money for kids

[Tink-n-Belle]

My DD's are 5 & 8 and I came up with the idea that they could earn $1 disney dollar a day if they are good/help with chores etc. It works like a charm especially for DD5. If I ask her to do something and she doesn't I say " your not going to earn your Disney Dollar today", and off she goes to do it.

In order to make it fun , I sometimes have contests where they could earn a extra disney dollar, for example, last weekend a frog jumped into our pool so I told them the 1st one to find the frog gets a disney dollar. I also give them an extra one when I see that they did something extra nice for someone. On the other hand, if they are bad or do something wrong, I make them pay me back a dollar or 2. This way they have "control" over how much money they get to spend.

By earning their own money they also don't tend to spend it on "junk" My DD5 will say, Mom I want this, so I say Okay, but you'll have to pay me back in Disney dollars. Is "x" worth "x" disney dollars? She usually says NO! even if its just a $2.00 item.

Once at Disney, they can spend it anyway they want to. They mostly get Mickey Bars and even bought DH & I one or two with their money. Last trip they brought back more than they spent, so they have extra for this upcoming trip. And since they are earning close to $1 a day (for the past 4 months with 4 more to go til our trip) I have booked a few tours and had them pay for their own with the disney dollars.

However, if you don't have time for them to earn their spending money this trip, I think $20 is a good amount. Like other posters have said, things at Disney are expensive!! And it is a great idea to sit down with them and let them know exactly what items they need to purchase and what items you will be buying.

Have a great trip!!

 

[disgram]

Am taking DGD (14) and her friend (14) and family with us in August. DGD has been saving her money for the past year and has almost 300$ to spend! Her friend is not a big saver and will not have as much. Her mother is going to suplement what she has so that she has about 15$ a day. DGD has decided NOT to take all her money so as not to make her friend feel bad. I was thinking of giving the friend another 5$ a day, with her mother's permission, so that she would feel ok about the money thing. DGD is fine with only having the 20$ a day. Is this a good thing???

 

[Trini]

This may be a really dumb question but where do you get the Disney dollars? Do they have disney gift cards? I thought it might be a good way for them to carry the money around. You know, like the visa cards where you put money on them.

 

[bluejasmine]

From the time we book and plan our trips my kids will do odd jobs for us, family members and neighbors to make spending money. My son is cutting grass (he is 12) my DD is feeding my DH hunting dogs daily and cleaning out the pens weekly (she is 9) plus she cleaned up a few things for her uncle and made some money. Normally they have atleast $100 of their own to spend. Hard part is reminding DD every day not to buy candy with it..lol

 

[pezpam]

My DD is 8 now and on our last couple of trips, I started giving her $10 a day. I admit that it started when the promo I took advantage of gave us Disney Dollars for free and they happened to equal $10 a day. It worked out so well as far as her budgeting and really thinking about what she wanted that I did it last time we went, too. She has a little wallet and I give her $10 each morning instead of giving it to her all in one lump sum. Honestly, $10 a day feels a bit excessive to me (partly because she's 8 and partly because I was brought up to be 'thrifty'...), but she's done a great job of balancing the little right-now purchases with the larger need-to-save-for purchases. She also winds up buying little gifts for a few friends, her teacher, and me without any prodding.

She may not exactly 'earn' this money, but once she has it, it is hers and that seems to be enough to get her to really think about what's worth spending money on. Since the WDW budgeting went so well, she's started getting allowance at home during the year that she has to budget as well - some goes into her account with the school banking program, if she wants school lunch or random toys she has to buy those, etc. She's as impulsive as any 8 year old, but when she knows she has to pay for an item, she really stops to think about it.

Long way to say that $20 a day for kids that age seems fine to me. As long as they know you won't give in and buy them stuff after they run out, they'll figure out how to budget. Or they'll learn a lesson for next time, which is just as good, imho.

 

[Mariaºoº]

Through out the year our kidlets get Disney money as stocking stuffers, an extra b-day present, easter basket, valentine's, etc.... Usually about $10 Disney money for extra things through out the year. By the time we go on vacation they normally have a good bit of money saved up. Their aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, great grandparents all give Disney money. Normally by the time we go on vacation they have $25 to $30 per day to spend when staying at least a week. I'll dole out their money for that amount per day and if they spend their daily amount they don't get more money until the next day. If they save it up they end up having more money for the next day. The kids are picky over what they purchase knowing they won't get extra money. They have what they have and it works out well.

 

[HappyLawyer]

i think 15-20 per day is reasonable, that is what i plan to give my dtr, she is 10 and i am going to explain to her she can save it up and have more the next day, but not to use it all up in one day

 

[Quinn222]

This may be a really dumb question but where do you get the Disney dollars? Do they have disney gift cards? I thought it might be a good way for them to carry the money around. You know, like the visa cards where you put money on them.

Not a dumb question at all! They only very recently introduced these and I intend to get a couple of them for my nephews. I'm taking them in October for MNNHP. Their mom is going too but since the trip was my diea I don't want her to have to pay for everything for them. This way they can buy their own snacks and whatever.

 

[Captain_Hook]

This may be a really dumb question but where do you get the Disney dollars? Do they have disney gift cards? I thought it might be a good way for them to carry the money around. You know, like the visa cards where you put money on them.

You can buy disney dollars in the Disney Store. They come in 10's, 5's, and 1's. I don't know if you can get them anywhere else. The last person who waited on me told me that you can buy a "gift card" there that can be reloaded and used at the parks. I don't know much else about them and haven't heard anything else about them.... I thought the dollars were more fun. I've been visiting our local Disney Store after each pay to buy 20 here, 30 there -- so I can save without worrying about spending the money before the trip.

 

[MagicMe]

When my kids were younger I gave them $10/day. When they got older (10 or so) I started giving them $20. They would get an envelop each morning with their allotment. If they wanted something worth $$ they knew they would have to save through the week. It's amazing how much that taught them. When they were older teenagers (16), I would give them an envelop in the morning that covered expenses for everything but dinner. The practice was that they could roam the parks on their own but always had to meet us for an ADR dinner each night. Worked great. They had some freedom but also had to check in with us (this was before cell phones).

 

[qtwns]

The whole family puts money in our Disney bank all year, and we use that for Mickey Bars and other "Stuff." We give them no money--they have to spend their own. Of course, my mother gives them each $20 to spend before we go. My rule is no souvenir buying until the last day. That way they carefully consider what they really want and impulse buying is not a problem. We have had very good results, and the kids have made such good choices that they still have and play with all the purchases they've made over the past 5 years. I was a bit of a softy this year and secretly bought and surprised each kid with something I saw them admiring--I was so pleased that they didn't bombard me with any "gimme this" whining that I just sprinkled my own pixie dust!

 

[sbpuckett]

We are going for the first time this fall and plan to give both boys $50 each. That will be for souvenirs and extra stuff. We will pay for food, I'm buying pins from ebay before we go, and I'm making their autograph books before we go as well. We're buying as much stuff as we can before we go so we aren't paying $8 for a poncho and stuff. Although my boys are young, I expect that amount to only cover 2 or 3 items and maybe a few games or something. If I buy anything extra it will be out of their sight and will show up as C'mas presents a couple of months later.

 

[polkadotminnie]

My girls have to earn all their spending money in the months before we go. The younger ones get paid in Disney dollars. DD9 gets cash so she can shop at the Birkenstock outlet. We pay for meals, but they pay for snacks, souveniers... Last year they each earned about $50 for the week. It was plenty.

 

[dyna]

When DD was younger she got disney dollars in her Christmas stocking for easter and bday etc.
Then DD got very ill and was unable to travel for 2 yrs while ill she lost her long term memory so when we went in June it was like a 1st disney visit to DD

DD is now just a few weeks shy of 16, because she wants to she save all her change from anything she spends money on. Between lunch at school and her sports after school and during the summer she averages 8.00 a day spending money for meals, snacks and drinks.

Right before we went to disney in June DD counted out her change in her purse $65.00 in quarters alone LOL Not to mention we had been having her clean all the change out of her purse every month or 6 weeks and depositing money in the bank.

For disney visit she took $150 for a 6 day visit. She bought her cat a disney food bowl, a ill teammate a mickey that was 9.00 and special necklace that she feel in love with for herself I think it was about 9.00 also. We bought all her snacks and meals.

I was very proud of her for bringing so much of her money back home to her dismay tho she had to deposit most of in the bank. Well that was where it was gonna go had she not went to disney so it needed to go back there.

 

[deany]

On our first WDW trip I told my 3 kids that they would have to earn a certain amount of money ($100) each for their trip by doing chores, saving birthday money etc. to put towards our trip. When the trip came, I gave them this money back to spend. DD6 spent all of her money on dolls, stuffed toys, etc, DS10 spent about $65 on Indie stuff and DS12 spent about $4 and saved the rest. BUT none of them bugged me about buying them stuff as they had their own money and could make their own choices. This was one of my best ideas that I have had!!

 

[bettyann29]

On our first trip to WDW I gave my 2 children that I took $100 each.. In addition to that I bought each of them a stuffed animal and that was it.. If they wanted anything they had to use their own money.. They were more selective in what they bought.. When I brought my youngest DD last year by herself I gave her $150 and I bought her one stuffed animal.. she wanted everything she saw and I gave in and bought her a few more things spending more than I planned.. When all 3 of them went in March they each had $125 I believe and I bought them a few things other than that.. In future I will only give them $100 each to spend and if they want anymore than that, than they will need to work for it and save it..

 

[LindsayDunn228]

I say $20 total for the whole trip is enough.

 

[cleo]

Why does it shock me to see parents forking over money to kids that age when they could be earning it?

They're old enough to earn some cash. How they divide up what they've earned is up to them. I guarantee they won't spend $20 a day if it's coming out of their own pocket. More likely, they'll choose one or two things that really matter to them. The added bonus is, you then don't have a bunch of meaningless junk laying around when they lose interest after you get home.

 

[zurgswife]

I am sorry I have so many questions. But your replies are wonderful.

How much money a day should I plan on for my kids? They are 12 and 14. I want them to have money of their own so they dont bug me for things. Of course we'll pay for their food and drinks. But if they want candy or to buy something, or play in the arcade, or whatever. How much do you think is reasonable? My husband says $20 per day per kid, but that seems like a lot. What do you think? What do you guys do?

My kids are 9, 12, 13 and 15 and $20 a day seems like a whole lot to me. I'd say $5 a day and anything over that is there own money. They are old enough to bring there own money for the extras. My kids have been required to do this for many years. They have no problem doing this. We also end up with a ton less junk when they have to use there own money.

 

[iHEARTflorida]

$20 sounds good.

my mum told me if i wanted to buy gifts/clothes etc.. i had to buy my own, so i have saved up $600, so i have $40 a day, and the days i dont spend it all it goes in my clothes shopping fund, im 15 and love clothes, and i love the USA clothes shops