Spending money for children?

[ropeman]

We are taking our 8yr and 6 yr old girls to Disney for the 1st time in Sept. My wife and myself have been there before. We were wondering should we set an allowance for them to spend? We do not give them an allowance at home. What do other people do? I was thinking of saying they could spend $20 on anything they wanted in every park is that too little- too much? I am not sure.

 

[design_mom]

You will get a wide variety of answers on this. It all depends on your personal spending habits. We give our children enough to buy 1 reasonably priced souvenir of the trip ($20-$30). They usually "window shop" for the first few days then we make sure to buy whatever it is later in the trip. We also budget enough to buy a few special "treats" for the kids (for instance, if we see a t-shirt we think they'll like, we might say "do you want this?" and buy it for them. Their "allowance" is for whatever *they* pick out. They really think about what they choose and, for the most part, they are happy with their choices when we get home.) I don't think we spend more than $50 per child on the whole trip for souvenirs though.

Other people give their kids $100+ per *day* for souvenirs and snacks.

$20 per park would buy them a small/medium stuffed animal, or a couple of pins, or various other small toys. If you want to go with a "per park" allowance, I am sure your girls could find something nice for that amount.

It all depends on your vacationing style, I guess.

 

[latexscooter]

We usually don't do an allowance either but we let DD7 collect Disney spending money throughout the year. It's mostly change from here or there and money from birthdays. We start giving her special chores as we get closer to the trip and she squirrels it all away. Just before the trip we cash it in and she brings it with her. Over the past 3 years when we've done this she's had from $30-75 which has always been enough.

Ultimately you know your kids and what they can manage so I'd just follow that.

 

[ropeman]

Thanks for the input. I am just wondering what everyone else does. It has been almost 20 yrs since either my wife or myself have been to Disney. We were just wondering how much is enough or too much. We will most likely buy them stuff ourselves.