How much do you normally spend on suveniors???

[Befferk]

Our son will be 4 when we go, and he has been saving for over a year already. He will be taking $250 to spend on his own souveniers. It has been a great learning experience for him over the past year for money and making choices. We will take another additional $450 for souveniers for DH and myself, and other people that we will bring stuff back for. This is strictly souvenier money (not food/snacks/misc). This is our 1st trip and we know it will be a while before we get to go back again (several years) so we are being pretty laid back about it.

Beth

 

[kidd_freeper]

I am budgeting $300 for 6 days at the parks over an eleven day visit this July for my six family members.

This needs to include gifts for people who will be doing favors for us back home while we are away.

Some might consider that to be on the low side, but I'd simply rather spend my money on park tickets and film.

 

[Wendy31]

I don't remember the exact cost of everything we purchased last year, but following is a run-down of the things we bought w/ the estimated costs:

Small Stuffed Minnie Mouse for DD (~ $15)
Small Stuffed Mickey Mouse for DS (~ $15)

4 "Happiest Celebration on Earth" T-Shirts (~$15-$20/each)

Buzz Lightyear Spinner (~$10)
Cinderella Spinner (~$10)

Fort Wilderness Christmas Tree Ornament (~$8)
3 "Happiest Celebration on Earth" Christmas Tree Ornaments (~$15-$20/each - one for me, one for my mom, & one for my MIL)

"Wishes" CD (~$15)

2 "Happiest Celebration on Earth" Photo Albums ($20-$25/each)

2 Coffee Mugs (~$10/each)

2 wooden WDW picture frames (~$10-$15/each)
1 castle picture frame (~$20)

1 Minnie Mouse china figurine for DD (~$8-$10)
1 Mickey Mouse china figurine for DS (~$8-$10)

1 pair of silver Tinkerbell earrrings for me (~$20)
1 Mickey Mouse watch for DH (~$50-$75)

Coffee for my parents who got our mail & fed our cat while we were gone(~$10)
Pooh Stickers for my niece (~$5)

3 Pressed Pennies ($1.50)

So, I guess maybe between $375 & $475... $500?

Additionally, both my parents & my DH's parents gave DD & DS their own "spending money". And, in the months preceding our trip, we gave them the opportunity to earn Disney Dollars by doing things around the house like picking up their toys. So, I think they each had about $50-$75 of their own spending money. We made them to wait until our last day to spend it when we went to DTD. (They kept seeing things in the parks they wanted, & we kept telling them to wait until we go to DTD & then they could buy whatever they wanted after they had a chance to see everything.) DD bought a stuffed Lady & a stuffed Tramp and a Little Mermaid playset. DS bought an "American" Buzz Lightyear (in his patriotic outfit), a stuffed Dumbo, & a Peter Pan playset.

 

[Teresa Pitman]

On our trip last November, we bought my grandson (age 4) one of the pressed penny books to collect in. I had been saving any US quarters and pennies that I got (I am in Canada) and had them in a plastic bag for him to use on the trip. He absolutely loved making and collecting them on the trip.

We also started him on pin trading by getting him a lanyard and giving him some pins. I had some "Millionaire" pins (and my son won some more during our visit) and we gave him some of those as well as the ones that came with the lanyard. He then had the fun of trading pins with the CMs throughout the visit. We didn't buy him new ones, we told him he had to trade for them. I did find that some CMs would give him an extra pin at times without trading - so he ended up with more pins than we started with! He loves the pin trading and the CMs were wonderful with him.

Oh yes, we had another "unintentional" souvenir! When we were at DTD, he wanted to play in the water area. We warned him that he'd get wet and that we didn't have a change of clothes and we were going to Boma for dinner. He insisted he'd be fine. He got wet, and he was NOT fine. So we ended up buying him a pair of Stitch pajamas in the AKL gift shop to wear at dinner instead of his wet clothes (regular clothes would have been better but we couldn't find any in his size!). Anyway, he LOVES his Stitch pj's so it turned out to be okay.

The adults ended up buying a T-shirt each, I think, and several of us bought pins. I bought a book called "Be Our Guest" - very interesting book on the WDW philosophy of customer service. I also bought some beautiful and surprisingly inexpensive pottery from the Japan department store in Epcot.

Teresa

 

[Goofy Rulz]

My kids kept putting all the money they collected (birthdays, good report cards, etc) in their piggy banks since they were very little for "Disney" in the hopes of going there one day. That day finally came last year and we emptied their banks and counted it all up. Since my son is younger and had less mommy secretly made up the different so both DD and DS had the same amount ($100) to spend which meant they had a budget of $20/day to spend. If they didn't spend it all in one day then they could use it another day for something bigger. They each had their own wallets which I held onto. I told them that mommy & daddy would buy them each a large stuffed animal of their favorite character and their money would be for any little stuff they wanted. I also picked up the prerequisit shirts. I would figure you could estimate about $250/person for souveniers (based on a week's vacation) and if you come home w/extra then you're ahead of the game.

 

[Tigger2252]

My kids save their own money for vacation souveniers. We have purchased each one a hoodie of their favorite characters, and two pins each trip. The rest of their purchases they decide what they want. I have found that when they are spending their own money they are much more frugal than they are with mine! My girls are older than yours, but I did read another post where the parent had their child make a list to choose from. By the end of the trip he had a number of things to choose from and selected one very nice Star Wars toy. I thought that was a great idea. Little ones can turn you into a huge compulsive buyer. Good luck and have fun!!

 

[dizcrazee]

My daughter also saves for a "Disney Fund" as Bubba mentioned above. We are going in May and she has earned $43.00 so far. She does extra chores around the house and saves her money in a special secret place. She counts it a couple times a week because she is so proud of her accomplishment. I will buy her one more expensive "special item" on the last day of our trip, but she doesn't know that - it'll be a surprise!

She will be allowed to spend however much she saves in whatever way she wants, with advice from Daddy and me, of course! I expect that she will have between $60 - $80 by the time our trip arrives. Of course, my DD is 8 and needs to learn "the value of money". But when she was smaller like the OP's two cuties, we just spent every penny we could on her and wished we could spend more! For our family of three, we usually spend around $150-$200 for souvenirs for ourselves and for our family and friends back home.