Inspired by the "Tween Spending" post...what am I in for...

[krismanda]

with a 5 year old? I already know she is going to want like everything. lol I'm afraid she will go through her money on the first things she sees and miss stuff later.

What were the coolest gifts/souvies that your 4/5 year old kids liked?

 

[msp2mco]

On our first trip with our DD and DS (ages 9 and 5 at the time), we bought them one thing on the first day that they saw that they liked. I think my daughter bought a set of magnets and my son bought a light-up wand or something. Then we promised them on the last day we would go back to one place where they had seen something special that they wanted to buy. We had left time in our schedule to do so, and we probably split up to do it. It worked out great because we weren't dealing with their wants all the time.

We did that on the next trip too. Then they got into pin trading, so that became the thing that they wanted to buy. Now they are 18 and 13, and they really don't buy anything anymore at the parks. It's a non-issue.

Good luck!

 

[Mkebound]

We took our then 5 year old last year. He perfectly understood he had $50 to spend how ever here wanted and when it was gone it was gone.

He bought something the 2nd day and spent the rest the last day while keeping track of what he wanted.

It helps to avoid going into stores, just to go. Why tempt more than needed?

 

[GS for life]

You will be surprised how little is purchased when they use their own money.

 

[tb1972]

My kids are now ages 7 and 10. We are DVC members and have traveled to DW many times. We found the best thing is to give each child with a Visa gift card with a fixed amount, when it's gone it's gone.

 

[jenndisney]

Our first trip by daughter was 6. She had saved about $80 to spend.

My husband came up with a great plan. We divided the money by the number of days we had in Disney. She had $20 to spend each day. If she did not spend it day one, she then had $40 to spend the next day. We promised her that if she saw a larger ticket item, we would return to get it on the last day if she still had enough money. It really made her think about the value and she wanted one nicer item rather than 5 smaller ones. The first day, she spent about $7, but then waited until the last day to spend the rest. She also realized that many of the shops had the same stuff, so we spent less time looking at the Gift Shops. It worked great for us.

We went to our bank and got a check register to keep track of what she spent. We still do that with her money today. She "deposits" and "withdraws" as needed. It is so much easier than her carrying her own cash.

 

[tamarabannon]

first trip, we gave the kids $10 a day. If they didn't spend it the one day, they still had it the next. Occasionally, we topped up the $10, or bought them something ourselves.

second trip, they had gift cards with set money. at the end, we topped up to finish purchases.

I think, we'll give them a set amount again. I'm hoping we won't buy as much, but I'm pretty sure I'm delusional! :O

 

[RedHeadedFairy]

This time when we visit, DD will be 8 yrs old & has some pretty specific ideas about what she's after.... mostly pin trading so far.

BUT - when we visited when she was 4 I was able to score all kinds of great deals on sale at our local disney store & at disney online by shopping months ahead of time. I knew she'd "have-to-have" a light up toy for the nighttime parades, etc & various other items with her fave characters.

It was easy to just whip an item out of the bag & pretend we had just purchased it & she was always so delighted.

This time around I'm boxing everything up as a gift from her fave characters & sending it to our hotel ahead of time so that it will be there when we arrive. I still get great savings & she'll be thrilled & surprised & guaranteed to love everything so long as she thinks it's from Tink & Friends. I also scored lots of 25 pins on ebay so that she can start trading right away. She's more interested in trading than owning, so this is going to save me a small fortune in pins.

I've also scored some really great off the wall deals at the Dollar Tree this time around - stickers, disney themed candies, etc. Just small stuff but it will round out the larger purchases nicely! Just an idea for you!