpack every year for school. (So since she wanted the Vera one she paid half, and we paid half). She came home with some really unique things that I think she will enjoy. I was proud of her for not doing any impulse buying and realizing that she had to make decisions about what she wanted to buy because her money was limited.