Spending budget for teenagers

[happy mom of 6]

My DH, 2 DD (ages 12 and 17) and I will be going on the land/sea vacation in April 2004. I am going to have my girls earn their spending money. How much money should the girls take with them to buy gifts for themselves and 1 friend each? I want to make sure they have enough but once it is spent that is it. Any suggestions?

 

[tink2dw]

my teen dd saves $100. per trip. but we have only done the parks. And i have no idea what,or if,there is much on board to buy??

this is a question for the Disney Cruise Board. go to the bottom of this page find Forums click the pull down menu and click on to the Disney Cruise Board once clicked it will jump to that forum!!

 

[beansmom]

ok, we only have 1 kid and she has to save $10 every two weeks from her allowance AND we often buy DD as special treats for good report cards, easter/b'day. Then we let her spend it all. She collects Disney snowglobes (dh started THAT, I'm way too cheap) and likes to buy the exclusive ones there.

I think $100 is really not much because stuff is so expensive...dd usually has $250.

 

[cboudre1]

My 15 year old usually saves around $100. I give him $10 a day for video games and junk food at the hotel. (I cover all the junk food he eats in the park). I also buy him a couple T-shirts. He probably spent $220 all together on our last trip.

 

[crisi]

Are all they buying gifts for themselves and one friend each? You don't expect them to buy their own snacks or video games? Will you be spending all your time as a family, or will your kids be spending some time on their own (in which case they will want a little cash for snacks - though we never spend much on snacks at Disney - we are too busy to stop)?

Next question, what do you envision by "gift?" Disney sells everything from pencils with Mickey Mouse on them for around a $1 to $10,000 Hummel sculptures.

T shirts will be cheaper than sweatshirts. Beanie Baby type stuffed toys cheaper than the 21" dolls. And pencils are cheaper than Hummel scuptures.....

I personally wouldn't be comfortable if my kids friends brought them back anything worth more than about $20-25 (or if any of my friends showed up with anything more than about $20-25 worth of gift for me), but I know other people are into much more extravangence with gifts. As for their own gift, I'd be fine if they spent much more on themselves. But I wouldn't be disappointed if my kids decided to save most of their money and bought themselves a token souvenier.

 

[happy mom of 6]

When I say a gift, I simply mean any souvenir that they would like to get as a memory of their trip. Whether it be t-shirts, stuffed animals, trinkets, etc. As far as friends go, my 17 yr old has a boyfriend and I am sure that she will want to get him something. My 12 yr old may or may not want to bring items home for her friend. I haven't discussed that with her yet. I do not expect them to buy their own snack items but I also expect them to keep them within reason. I was thinking that $200 should be enough. If they are spending it responsibily and they should need alittle more I would cover it.

 

[crisi]

Yeah, I would think so.

We aren't a souvenier family, but I have spent less than that on most of my trips.

Last time we went I bought:

A fleece cardigan for myself for $50.
A sweatshirt for each of the kids $20
Clearance shirts for each of the kids for under $10
Each kid got a stuffed doll (Mickey for him, Minnie for her) $25 each (approximately)
And they both got ears with their names on them (can't remember - around $10 embriodered).

So the three of us (my husband is a different matter, I don't put him on a budget, but I think he came home with two twenty dollar t shirts ), spent around $200. But, as I said, we aren't a big souvenier type of family.

I did buy an animation cell once - that was a pricey souvenier trip. But that is the exception for us.

There are certainly families who travel on a lot less than we do. And families that travel on a lot more. You need to define how much you are comfortable with you kids spending. If its a buck or two, they can get pencils