Is this an unreasonable amount for my children?

[KELLY]

I personally think it is low. But I also am making my 4 year old save her own money for BBB Botquie this year. She is actually almost 1/2 way there since she has gotten 40.00 in GC from grammy so far. But it is your trip do what you want.

 

[DisneyTravelers2008]

Sine they already have ears, lanyards, pins, shirts, autpgraph books, etc...$30 should be good. Also, if you go often, this makes a difference. If you are unsure, bump it up to $40....or tell them if they have good behavior, go to bed on time, etc...(whatever your "challenge area is") you will give them a $10 bonus...let them earn the extra.

 

[luvsJack]

I would think about how much things cost and what you would like for them to have maybe? I don't really let dd buy any "junky" stuff. She does get plush toys and most of them have been around $30 (usually like $27). But these have lasted forever and some she keeps on her bed and others are displayed on shelves.

I usually allow X$ per park (and she normally gets one thing from each park). But, like I said we limit what she can get to clothing, plush toys, water globes, things that are a bit closer to being worth what we are paying for them.

We are planning to do things a bit different this year (going back 3/2011) in letting her get disney dollars (actually I am making my own, but the same concept) in her Easter basket, at her birthday and for Christmas next year and allowing her to exchange some of her allowance for disney dollars over the year to save for spending money on the trip. Whatever she ends up with, that is what she gets to spend. (but this will include any treats outside the dining plan, autograph book and pen, and all souvies)

 

[tzolkin]

For both of our trips each of my kids had about $35 in Disney dollars.

Like you, I had purchased a few items (mostly on clearance) to bring with us-- light chasers, beach towels, glow sticks, clothes, a few toys, etc. DD got a lanyard and pins to trade for her birthday right before our 2nd trip. My kids never really cared to look around in the gift shops so we set aside one afternoon to go to DTD to do our shopping. Both times I purchased them a box of the potato head pieces to share. For our first trip, each of the two little ones decided to get a small plush toy (around $15) and older DD decided to get a hat ($23). (The other two got the free Mickey ears with their first haircut that trip.) They never asked for anything the rest of the trip and came home with the rest of the money.

Last trip we did the same thing. We bought the potato head pieces and our youngest bought a few inexpensive pirate items at DTD (about $20). Our two girls didn't find anything that they really wanted, so DH bought each a painting of their name. We told them they could keep looking in the parks and if they saw anything they wanted, they could get it. They wound up never buying anything.

 

[apnep]

If it were $30 per day for all of them, I'd say that's great

Yikes! How much junk does a kid need?

A tshirt and a trinket. I think $30 is very reasonable. I bet if you tell them they can keep the cash of whatever they don't spend, they won't spend anything at all! That's what my son does! Hahaha!

Angela

 

[Jennifer in MI]

I agree that $30 sounds completely reasonable!!!! All year long our family saves money by NOT buying all sorts of trinkets/odd-ends. Why should that be any different on vacation?

We gave our kids $20 each to spend at Disney in January. It wasn't a problem! They each made good decisions. We stayed out of stores for the most part so that we weren't tempted.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

Mine love the Lego shop, so we save that for the last or next to last day. Then when they start the gimmes for all the crap in the parks, we ask them if it would be worth giving up the Legos in order to get the junk now. They shut up right away. I don't mind spending $60-$75 each at the Lego store, I would rather they have those than junk.

Before we discovered this trick we still wouldn't buy souvenirs until the last day. Then we could go back and get the thing they really remembered and liked, instead of stuff that was bought the first day and forgotten/regretted because they saw something better. I do the same thing with myself.

 

[gillenkl]

I think $30 is doable but tough. You'll be there 8 days - and $30 doesn't go very far at disney. I'd think about uping it to $50 if you can swing it. I'd have them look around in the shops for a few days and make mental notes of the things they want most. Then purchase the items before you leave. I wouldn't let them buy their items on the first day or it will be torture to say "you don't any of your money left" for the next 7 days. You could also take pennies and quarters for the penny press machines for the days they won't be buying something.

We have found what works for us:
$100 per child which they have saved from birthday/holiday gifts - keep in mind that we are usually there for 2 weeks; and they know that when their money is used up that's all there is.
1 pin per day which I purchase on ebay before we leave
$10 per child for penny press machines

 

[PlanningNextTrip]

My son is 2.5, and we are heading for his 3rd trip to Disney in October, and he has a "pumpkin-bank" that he saves money in. When he receives money from family (they send US, we are in Canada), he puts the money in his bank, and he does some little chores or is extra helpful and he gets a dime or a quarter to put in his bank. I think he has around $60 in there....and our trip is in 8 months. He can spend it on cars or whatever he wants to.

 

[WDmommyof4]

Yikes! How much junk does a kid need?

A tshirt and a trinket. I think $30 is very reasonable. I bet if you tell them they can keep the cash of whatever they don't spend, they won't spend anything at all! That's what my son does! Hahaha!

Angela

That cracks me up. My boys are very different from one another. There are two that I know will probably be very frugal and two others that are likely to buy the first thing they see and be out of money the rest of the trip. It may be different if I do as you suggest .

 

[PJHuntleyCO]

In the past my kids have had $10/day to spend as they liked, but times are tighter and we decided to pull in a bit. This last trip, each of my kids on the last trip got $100 each. Each earned it by doing extra chores without being asked. We gave them the choice of using all of it or keeping it and putting some in savings, each kept $50 at home for use later. But each used it on things they would use, pj's, shirts, etc. The youngest, of course it was light up spinners (2), jedi sword, and 1 stuffed toy. It it up to you - if you have ($30 each) to budget awesome, if not don't guilt yourself out. The big gift for the kids is getting to go.

 

[auralia]

personally i would do 50$ just so that they could get the item they wanted... if they wanted a sweat shirt for example it would be more than that... or an understanding of yes you have 30$ but if you pick ONE thing and it is a bit over 30 we will cover the extra. 30 will get you 1 tee shirt a stuffed animal is 13$... so a low price disney tshirt 22$ add a stuffed animal to that and it's 45$ .... i go by the tshirt plus stuffed animal cost in trying to figure out childrens budgets.

 

[shelly3girls]

I think $30 is very reasonable especially since you go once a year. We also go often. Last trip each DD had $50 to spend. One DD came home with $15 and the other with $45. At the beginning of the trip I would remind them of the limited spending each time they asked for anything. By the end of the trip I didn't need to remind them. They decided they preferred the cash.

 

[Friendly Frog]

I think that 30.00 is a fair amount. With so much to see and do I would focus more on the rides and attractions than on the shops anyway.

 

[FoundMyPrince]

We gave each of our kiddos $20 for our last trip (7 day trip, $20 for the entire trip). Before the trip we bought each child a Disney store t-shirt for each day, and new Disney Crocs (all found on sale beforehand), and a handful of new pins from ebay. We brought along their pins and lanyards from previous trips, hats from previous trips, and new autograph books that we made together. The kids didn't think twice about wanting a t-shirt at the parks that cost 5 times as much as the ones they were wearing and they didn't care about "junk". So, yes, I think $30 is plenty.

 

[MrsPete]

I think it's high.

Years ago we did away with the concept of souveniers in our family. Seriously, we did, and we lived to tell the tale. We find that when kids have spending money, an excessive amount of time becomes devoted to shopping and buying. We also found that the things kids buy tend to be loved for a short period of time, and then they become clutter (or yard sale fodder).

Vacations shouldn't be about consuming. They should be about family time and fun. The kids didn't even notice when we stopped buying souveniers.

No regrets whatsoever.

 

[pacrosby]

Geez...................alot of your kids (not you OP ) spend more money than "I" do!!!!! "Why" do they NEED to spend money???? I'm confused. A week or so ago there was a similar thread but the OP was talking about giving her kids 100 dollars each. Even then there were countless people saying it wasn't enough. I about spit out my beverage

I will not allow my children to 'waste' my (or their) money on useless stuff. Lord knows we have enough of it already Thirty dollars is plenty! They'll spend it wisely. Even in the Lego store...............my boys love legos but when we went to Disney they bought one of the smaller sets, not the huge ones. We can get the bigger ones at home ON SALE!!! And t-shirts/sweatshirts??? I always wondered who bought those overpriced clothing items in the parks?? Now I know it's all these kids Need a Disney t/sweatshirt?? Go to Walmart or an outlet. That's how you teach them how to be responsible with their money.

ok................I'm done now

 

[Tweedle]

We did $30 each and it was plenty!! We also have a rule that they could not buy anything until we had been to each park at least once. If they wanted something we would write down where they saw it so we could go back if we needed to. You can only imagine how many things we wrote down!! Part of the fun was "putting it on their list!" By the end of week everyone had their souvenir!

We did buy towels at Walmart and shirts at a local discount place for $4 each and several disney items from the Dollar Tree before we left.

We remind the that GOING to Disney is the "treat!"

 

[mjkacmom]

Amazing! I have to buy my boys practically everything in the parks, we budget about 75-100 a day for all the stuff they have to have! They are only 8 and 5 though, so they don't have their own $$ yet. Congrats!!

And what happens when they don't get what they HAVE to HAVE? As someone who is astonished at how frugal people on this board sometimes are, I can't wrap my mind around spending $100 a day on cr@p because my kids Have to Have it. My kids get birthday presents, and Christmas presents. Everything else, if it's a want, and not a need, they pay for themselves. Sure, I buy them clothes, food, and pay for their activities, but I don't feel the need to get them "stuff," just because they want "stuff."

 

[luvsJack]

Geez...................alot of your kids (not you OP ) spend more money than "I" do!!!!! "Why" do they NEED to spend money???? I'm confused. A week or so ago there was a similar thread but the OP was talking about giving her kids 100 dollars each. Even then there were countless people saying it wasn't enough. I about spit out my beverage

I will not allow my children to 'waste' my (or their) money on useless stuff. Lord knows we have enough of it already Thirty dollars is plenty! They'll spend it wisely. Even in the Lego store...............my boys love legos but when we went to Disney they bought one of the smaller sets, not the huge ones. We can get the bigger ones at home ON SALE!!! And t-shirts/sweatshirts??? I always wondered who bought those overpriced clothing items in the parks?? Now I know it's all these kids Need a Disney t/sweatshirt?? Go to Walmart or an outlet. That's how you teach them how to be responsible with their money.

ok................I'm done now

For us, on our very first trip to wdw we never even thought about how much we would let dd spend. She never asked for anything. The only two things she came home with on that trip was a small, safari tigger and one of those light up spinning things with tinkerbell.

The next trip was supposed to be the blow out, one time only BIG trip to Disney and Sea World. We said "one thing in each park" and we didn't set a $ limit (just planned for it to be within reason).

Well, of course that wasn't the "one time only BIG trip", it was just the beginning. So the next trip, we sort of did the same thing but probably bought a bit extra too. I personally don't have a problem with most of the things bought in the park (the spinning tinkerbell was bought when dd was 4, she is now 11 and dgd loves to watch it spin. We have never even replaced the batteries), but do not let her get really junkie stuff. She likes to collect stuffed animals and such so that is usually what she buys. (she bought 4 last time, again one thing in each park)

Now we have a plan in place for spending money next time and have already discussed with her how it will be obtained for the next trip. Actually we are doing the same concept for any trip we take (disney dollars, beach bucks, etc.). That way she always has spending money and she has some control over the amount. Plus those will be part of her b-day gifts, Christmas presents, in her Easter basket, etc so will cut down on the "junk" there and she will be using part of her own allowance saved over the year, so less "junk" she can buy through the year.

There is no way I would spend $100 a day or allow dd to spend that much on stuff in the parks or anywhere else; but I would want to make sure she had enough to buy that better quality item that she wants rather than the cheaper "junk" that she would settle for.




OP, you are going to get as many different answers as there are posters on this board! You have to just do what is best for you and your kids and within your budget. I teach dd about savings by having her save some for the trip. Others teach their kids to be frugal by buying tshirts somewhere besides at the parks (we actually made our own last trip). Some don't choose the trip to teach anything. All of those ways are ok for their family.