Money and souvenirs

[moymo]

My kids (my older one especially) are just getting to the age where they care about buying things all the time. I would love to hear suggestions of how you handle the whole souvenir issue so that it is fun for the kids and affordable for the adults. There are so many goodies that I just don't want to spend the whole trip negotiating purchases. Thanks in advance for any input!

 

[disneyag]

The last 2 trips, I gave my kids (DD6, DS9) their spending money beforehand. (Of course, I kept it in my fanny pack!) That way, before each purchase they had to figure out how much an item cost and how much money they would have left. It really cut down on the whining. It's amazing how careful kids are with their purchases when it's "their" money they are spending.

 

[paperboy]

I would suggest disney dollars. I agree, give them to your kids berfore you go. That way they can only spend the money at Disney and not before then!

You can pick them up at any Disney store and it is $1 to $1.

Hope this helps

Paperboy's Wife

 

[disneyjunkie]

DS11 saves some of his allowance. In July I'll start giving him half of his allowance in DD. Since he can't spend the DD before the trip, he'll have at least $77 for the trip. If he can manage to hold on to any of the real money before the trip, then he'll add it to his spending money along with the money he gets from my parents before he goes on any trips.

When we get to the hotel, I'll divide the money by the number of days we'll be there. That's the amount he'll have to spend each day. He's free to spend the money any way he wants, snacks, junk, resort arcade...

We did this on our last trip and it worked great. The only think I paid for was one shirt. On our next trip, I'm going to pay for 3 shirts, I hope.

The last time we were there he would not ride TT, RNR, Space Mountain. I told him if he rides them on our next trip, I'll get him a shirt after each ride.

 

[goofy4tink]

When my dd was just 6 on our first trip to WDW, we gave her $5 to spend each day. She had to wait until we got back to the resort tho. When she was 8 on our last trip she got $8. Our trip this August she will get $10. Her relatives always give her Disney Dollars for her birthday/Christmas, so she has those to spend. We like to wait until we get to DD to spend those. She gets to buy one 'big' thing at the end of the trip. By waiting until we get back to the resort, we solve several issues....I don't have to listen to the 'I wanna 'whatever' ' all day long, and we don't mind poking in the resort gift shop at the end of the day. It has worked really well for us.

 

[lasmickey]

I totally agree with everyone else. We plan to give our DD's Disney Dollars before we go, then it's their choice once we're there. If they spend it all on one "big" item or one hundred "little" items, it's their money. Then we won't have to here "I wannna ...." all day long. If they want something, and they have enough money, they'll be the ones deciding if it's really worth the cost.

 

[timbud1]

The Disney Dollar plan is the best! My girls collected them as gifts for about 6 months (B'days and Christmas and Easter). They added some of their earnings from Kidzeyes.com, and ended up taking about $120 each. They put some in their little over-the shoulder purses each morning. I made them wait on t-shirts for a few days until they had seen alot of them, but they were free to purchase what they wanted. I expected them to go for all the little "junk" - they didn't at all. My 7-yr-old fell in love with the Disney World doll ($40) on the second day and waited all day to get her on the way home. She LOVES it still , a month later. They each ended up with a stuffed character or two, a shirt, autograph book, and some drawing things from MGM. My oldest was crying on the last night, wandering through shops because she "had to spend the rest of her money..." They did well with their money, and I only bought some pressed pennies and the Epcot passports. Our experience was great!

 

[Daxx]

Give the children a limit on what they can spend per day. Whether you do it in cash or D$$, they'll know what they have to spend and can determine just how important that pin or bracelet or whatever is. When it's $$ coming out of their pockets, they are not quick to spend and truly think about their purchases!

Good luck!