Spending money for children

[Rain]

Taking my two grandaughters to Disney 31st October.

It is a long time since I had children with me on holiday so any help and tips would be really welcome.

A couple of questions!

How much spending money would you allow per child per day ? (They will have their 10th birthday whilst out there)

What food budget would you allow (no idea if children pay full price for meals at this age or if there is a childrens menu)

We will do a couple of character breakfasts the rest of the time we will eat breakfast in our room.

lunch at the parks

dinner at a sit down resturaunt most evenings.



Thank you

Lynda

 

[BiGGy]

Hiya Rain

We fly out on the 31st too, where/when you flying from?

Only sort of help i can give you is the amount we seemed to use both times be have been before.

4 of us went the the first time in 99' and then 10 went in 2001 for my brothers wedding and both times we seemed to use about $100 a day and that was also leaving cash left for extra shopping near the end.

our 2 kids were 8 and 9 when we went.

hope this gives you some idea hehe

Rgds

BiGGy

 

[Rain]

We fly out from Manchester on US air , via Philadelphia.

Thanks for the help.

 

[UKDEB]

Rain, all the restaurants have children's menus. My 18 year old daughter still sometimes eats from them! My younger daughter has been eating from the adult's menu from a young age - she's far more adventurous.

How much you will spend is a tricky one, because it depends on the types of places you want to eat. We love eating out and that side of things forms a large part of our budget, but it is possible to eat very cheaply.

Ditto spending money - it's such a personal thing. If you are very indulgent where your grandchildren are concerned, you will need quite a bit. It's surprising how all the little things can add up. Do you intend to give them an allocation for them to spend as they choose, or will you be buying things for them?

 

[UKDEB]

I also meant to add that Character Breakfasts will cost in the region of $15-$20 for the adults and $9-$10 for the children. Fast food lunches in the parks will cost around $6 - $10 each.

 

[Rain]

Thank you for your reply!!

The money we are going to give them daily is just for them to spend on bits and pieces.
We will still buy ice creams, sweeties drinks and of course EARS!!!

I was sorta thinking along the lines of $10 each per day then if they wanted something that cost a little more they could perhaps save a couple of days. Not sure if this is enough or too much or just about right.

 

[christi]

Hi Rain

We are also going to WDW at the end of October, we fly on the 30th October from Gatwick with Virgin.
This was a question that I had also thought about posting! We have 3 kids, 12, 9 and 5 and I think that' pester power' will be in full flow from the minute we get there! We are there for 10 days and I had thought of giving them 100 dollars each for the time we are there ( equating to the 10 dollars / day you had thought of!)
My dh isn't so sure as he thinks that we will end up giving them this and then still spending lots of money too!
Anyone else got any views?

 

[JayneL]

Just a word of warning

When we went a couple of years ago with our 2 boys then 13 & 11 we had a bit of a hard time keeping them out of the sports stores. They each had $150 (Their christmas money,) and believe me it lasted ages. Nearly every day they wanted to go shopping and therefore didn't enjoy the parks so much as they were so keen to spend their money in the nike stores. They don't usually have any where near that amount to spend at home.
So alot depends on the type of child they are and what they want out of the holiday.
Mine want to go back but to go shoping!!! Hence we went on our own this year and did all the parks.

Jayne

 

[christi]

What a good point Jayne!! I can just see it happening! Maybe we'll think again, or maybe just give them a small amount of money each day to spend on ice creams etc, instead of the whole lot at once?

 

[SidB]

This may not apply seeing as you're a grandparent, but I'll mention it anyway. I found a message somewhere on these boards which went something like this (posted by an American mum).

"Leading up to the trip we gave the kids $1 spending money for each day that they kept their rooms tidy, didn't argue with each other and did their chores".

I loved the idea and will be giving it a go next time we go.

 

[signtalker]

Again I would go with the $10 per day, we were just there for 3 weeks so DS had worked out how much money he would have by the end of the holiday, and he didnt actually start spending it till the last week, when we revisited the parks, universal and the malls.

Jules

 

[uktigger]

hi all
our 2 boys had about $100 each(was given to them from both sets of grandparents and their aunt and uncle)they somehow managed to get everything they wanted,then had a good spend the day before we left
i know they sound like they are spoilt, but it was our first trip to wdw and we did get carried away

eve

 

[DisneyBB]

We tend to give about $120 to our oldest daughter (age 9) and nothing to our youngest (age 2). I will buy her a couple of nice things and hope that she doesn't have to many tantrums. Our oldest is very good with money and having a lump sum made her think before buying. She used to spend most of her money on soft toys. Thank goodness she now only buys 1! She will usually think of something big that she wants, last year a gba, the year before a scooter. Not sure what she wants this year. We buy little bits a pieces, but she doesn't expect them and we may give a little bonus money at the end of the holiday!

We also limit ourselves to a certain amount of money, going every year there is only so much you can buy. By having money just for us, we don't feel guilty spending it and it is usually about the same amount $120 each.

Also, I think we are in the minority, but we only allocate $50 a day for food. We are not into spending large amounts of money on meals. The counter service is fine, with other resturants now and again. We belong to DVC and quite often eat lightly in our apartment.

We always come back with money and feel we have done everything we wanted to do.

 

[Disbabe]

I have 3 children and were there for 2 weeks and they had an allowance each of $7 a day (15 days) and if they wanted bigger things they either saved for a few days or spent the money first and went without for a few days - I made this clear at the beginning and they were very good and the amount was enough for what they wanted.
Regarding the food - you can spend as little or as much as you want but don't forget about the drinks!! Believe me it was very hot a week ago and we were drinking like fish!!
The water is $2.50 and pop was $1.99 without tax. This is what adds up along with the ice-creams etc!!

 

[pegasusEH]

Originally posted by christi
Hi Rain

This was a question that I had also thought about posting! We have 3 kids, 12, 9 and 5 and I think that' pester power' will be in full flow from the minute we get there! We are there for 10 days and I had thought of giving them 100 dollars each for the time we are there ( equating to the 10 dollars / day you had thought of!)
My dh isn't so sure as he thinks that we will end up giving them this and then still spending lots of money too!
Anyone else got any views?

Your dh could be right as that's exactly what happened to us. Our 9 year old had $100 dollars to spend and he certainly did pretty well on top of that.

If you can, I would recommend trying to prevent any spending until later in the holiday. Gives them chance to have a real look at what's around and to make the right choices so you don't end up giving in to soppy faces when they spot something more delightful than they have already bought.

 

[mike230652]

The one constant in this thread is how clever kids are !!

Don't give them cash and Dad & Mum become cash machines !!!

Give them cash and they budget better than their parents!!

I think there's a lesson for us here ...LOL

mike230652

 

[DisneyBB]

We tend to make a rule that we all drink water during the day. We have the Disney insulated water bottles and fill them up at the drinking fountains. We get one very large fizzy drink with our meal and all share. It is enougth for all of us and we say no ice as it only dilutes the tast. This makes me sound very mean, but we all feel the bennefit of drinking lots of water.

 

[pigby]

We are planning on giving our DD(9) $10 per day - if we gave her the money upfront - she'd spend it all within the first couple of days. She had $5 per day last trip 2 years ago - but as she's a bit older now......

We'll continue to buy her ice creams, drinks and of course food - she'll probably spend the lot on pins and soft toys again.

 

[squitty]

We gave DD (10) $10 per day and that suited her just fine. She even found that she didnt spend all of it everyday and had more for the next day etc.

It worked out great.

 

[christi]

I think after this thread I will wait until the last couple of days of our hoilday before giving them any money to spend, if I let them know they will have some money to spend ( dependant upon thier behaviour!!) maybe it'll stop the 'I want, I want!!'
Somehow I'm not so sure though?