Spending Money for Kids - Your Tips?

[Mixie]

DD will be almost 12 when we go this year. She tends to be an impulse buyer. I try my best to guide her ( you can buy this stuffed animal or 2 of these toys... ) but unless it's something I totally disapprove of (usually candy! ) I let her choose.

Having said that - what are your tips for allowing kids to spend at Disney? How much? What guidelines? I want to let her know in advance what the expectations are going to be.

 

[gabriellyn]

We have found that giving the kids a Disney gift card works really well. We usually do about $100 for my teen (clothes are pricey!) and $75 for my middle child and $50 for the little one. Plus I typically buy them a hat and a t-shirt or hoodie out of my souvie budget. If we don't do the gift cards I find we tend to overspend.

HTH!

 

[merbobear]

My dd is only 3, so I can't speak from experience..but does she do chores to earn an allowance? Or will you be allotting her a certain dollar amount for purchases? Or maybe both?

I would help her to sort her spending money into envelopes for each day. Explain to her that if she wants to spend more on one given day, then she will have nothing left at the end (and stick to it - don't give in and give her more at the end because she ran out!).

Try to encourage her to hold off on spending her money, and make sure she will be able to return to a store later in the trip if she is still talking about that one souvenir she has to have.

You could also do a set amount each day that is hers to spend however she wishes (within your guidelines, obviously..as you mentioned "no candy."), and then the rest of her money kept in a separate spot, and to be spent only when you agree with the purchase - that way she has a bit of money to use herself, and the rest will be more closely monitored. Also, if she asks for something in one store, maybe have her wait 1 hour - if she still wants it after an hour (or whatever time frame you choose), then she can buy it. That way you are cutting down on impulse buys..my assumption is that she will end up forgetting about half of what she would have bought on impulse

 

[growinupdisney]

My kids are 13,16, and 3 we go to WDW every year so my kids havec certain things that they know they will want.

They have different amounts of $ each time we go it depends on what they have saved, etc, We are going in April so they got wdw gift cards for Valentines Day and will also get one for Easter. My dd3 and ds13 will have a birthday before we go so they will each get one and some family members will give them gc. My dd16 has a job so she will use her own $ as well as the gc cards she has received.

In the past they have always had around $100-$120 so sometimes they come home with $ and sometimes they don't when my older two were younger and what I do now with my DD3 is let her pick one thing a day and on the last day if she has alot of $ left she can get more than one thing. I usually buy them a t-shirt, mouse ears, or something I want them to have I will get it. I have never had a problem with my kids wanting candy with their $.
My dd13 spends more than 1/2 of his $$ and the star wars store, my dd16 always buys clothes or jewelry. DD3 wants EVERYTHING!! but I have started to limit the stuffed animals only 1 a trip!

 

[Mixie]

No allowance and the chores for cash didn't work - she would rather not do chores! lol!

I expect her grandparents will send her some money for the trip - they do things like that.

A gift card may be a good way to go - loaded with a specific amount, only 1 thing to keep track of.

 

[Phil'sFrontier]

Maybe try getting her to make a list before they go of certain things they want. Then once there, make daily list of what things they would like to buy. This way you can eliminate impulse items. If the next they are on the list then OK.
If possible put appoximate dollar values next to items to get a general idea of how much will be spent.

 

[bam1004]

On our last trip we allotted each child (DD7 and DS5 at the time) $15 each per day. We were there 7 days. We would discourage them from purchasing anything early in the day since we didn't want to have to carry it with us all day. This seemed to help with impulse buys. If it was something they really wanted, later in the day we would go back and get it. They both made some really excellent decisions on their purchases. I am hoping this will work on our next trip this summer, but they are both 3 years older, so we will have to see. I think the key is to let her know that souvenirs are nice, but the real treat is being at WDW!!!!

 

[noahdove]

I encourage all spending to be done at DTD...they either keep a list of what they want and I carry it, or they keep a list in their head...then, tally the cost and they have to decide what is more important to them. I have taken a few children over the past few years and this works great. I do let them buy something from Goofy's Candy on our last night Good luck with your planning and spending..

 

[Mixie]

Well, we are staying on property so we have the option of items being delivered to our rooms, which is nice.

Why just DTD? I know that some items you can get anywhere but other items you might not find elsewhere.

We won't be at DTD until our 3rd full day ... I can't imagine her being patient that long.

 

[DisneyMOM09]

This year my daughters 11 & 4 (almost 5) are having chores to earn thier souvenier money. This will be the only money they get other than what they bring from thier banks, or any money they get from the grandparents. This is our 3rd trip in as many years, so I figure it is time that they start earning the money they will be spending. We will get them a pick a pearl thing that doesn't come from their money, but if they want other things they will be using the money they earned. I think that this is a good way to teach them to appreciate money (and that it has to be earned), I also think they will think more about what they are buying if they had to earn the money they will be spending.

Our chores are age appropriate, and failry easy, basically making sure thier room stays clean, their bathroom is picked up and that they don't leave thier things strewn from one end of the house to the other. (My 11 year old also helps with laundry and loading/unloading the dishwasher.)

 

[lilys.mom]

Mixie..Hi!

I have been wondering the same thing. To be honest on our first trip we let DD buy pretty whatever she saw she liked.
We have gift cards and visa rewards totalling close to 300.00 dollars...we are on the dining plan so the only money we need is for spending and tips. I am trying to decide if I should put all my cards and rewards on our KTW card so I dont have to keep up with a bunch of different cards and balances.....
I would like to set a daily limit with her this year just not sure what it should be...we will be there for 6 days we will also use some of this money for BBB! and of course Momma needs some spending money! I would say total between cards and cash we will be taking down $700.00

 

[kid-at-heart]

We use the gift card technique. Our daughter (age 12 last visit) generally receives about $50 in bd gifts from grandparents in the form of Disney gift cards. She uses the cards to buy her souvenirs. The first couple of times we visited Disney "we, the parents" bought our daughter souvenirs and spent lots of money on must-have items which quickly lost their appeal. Now that Sar has to buy her own items she carefully weighs whether or not to buy now or wait until the end of the trip in case she finds something better later.

I am always surprised at how un-valuable an item becomes when I tell her "Yes, you can buy it, you have your gift cards" opposed to "Yes, I will buy it for you."

I do not know how much money most folks spend on souvenirs. For our family, $50 each for souvenirs works well. We want small remembrances of our trip. We do not the need to bring home suitcases full of items.

 

[kchughes]

First trip, we bought everything. Went way over the planned budget and end up with a lot of junk. Now, 4 trips later, we have learned to do gift cards. He has to save or earn the money for his gift card, however, we always make sure he has $100 minimum. If I have forgotten to pack his hat, we will buy him one, but that is all. He quickly figured out that spending his money at Ridemakers gave him a much cooler toy than buying little things everyday, but it did take 4 years for him to figure that one out!

 

[disneywatcher]

DH and I bought our girls each a gift cared for $50.00. When the money is gone it's gone. Where my oldest daughter will think and think and think about what she buy's in the parks our middle daughter is impulsive. But when her card is empty that's it and her Dad and I won't be reloading it or giving her extra money.

 

[Blackbeltdisneygirl]

We have five kids and believe strongly that they are responsible for earning their way. On our first trip in October, we gave each of the kids $50 as an early Christmas present to spend as they wished. They all ended up with items they love. We reminded them of this gift at Christmas. I also kept my ears open when the kids were shopping, and compiled a mental list of items they really liked. The last day of our trip I ran to DTD and purchased the items on my list. We gave them those items for Christmas, and they were so excited! It brought them a little bit of Disney.

For this trip, we are doing BBB. We set a budget for the 4 girls, and they are responsible for making their own money to pay their way. We are still giving them that $50.00 each for Christmas, so we deducted that from their budget sheets. They have been chipping away at it since. We don't believe in paying our kids for household chores. After all, they live in our house, eat our food, etc... We do however, pay for extra chores that aren't daily chores. Usually those are things that I don't want to do. I pay according to how hard they worked, and how well the job was done according to their age and ability. For instance, my 8 year old cleaned the fridge top to bottom ($4), my 12 year old shoveled the driveway (which is HUGE) and a path to said driveway ($5), and my 5 year old cleaned and organized a cabinet of dishes ($1-$2). They also help me run my business, and are paid as employees based on how hard they work and how much money we make. We will also give them GC for gifts on holidays, birthdays, etc... We thought this would be a nice way for them to come home with souvenirs that won't be junky, and they will feel like princesses for a day while eating at Cinderella's castle. My son will be spending his $50 at the Rock'N'Rollercoaster giftshop as he is a big fan of Aerosmith.

Earning their own way gives them a sense of ownership and self worth. It helps them make better choices in their purchases too. Everyone has their own way of doing things, and no way is better than the next. My 12 year old has already paid off her BBB in one and a half months. She has extra money that she invests in my business, so she makes more money pretty quickly. I am super proud of her capabilities in money making. I hope she can put herself through college this way!

 

[CandyHead09]

DD will be almost 12 when we go this year. She tends to be an impulse buyer. I try my best to guide her ( you can buy this stuffed animal or 2 of these toys... ) but unless it's something I totally disapprove of (usually candy! ) I let her choose.

Having said that - what are your tips for allowing kids to spend at Disney? How much? What guidelines? I want to let her know in advance what the expectations are going to be.

A few years ago we went to Disney when I was 14 and again at 15. My mom helped me out by taking the money I had saved and putting small amounts of it in an envelope. She'd give me an envelope every morning before we went to the parks. It was nice. I had saved up A LOT though so you could do this for your daughter but give her a small amount and tell her it's supposed to last her few days. And then when she's used it and it's been *insert number here* amount of days give her another envelope. Hope this helps.

 

[AintGonaGrowUp]

A few years ago we went to Disney when I was 14 and again at 15. My mom helped me out by taking the money I had saved and putting small amounts of it in an envelope. She'd give me an envelope every morning before we went to the parks. It was nice. I had saved up A LOT though so you could do this for your daughter but give her a small amount and tell her it's supposed to last her few days. And then when she's used it and it's been *insert number here* amount of days give her another envelope. Hope this helps.

My mom did the same thing! I get a new envelope every morning. If i wanted something that was bigger than my dailey allowence, I had to wait and save a few days before I could go back!

 

[Minniespec]

I'm a few years older than your daughter, but I definately agree with the giftcard/envelope. I have a feeling that spending 'her own' money will fix a lot of the impulse buying-- when I was her age, mom and dad's money was spent really quickly, but if I knew that the $50 or whatever was my money and that it was all I had, I would often spend several hours agonizing over what to buy .

 

[cdnmomof2]

My boys were 4 & 7 on our last trip. Right after we checked in at POR we went into the gift shop in the lobby and got them each a $50 gift card. It was to be used for treats, souveniers etc. How they spent it that week was their decision.
Then we took a quick tour around the shop and showed the boys what things cost and the different things that would use up their whole card etc etc. The only caveat was that they could not buy that day at the gift shop, it was strictly a tour.

During our week I LOVED not being hounded "buy this for me" or "mom can I have this?" . Their questions were about money and different combos of what they could buy with their money.

I would do the same thing again for sure. I'd also let them save up allowance etc to add to their gift card & the starting $50 for the next time.

I should note, that I did buy them Disney shirts on-line pre-trip, and presented each boy with 2 t-shirts before we went to the airport. That way they didn't have to buy a souvenier t-shirt with their $.

 

[Mixie]

Love the 'giftshop tour' idea!!!