Money matters - spending money for 12 year old?

[dprincessmom]

He's a thoughtful spender, and manages his money pretty well. $200 sounds reasonable to me. I just wondered what others did, and what they thought.

My 11 year old DD had about $220 that she had saved/earned to take with us. Our deal is I will give her a set amount $25-$50 and anything else is on her. She came back with over $100.00 from our last trip. She got what she wanted and things she wasn't certain on she just didn't buy. I was proud of her because I was dreading the onslaughter of extra plush figures that would end up in our house. She did buy one of the pencil sketches that seem to be in a lot of the stores, a couple of pin sets and a really cute Alice in Wonderland mug for hot chocolate this winter.

 

[dprincessmom]

I always just track the spending on my iPhone and let them use the credit card on the magic band to pay.
I've thought about doing a Disney card for them but I was always worried it would get lost.. How do yall make sure the kids keep track of them?

I put her wallet in the park bag and when she is ready for her purchase, I just hand her the wallet.

 

[mjkacmom]

I gave my kids $25 and bought them shirts. They didn't spend it all. They're not into Disney, though. They had pins, lanyards, and autograph books to start their trip. We had the DDP so snacks were covered.

 

[Disneymom1126]

My DD (7) saves her money all year for our trips (birthday money, money from doing chores, etc.) because she knows that will be her spending money for the trip. I learned this because the first time we went I didn't really plan for souvenir spending and ended up spending more than I would have liked...definitely learned my lesson! Our last trip was 8 days and she saved $180 so I gave her $20 additional and got her a Disney gift card for $200 -- she spent a good bit on a disney princess dress, but then had enough left over to buy a few small souvenirs for friends on the last day (key chains). I also tell her that she can pick out at most one thing a day or can save for something bigger that she sees she wants (like the dress) -- she would spend it all the first day if I let her and then would be asking me to buy her things the rest of the trip...even though the answer is "when it's gone it's gone" -- having to say that multiple times for the rest of the trip would drive me crazy -- so the "one thing a day" rule seems to work for us!

 

[sunflowerblooms]

DD12 uses a Disney Gift Card. She keeps it in her Disney Vera Bradley mini hipster (I highly recommend this for tween girls perfectly sized for them).

What we like about the Disney Gift Card is the receipt usually shows how much is left on card.

For our daughter she isn't a big spender but Disney seems to bring out the shopper in her. So we are doing $200 for a 6 day vaca. $100 from Grandma and $100 from mom and dad. She usually buys Stitch stuff and has been buying some nice art work to hang in her room. This trip she is hoping to find a kimono in Japan.

She gets to charge 1 snack to her magic band a day and any other snack foods she has to buy.

This has produced some very thoughtful purchases including gifts for friends and teachers.

And I don't have to do anything other than escort her to the parks.