Spending money for kids ?

[dreamin in pa]

Boy, everyone's ideas sound so simple compared to our family.

DD 3 and 5 get 2.50 for savings and 5.00 to spend each week. Whatever they don't spend each week gets put into their Disney fund. They can either spend their "mad money", add it to their vacation money, or save it for a bigger thing. It's their choice but I won't add any money to what they have saved for "whatever".

DD10 gets 5.00 per week in free money but she also has to save 5.00 per week for vacation. She gets 10.00 for chores around the house. She must save 5.00 per week for vacation so if she does no choses for the week, she has to put all her "free money" into her vacation account.

DS also gets 5.00 per week in free money but since we have had disciplinary issues with him, his money is divided up differently. He still gets the 5.00 in mad money but if he doesn't contribute to being part of the "household" by doing chores, he doesn't get any money for his vacation fund.

So, basicallly, whatever each child is able to save or earn, is what they get.
Each child will get a t-shirt from us, but all the "junk" will come from their money. And "what junk" they get is totally up to them.

 

[RachaelRol]

DS saves any money he earns from hsi chores, like setting table, cleanig his room, making his bed, emptying trash cans for our disney trip.

Our next trip isn't until December, he probably already has about $150.00. We were supposed to go in May, but cancelled. He will probably have about $300, by December for our 10 day trip.

Even though its 10 days we won't allow him to take that much with him. He'll take the $150 and buy whatever he wants. He will save the rest. He'll be six for our next trip so that seems reasonable.

 

[LuckyLabonte]

Hailey has been saving ever since last October when we decided we were going this Dec. She has a regular piggy bank (that money gets put into her savings account and used to buy stock or cds) so we made a WDW bank. I used a big coffee can and covered it with disney stuff. Each time she gets money (grandparents, or her daddy unloading his pockets etc), she gets to decide which bank it goes in. Last week we started giving her a $3 allowance (she just turned 3). The deal is, she puts one dollar in the piggy bank, one in disney and can do what she wants with the other $. So far, its went into the disney fund! I need to order some disney dollars to make the allowance more fun. Oh and she also has a small jar she puts $$ in to take to church for the childrens penny march.

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

We give each of our kids our Disney Rewards cards from Disney Visa (making sure they each have the same amount of $ available to them). They are pretty responsible and spend their money wisely. I don't try to force them to buy anything-DD will buy everything (a true collector at heart) and DS is the opposite, while he may like things, he does not feel a need to buy much, if anything at all.

Me and my husband would just not feel right asking the kids to buy food or drink with their spending money, because our thought is that we would surely provide this anyway and it wastes their money if they should want a rather large souvenir at the end of the trip. We also buy the kids shirts (just a thing we do each trip) and we don't take that out of what they have for their own spending money.

If you are on a budget and bringing in your own snacks or drinks to offset costs, then perhaps I MAY say to make the kids pay for something different if they want it, but if money is not a factor for you, I would certainly cover the necessities for them myself. I've been at both sides of the spectrum with our trips...so I guess whatever works for you and your situation.