"Allowance" for the week at WDW

[Sandi12404]

My parents are each giving the kids a $75 gift card. We'll probably buy them a tshirt or sweatshirt.
My daughter (who is now 13) was 8 last time we went and a spender. Money burns a hole in her pocket faster then anyone I know. She had $50 in disney dollars to spend and I was concerned that it would be gone in a day. She spent nothing. We had to take her to Downtown Disney on the last day and convince her to buy something. Being there was enough for her.
I'm hoping that it will be the same this year.

 

[Rekenna]

Hi! I budget $50 GC for each of them-DS12, DS5 and DS4.

DS12 and DS5 caught on real quick last year that they only had a set amount of money to spend and they better choose wisely and not spend it all on the first day. Having the dining plan, they get a snack credit each day-so they are always pretty excited about that.

DS4 doesn't understand the budget system, he usually doesn't throw too much of a fuss over anything, but every once in a while-he homes in on a particular thing, puts it under his arm and looks at me, like "Well, pay the people already!" He usually is interested in cars/trains and doesn't spend all his money-he's a cheap date!

I do try to find little things before we leave from home from the Dollar store or the clearance bin at the Disney store and the night-night fairy leaves it on their pillow for them-I discovered that typically having something new and interesting (like a keychain, stickers, etc) keeps them from getting too crazy in the stores (it's very overwhelming-for kids and adults). I do spoil them when we are on vacation-we really try to limit all gifts and extras to B-days, Christmas and of course Disney trips!

 

[FairydustyPrincesses]

Dh told me yesterday he has $200 day saved up for eachgirl except the baby. We also need to to roll coins this week and they can spend that.

They are doing bbb and dh said he will pay for that and the dress so it doesn't come out of their $200.

It depends on what you have to spend and what you see as appropriate souvenirs. Are last trip they were 5 and 9 months and the five year old had money that was hers that wenallowednher to buy what she wanted no mommy or daddy input- I think she spent it all on those baby characters in blankets I did get her to buy a harm bracelet. You may want to allocate some money they get to spend indiscriminately or allow them to spend it all that way.

We bought autograph book, ears, bbb costume. I also stocked up at an outlet on tshirts and dolls and random things that princesses and Mickey "left" for them in our room while we were gone. A good option if you want more for less.

I think youcan get some pretty nice things at wdw for a good price. Better than most parks I've visited.

 

[robinb]

I gave my (then) 11-year old DD $50 extra on our last trip. I have an iPhone app called "balance" that acts like a checking account. You can add deposits and subtract debits. I use it to track her weekly allowance and she add up to 50% of any birthday/Hanukkah/etc she receives from family. I can't tell you what a relief it is to have her allowance with me at all times ... it really cuts down on the "gimmies!". For instance, she REALLY wanted a new backpack for school and last year's backpack was perfectly OK so I made her buy a new one with her own money. I simply subtracted the price of the backpack from her account on my phone.

When we go to WDW I toss another $50 on top of what she has in her account when we leave so she has any saved allowance in addition to the extra $50. She can buy whatever she wants as long as she has the money in her account. She has quite the assortment of Vinylmations .

FWIW, I also keep a mini M&Ms container full of quarters and pennies. I love to press pennies almost as much as she does!

 

[Nature Mom]

For my DD11, I told her I would double any amount she had saved up by the time we go to WDW and I would put my half on a GC and she could keep hers as cash or add it to the GC, her choice. A few of our neighbors have her doing small little jobs for them, and she makes a little money doing Mother's Helper here in our N'hood, so it is looking like I will be giving her $100 to add to hers if she keeps on track. (Which is what I had planned to give her and her siblings anyway.) I think $200 should be plenty for 10 days. I already have goodies for her, we had a specialty Tinkerbell tutu dress made so no BBB this time, and I will buy their one 'special' souvenir as I always have. I still will buy almost all snacks, drinks, etc. unless they decide they want something when I am not around or those moments when you are standing in a store and your kid says "I want this {fill in the blank of whatever ridiculously expensive sugar filled treat you can imagine} and I am paying for it with my money." Well....okay...do what you must child...I've said the same over shoes.

 

[olik8smom]

DS4 doesn't understand the budget system, he usually doesn't throw too much of a fuss over anything, but every once in a while-he homes in on a particular thing, puts it under his arm and looks at me, like "Well, pay the people already!" He usually is interested in cars/trains and doesn't spend all his money-he's a cheap date!

This sounds EXACTLY like my 4yo!

 

[olik8smom]

We bought autograph book, ears, bbb costume. I also stocked up at an outlet on tshirts and dolls and random things that princesses and Mickey "left" for them in our room while we were gone. A good option if you want more for less.

This is what I did. I just bought a bunch of stuff from DS.com First they had all park merch 25% off so I bought the autograph books, pins etc, then the next day clearance for 25% off so I bought t shirts, sweatshirts, pjs.

 

[olik8smom]

I gave my (then) 11-year old DD $50 extra on our last trip. I have an iPhone app called "balance" that acts like a checking account. You can add deposits and subtract debits. I use it to track her weekly allowance and she add up to 50% of any birthday/Hanukkah/etc she receives from family. I can't tell you what a relief it is to have her allowance with me at all times ... it really cuts down on the "gimmies!". For instance, she REALLY wanted a new backpack for school and last year's backpack was perfectly OK so I made her buy a new one with her own money. I simply subtracted the price of the backpack from her account on my phone.


FWIW, I also keep a mini M&Ms container full of quarters and pennies. I love to press pennies almost as much as she does!

That's a great idea, I'm going to get the Balance App. My oldest would love it. I read on another thread about the pressed pennies and I'm so glad you brought it up again. My kids LOVE to do that so I plan to pack a bunch.

 

[olik8smom]

For my DD11, I told her I would double any amount she had saved up by the time we go to WDW and I would put my half on a GC and she could keep hers as cash or add it to the GC, her choice. A few of our neighbors have her doing small little jobs for them, and she makes a little money doing Mother's Helper here in our N'hood, so it is looking like I will be giving her $100 to add to hers if she keeps on track. (Which is what I had planned to give her and her siblings anyway.) I think $200 should be plenty for 10 days. I already have goodies for her, we had a specialty Tinkerbell tutu dress made so no BBB this time, and I will buy their one 'special' souvenir as I always have. I still will buy almost all snacks, drinks, etc. unless they decide they want something when I am not around or those moments when you are standing in a store and your kid says "I want this {fill in the blank of whatever ridiculously expensive sugar filled treat you can imagine} and I am paying for it with my money." Well....okay...do what you must child...I've said the same over shoes.

I really like the idea of matching whatever $$ kids save up. It's a great incentive and you can feel good about helping them out with things they want. I plan to do this when its appropriate as my children grow older.

 

[TheRatPack]

We give the oldest 3, who care teens/tweens 50.00 each and then my youngest 2 get 25.00 each. We also have a welcome basket when we arrived with 250.00 worth of stuff in it for each of them. They always get so excited before we leave and start saying "I'm going to buy this or that when I get my souvenir money" so I make an effort to get those things put in a welcome basket by Memories by Betsy. Then that leaves their souvenir money to spend on other things that they might see during our trip.

Three of our children have birthdays right around our trip, so while their souvenir money from us might not seem like a lot....we also have birthday presents to buy, costumes for Halloween just weeks after our vacation, and then Christmas is just around the corner as well. Still I wish we could set aside more for them....but they've never complained so that's nice

For those of you that utilize gift cards for your childs souvenir money....does that work out well or do you find that many places don't accept the gift cards? I'm thinking of doing that this year but kind of wondering if the carts at Disney take gift cards, do all the shops?

 

[robinb]

For those of you that utilize gift cards for your childs souvenir money....does that work out well or do you find that many places don't accept the gift cards? I'm thinking of doing that this year but kind of wondering if the carts at Disney take gift cards, do all the shops?

My mom used to give my DD a Visa gift card and it worked just like a credit card. Virtually all carts now take credit cards. The only problem we had (years ago) was when the cash registers were too dumb to know how much was left on the gift card and would deny the transaction if the card had less on it than the full amount being charged. I would have to call the number on the back of the card to find out the card balance and walk the CM through charging the card exactly what was left over and then charging the remainder on another card or pay it in cash.

 

[popej1]

My kids get rewarded for good behavior at school. They get $1 a day from us and $1 a day from my parents if they are on green (the best level) at school that day. We are keeping all of their money in an envelope for their spending money. If they were to get green every day, they would have $128 each. They will use some of this money for offering at church though and I don't see them spending all of it.

 

[popej1]

My kids get rewarded for good behavior at school. They get $1 a day from us and $1 a day from my parents if they are on green (the best level) at school that day. We are keeping all of their money in an envelope for their spending money. If they were to get green every day, they would have $128 each. They will use some of this money for offering at church though and I don't see them spending all of it.