What is your souvenir strategy with kids?

[wrldpossibility]

Hi,

We're going to WDW in Dec. 06 (yes, a LONG way away, lol, but our first ever trip!). Since we're a single income family, we're budgeting carefully, but we want to splurge a little bit, since we won't go back for a long time. (We're staying 10 days at POR with dining packages.)

Anyway, what is a reasonable amount to budget for souvenirs? I know that's a matter of opinion, but I need some idea of what to expect! We have three kids, and want to help them save a certain amount (from birthday $, etc) to take with them in their own wallets. They will be 7, 5, and 2 (so the 2-year-old will not be in charge of his $ of course).

Is it reasonable to tell them to wait until the last few days of the trip to buy things, or are they inundated with stuff every day, making that impossible for a small child to resist? Do you let your kids pick small things every day, or carefully planned big things once or twice? I don't want to go home with lots of (expensive) junk, but at the same time, I want the kids to pick what they want. Hmmm. DH and I will buy tee-shirts and that sort of thing for them. I just thought it would be more relaxing if they were in charge of their own spending. Am I crazy?

BTW, we're taking the grandparents too, who will no doubt spoil the kids rotten, so they don't need tons of money at their disposal. What's your strategy?

Amy
FIRST trip to POR Dec. 06!!

 

[720L]

The cheapest tshirts are $25 that I've found at Disney. Stuffed animals have a wide range of prices, probably $10 the cheapest. My 3 yr old loved the little stuff-(little plastic mickey figures, etc) those were usually under $5 I think. We usually tell our kids 2 souveniers and wait a couple days before buying anything. Remember you can call a certain phone number and buy anything you saw at Disney and they will send it to your room or your home-just remember what store you saw it in and the name/description of it.

A tip: to save money, buy glow necklaces at home and bring them with you in the parks. The worst begging we got was at night when they are selling all those glow in the dark things. If you live near a Disney store, it is great if you buy one of those spinny things that lights up when you squeeze the handle before you get to Disney because they cost double at the park.

Edited to add: just saw that the Grandparents are coming. You don't need to worry about anything!!!!!!! lol

 

[Amyality]

Hi, I'm Amy too. My kids earn their own money through doing chores for allowance. They take some amount of money of their choosing, and I let them do whatever with it. It's their money, once its gone its gone and thats that. I have no right to it. They have already learned to think about their spending wisely (they are 7 and 4) because, we don't typically buy them any "stuff" like games and toys outside of holidays and birthdays. They use their money for it, or to replace things that they break of each others or other peoples. We occasionally will buy them a DVD.
We will buy them one or two treats each at WDW. One sometime during the trip and one towards the end. These must be reminders of something special from the trip that will be special every time they see it. Little guy got a tigger stuffed toy two years ago because, he really identifies with and loves Tigger. Last year he picked pirates of the carabean mr potato head peices, and later that week Disney potato head peices at DTD, he plays with that mr. potato head a couple of times a week. Big brother got Jango Fet's guns at Startours shop becuse he really loved Startours and later some space ship at Mission Space (he makes more money than little brother). Two years ago, I got a really cool stainless steel choker in Africa for $15 because, it spoke to me, its one of my favorite peices of jewlery. We don't shell out for alot of toys, the trip is a huge gift. Last year my splurge a really cool stone statue of 4 family members holding hands in EPCOT. It was kind of expensive at $65 but, it sits on our mantle and it makes me smile every day. BTW our kids NEVER have gimmie outbursts, sure they beg from time to time but, I think we are doing something right judging from some of the displays I have seen in the World.

 

[8 Ears]

My comment is the same.....grandparents are going... what do the kids need money for again??

 

[GADISNEYGIRL]

Our DS will be almost 4 on our next trip. (But then, he's been 7 times previously...) In the past, we've bought him smallish souvenirs~once a Buzz Lightyear, or some of the small plush toys, that type of thing. Now, however, he has discovered the Pal Mickey. They are pretty expensive (close to $70 now!), so we told him he could save up his money for our January trip and buy it then. He doesn't get an allowance, but we do allow him to keep any change that we have, or that he finds. Since May, he has collected $73 in change! By January, he will have enough for his Pal Mickey PLUS some other things. Right now he says he wants to buy some Thomas the Train items in the UK. (Why buy Thomas at Epcot, when we can buy it at home??) But it's his money, so if that's what he wants, that's what he can buy. He's really excited about his Pal Mickey, though, especially since he knows he already has enough to pay for it!

For your older kids, why not try the same thing? Or, have them "earn" money by doing particular chores, etc, and use the change idea for your younger child. You've got plenty of time to save!

As for what to buy and when, well, it kind of depends on the child. DS is *generally* pretty okay with~Let's see what else we can find, and if you still want this, we'll come back for it. On the other hand, if you find something specific in one of the parks, and know you won't be going back there, you might be better off to go ahead and get it, as it may not be available, even at Downtown Disney. One child may want 10 "little" things, another child may want one "big" thing. So just go with the flow! (Especially with the grandparents along!!)

 

[wrldpossibility]

I wanted to add that I've seen some of the behavior over getting things from kids at amusement parks, and I can't believe what I'm seeing half the time. My kids do not get anything they want, and do not tend to start the "gimme gimme" thing. I know Disney will be somewhat of a shock "stuff wise" and want a plan to avoid them either melting down about souvenirs or being too overwhelmed to pick anything!

I love the idea about the Mr. Potato Head stuff, and I know my oldest will be excited about pin trading/collecting. So that can be something meaningful. They also collect pressed pennies, so we plan to do that too. Now I just have too keep the grands in line so they don't turn the kids in to materialistic brats!

It's good to know how much the tee-shirts are. Wow.

Amy

 

[Sheaboys]

We are going this October with a 7, 5 and 3 yr old. They have received money for their birthday, ($40 each), I will exchange it for disney dollars prior to leaving. I have been prepping them for the past few weeks, that almost every ride dumps you into a store. We will look around every day in the stores, since it is their money so they will want to spend it wisely. I told them they are better off window shopping the first 4 days there, then on the last day, we will find out what they are interest in purchasing and go there to get it. I explained that if they find something the first day, spend all their money, then find out the next day they see something else they like, they can't get it. Both the 7 and 5 yr old understand this totally. We will reinforce while their of course.

 

[Amyality]

I also like to point out the brats to my kids and wisper something like "Look at that, how embarassing" or "oh, there one way not to get something in our family, right?". This works well for showing kids empathy in the opposite situation, when soemones feelings are hurt or something like that. Taking the time to comment on how someone elses situation could have been handled is a free life lesson if you use it right!

Yeah, the potato head peices are so fun, they even sell a peice that is the car from the Buzzlighyear ride! I forget what the name of the shop is in Downtown Disney is but, its the big toystore. I think since people seem to love it so much, they have put mini-potato head stations around. Be sure not to waste your bag (the parts are sold by the bag, you can buy them by the peice but, its a much better value to stuff a bag, I think it was $18.50) on a potato head and pack the bag for the kids so you can get the maximum number of parts in.

 

[F1Julie]

I let DD5 pick out one thing on our last night (either on a cruise or at WDW). We look at souveniers throughout the trip and she thinks carefully about what she wants. She already has more stuff than she needs, so I don't want a bunch of stuff coming home with us. That's the way we've always done it, so she's fine with it.

 

[GADISNEYGIRL]

Amy~we also do that with DS~point out a child who is having a tantrum, meltdown, whatever, and discuss it. Sometimes it is absolutely not the parents' fault~but so many times, it IS, simply because they allow that kind of behavior! DS knows that he is not to behave that way, and that if he did, we would immediately leave, with nothing. Fortunately, we've never had that problem. More often than not, rather than asking US for whatever it is he wants, he'll say that he will ask Santa for it. Works for me! If it is something he repeats over and over, then "Santa" will consider getting it for him. But most things, he mentions once or twice, then never again!

 

[GADISNEYGIRL]

BTW-The store in DTD is Once Upon A Toy. They also have a large Mr. Potato Head selection in the large store (General Store??) in Toon Town. Last time we were at DTD, we noticed that they have added a My Little Pony station in Once Upon A Toy. All kinds of accessories for them. I guess the girls weren't satisfied with the Potato Head pieces?

 

[Amyality]

It is so nice to hear from all these conciencous parents! It is sad how many folks just don't have good parenting skill or seem to know any better. GADISNEYGIRL, sounds like you are raising a sharp little guy! Right on!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

Hubby allows $20 per kid for stays involving hotel. On day trips--they get nothing.

The number is fluctuated if the trip is longer.

We are transitioning to allowances and having them use that. But no plan in place yet. But on a day trip--they had $5 and $3 respectively. My older daughter had to pay her own sales tax, but the younger one, I went ahead and paid for it. They both got a souvenir that they were very happy to have. The purchases were a pretend electronic cell phone and pressed penny for the oldest and a rubber duckey from pirates of the carribean for my youngest. And well within their budget. First time they shopped wisely and didn't have the "I wants".

We've done one per park, one per trip type things--but usually there is a dollar amount involved and it varies per trip. They know to only ask for a souvenir when we stay in a hotel.

(ETA: Not to imply that my kids get the gimmes--it was nice they knew they had money to spend and had to find an item in that budget. )

 

[Princesa]

We do the suprise gifts in the morning that we take along with us....sometimes it's a small gift like a new Princess toothbrush to use for the trip...sometimes bigger--I just so happen to have a Cinderella costume tucked away that will magically appear the morning we have a CRT ADR!! I know some people are against this type of thing but for my kids it works great! We never had any problems with wanting $15 stuffed animals as we were toting around the newly recieved stuffed animals (picked up a Minnie and Mickey at a garage sale for 50 cents each...at that price I wouldn't mind if they lost them!) I buy trading pins on ebay, and they might get a new pin to trade that day. This goes a long way toward making each day have a treat, but I average less than $2 per day for two kids. (well, until I started adding in a costume ) This only happens the nights we are actually at WDW (ie. not the trip driving down or over at the airport the night before, etc.)

For actual souveniers, we shopped around a little looking at all our cool choices during the week, knowing we would be able to get them later. We stopped in at World of Disney in DTD and let them get the one absolute favorite thing they had loved all week. They were fine with this and each ended up with something they loved instead of a bunch of little things.

We also hit the outlet and tell them they can pick anything to get here knowing most stuff there is reasonable. Of course anything they see here that is reasonable and a great deal we also get them, so we head back to the hotel with a big bag of goodies--they consider this the "shopping day" and just assume the days in the parks are for fun, not shopping. I like that plan, so don't bother to discourage it

If they choose something I don't exactly like...I tend to tell them that they can choose that if they really want to but that is usually the type of thing that ends up in the garage sale...how about this whatever over here... They are only 5 and 3 so that still tends to work for them

And when all is said and done, they both understand the line "well, we did buy you the fill in blank here so we really are out of money to buy souveniers. But, hey...let's go have some more fun!!"

 

[mareed]

My older daughter had to pay her own sales tax, but the younger one, I went ahead and paid for it.

That's funny that you mention sales tax. We've always given our 2 DS's $5 per day (they're now 6 & 9), and we do end up paying the sales tax. At first, it was a difficult concept for them to grasp, and then they just wanted to make the most of their money. We've also gotten into the "paying the cents" thing. They try not to have the "cents" count - for example, if something is $3.95, they only use $3 of their money. We don't let them get away with it - if something is that close, then we round up. If it's 50 cents, we do let them round down. They can not spend money on a certain day and can roll it over to the next day, but we don't let them "borrow" from future days unless it's something special that they won't have a chance to go back for later in the trip when they do have enough money. This has worked very well for us!

 

[Brina]

We took my boys just before their 3rd birthday. We told them they could get one pin a day to put on their lanyard. On the last day they each got a tee shirt. They knew ahead of time that this would be the rule and that we were not backing down on it. They were fine. Their pin picking was very interesting. One always chose something related to the days activities. The other just chose things that struck his fancy.

This year we will have two boys who are almost 6 and one girl almost 3. We will have very similar rules, except the boys will also have what ever money they have been saving from their allowance. I will encourage them to budget and choose carefully, but since this is their money, and since they have already taken savings and charitable donations out, it really will be their choice what to buy.

 

[MomofKatie]

We have a DD who is about to be 7. She will be bringing her own spending $$ that she has been saving since we started planning our trip (9 months). She has $140 in Disney Dollars to spend- she REALLY wanted to get Pal Mickey, so she budgeted $70 for him, and then $10/day for other things.

We pitched in around $30, but she saved the rest from holiday and b'day money, allowance, and $$ she has made from doing Internet surveys (Kidzeyes.com!).

We aren't going to buy her any additional souveniers- but Mickey will be leaving little gifts each evening. I got a Mickey plush, a Stitch plush, a pool bag, some rubber bracelets, a mini fan, and some PJ pals- all on super sale at TDS.

 

[ducklite]

I would NOT have them carry their own wallets. Carry them for them, but allow them to spend their money as they want. It's just too easy for a kid to lose their wallet in the commotion.

We carried DS money when he was younger. We would give him between $25 and $50, and he would have birthday and Christmas money, usually between $50-100 total, which was more than enough for a few souvies on a one week trip. As we went more and more, we spent less and less on souveniers BTW. Putting him in charge of his spending allowed him to choose what he wanted, but he also made wiser choices because it was his money, and he knew we wren't going to give him any more.

Anne

 

[MosMom]

My only tip is to not buy everything on day 1. Goodies can be spread out and I usually make them wait and shop around. Usually that first cool thing isn't what they decide to get.

 

[mum of two pirates]

As in our first trip will be dec 05 (the 2nd-9th) then a week on the ship. We also are a one income family. My ds will be 7 and 9. I thought what we will do is devide thier money in two. half for the parks half for the ship and ports. in the world I thought we would keep a running list of thier fav. were it was and the price then close to the end we would go to the outlets and there they could decide if they wanted stuff there or what off thier list they still had to have. And we would go get there choice. We won't be able to do that at the ports but we will be going on excursions also. The only problum i'm thinking I will have is me with the wantsies. I sa a mickey head antana toper with the 50s gold glitter ears today on a car and had to go look at it. I will want a few I know, plus we have to have anoughter pirate flag to go with the three we have and and and and you get it. Mum of two pirates