Older Kids & "Extras" Budgeting

enchantedpixiedust

Old Timer
Joined
Apr 28, 2004
Hi all

Looking for some parental input since I'm a newbie parent person to teens. :scared::hyper:

Impromptu trip coming up so it's not a free-for-all spending wise. We'll pay for the meals but I don't want snacks to end up adding a few hundred bucks of expenses to the bottom line. For older kids what do you do?

Only thing I've thought of is a Disney gift card for x amount which would basically be x # of snacks per day that we're there. Eat it all at once, save it till the end, use it for something else, whatever. I was hoping this would keep things under control money wise vs it just being a random stop everywhere with us paying and them having zero clue what they're spending. Is a budget of 3 snacks a day enough you think or ?

What do you do for their spending money that's coming from you? Gift card as well? Cash?

I'll be honest, I have traveled solo for years on my own budget so I'm struggling a little. Open to any and all ideas, thanks for any help!
 
I think the gift card is a great idea. It's hard to say whether the 3 snacks a day is a good idea because I don't know what you are doing for meals. 3 seems like too much for us. Basically for our 14 and 21 year old we cover all meals and drinks and snacks are up to them. We give them a gift card or cash at the beginning of the trip that is the equivalent of $10 a day for snacks. Sometimes that might cover two things, other days just one with extra money rolling over to the next day. It's always been enough and they often have money left to put towards something else.
Now that the kids are older and have their own money we just give them the $10 per day upfront.. all other spending money is up to them. We provide the rest of the trip.
 
I would do a two-pronged approach.

First off, I like the idea of a gift card or some other kind of daily limit, whether $10, $20, or what works for you guys. As previously stated, I don't know if you're doing sit-down meals or grazing generally, but figure $5/snack as a typical number.

As the second part--it really depends on if you have a constantly eating teen on your hands. Some kids seem to never fill up, some are athletes, some have incredible metabolisms. If you have a kid like this, I would bring additional snacks for them. I would encourage them to help pick these out, and aim towards fun/interesting. These snacks might be protein bars for an athlete, fruit that travels well (apples, oranges, etc.), crackers, trail mix--whatever works for the kids in question. By supplementing, you make the purchased snacks that much more special. When she was in HS, my oldest was a grazer as well as an athlete--cross country on top of 8 dance classes/week. I was forever throwing protein bars at her, but at meals, she filled up quickly. She was ALWAYS eating! Meanwhile, her brother just plain liked food, so he'd chow down at meals, and still be back an hour later, rummaging through the pantry.

Although this wasn't part of your question, I've also found that, by having something on hand, it staved off the hungries while waiting in line. I would carry peanut butter crackers and dole them out--it would tide people over until we could get "real" snacks.
 
I would give them $10 per day and if they want more they can use whatever money that is theirs. I’d also bring snacky foods like peanut butter crackers, pepperoni sticks, goldfish whatever you like. Just to have something to eat in lines is nice.
 


Here's how I'd handle teen snacks:

- Bring LOTS of sale-priced snacks from your local grocery store. Choose good stuff that they really like, and choose lots of individually-wrapped packages so they can carry them in a purse or pocket. Make it clear that these snacks are available for evenings in the room, and the kids are welcome to each carry a snack in to the park, if they choose to do so -- but you will not act as pack mule for other people's snacks.
- AND give them a small amount -- emphasis on small -- of money for snacks; after all, you're paying for meals, so you're just talking about supplemental snacks. I personally would give cash instead of Disney gift cards; if they don't spend all the money at Disney, they can take cash home. When they were teens, I often gave my kids X amount of money towards a certain item, and (when they were in charge) they often were very happy with spending less.
- Make your expectations clear: You will pay for meals, this snack money is IT -- no more, and this is more convenient for them because it means they can purchase snacks if you split up in the park. From toddler to teens, my kids ALWAYS behaved better when I took time to make sure they understood my expectations.
- Be sure they know that they can request an ice water from any counter service restaurant anytime. This is a big money-saver.
 
I agree with having them carry in some snacks. My son always carried one of those draw string backpacks. Have them bring something like that and give them each a plastic storage container. Have them fill it with things from the room. Then give them a little money for buying snacks here and there.
 
Ya my kids always bring their own snacks. We might buy them one thing per day, mickey bar, etc...but that is at our pleasure. We provide 3 squares, anything else is on them :-).
 


Hi all

Looking for some parental input since I'm a newbie parent person to teens. :scared::hyper:

Impromptu trip coming up so it's not a free-for-all spending wise. We'll pay for the meals but I don't want snacks to end up adding a few hundred bucks of expenses to the bottom line. For older kids what do you do?

Only thing I've thought of is a Disney gift card for x amount which would basically be x # of snacks per day that we're there. Eat it all at once, save it till the end, use it for something else, whatever. I was hoping this would keep things under control money wise vs it just being a random stop everywhere with us paying and them having zero clue what they're spending. Is a budget of 3 snacks a day enough you think or ?

What do you do for their spending money that's coming from you? Gift card as well? Cash?

I'll be honest, I have traveled solo for years on my own budget so I'm struggling a little. Open to any and all ideas, thanks for any help!
A lot would depend on how old those teens are and whether they have experience budgeting their money. I would also consider their eating habits/appetites and whether they are getting full breakfast, lunch and dinner in addition to the snacks.

I certainly would not hand a 13-year-old a GC with $100 on it and expect them to judiciously manage their funds for 4 days. OTOH, I would not send a 16-year old boy off with just $25 in his pocket for the day if all he was given for breakfast was a muffin and a half pint of milk and won't be sitting down to another meal until dinner.
 
We always ate breakfast in the cabin at Fort Wilderness and each person brought a couple of snacks in their pocket and a bottle of water. Lunch was back at the cabin-cooked in the crockpot-and our biggest meal of the day.

Counter service at a park for dinner, if needed and one or 2 snacks in the park, paid for by us.

Our kids never needed more than that.

On vacation, we paid for most everything. Kids brought their own spending $, but I don't remember them spending much.
 
I would give them $10 per day and if they want more they can use whatever money that is theirs. I’d also bring snacky foods like peanut butter crackers, pepperoni sticks, goldfish whatever you like. Just to have something to eat in lines is nice.

This! I have two teens and I give them a set amount per day. $10 is our go-to as well. My girls tend to share a snack so they stretch their money even further. We give them pre-loaded GC's to use thinking they will be on their own a lot. In reality, they love sticking with us and rarely venture away so they just pay for their snacks while we pay for ours, including younger kids. I also always pack snacks to take in with us.

As far as souvenir money, here is what we do...We only go to WDW once a year, so my kids (ALL my kids) save birthday, Christmas, money they earned, tooth fairy money, etc to buy their souvenirs. They can save up to $100 for each trip. I do not think they need to spend more than that on 'stuff' from Disney so that is the limit but they don't have to save that. It's just the max. My girls usually save that money really easily...they babysit all the time and can easily make $100 in a week. My boys have a harder time so we help them out with $10 for Valentine's Day, $10 at Easter, $25 at their b-day, $25 at Christmas, etc and we 'hire' them for more chores. And they ask for Disney $$ for their bdays and usually get some GC's there too. Right before our trip, I load each kid's $100 on a GC that they use all around the parks to buy their souvenirs. It's worked perfect every year. Anything left on the GC can be applied for the next year's trip.
 
Wow this is a hard without knowing what your meal plans look like. Or how you normally eat... 3 meals a day, grazing all day, 2 meals with a snack... so many variables.

We always bring snacks along, breakfast bars, pop tarts, protein bars, granola bars, chips, crackers, chex mix, bagels. So I strongly suggest this.

Bottled water and/or Gatorade in room to take with you into the parks. Can be ordered and delivered to resort.

If your driving load up the coolers with drinks, water, sports drinks, and even some adult beverages if you enjoy these. You can bring things like yogurt, cheese, pickles, olives, cream cheese, deli meats, for in room snacks but also to use pool side.

We always shared snacks with the kids. So 2 pop corns instead of 4 - savings

Dinning plan have you priced it out to see if it will work out better for you. Spending some time looking at the menus thinking of what everyone will order, include drinks, and appetizer and dessert as well, base it on how you eat normally at home when you go out to eat. Then do the math... especially if you want TS and character meals.

Sharing meals, is an option ( except in buffet or all you can it spots)

There a character meals and/or buffets, so you can really fill up.

3 snacks a day roughly based on the 5 dollar mark... is 15.00 a day for one person - X - how many kids - X - how many days =

I would spend some time looking a menu's and running the numbers... several times...
 
You guys ROCK. I really appreciate this and am integrating your ideas!!

So basically they're both big eaters and like to try new stuff so I see them easily doing 3 meals plus extra snacks daily. This was a short notice trip so we're not doing the dining plan, we'll most likely eat counter with just a couple table service thrown in and they can supplement off snack $ is what I was thinking. I'll pack some room snacks/candy just to avoid them spending extra money on stupid stuff we have here.

TBH, this is their first trip and I can see a lot of wanting to try stuff just because it's all new which is all good. I just want to make sure I'm covered budget wise. :teeth:

For souvenir spending I think I'll do cash and they can just do whatever they want with it. Knowing them I don't see them bringing any home but at least they'll have that option.

Thanks again!
 
for teens? I paid for food(within reason) and I gave them a small amount gc if they weren't with me and needed to eat. That said, they've saved and used their own money for anything else (souvenirs etc) there since about age 6-7 years. If they want a food item that I didn't want to pay for (beyond 'normal' snack/meals) they bought it themselves. Lucky for them Mom and dad love to snack,and share!
 
Again, so much is going to depend on how hungry those kids get. When my sons were teenagers, it felt as if there wasn't enough food in the world to keep them satisfied. A "snack" would have been a QS kid's meal! A Mickey bar or bag of popcorn was not going to suffice. And that would have been an hour after consuming a full breakfast with two breakfast sandwiches, fruit and milk. Teenage girls can be a different story completely. But the boys....!:faint:
 
I pay for food and snacks for my teen. If she wants more than what I offer (we pretty much stick together since it is usually just the two of us), she can use her souvenir budget for the extras. For the record, when it is hot out and we are eating 3 big Disney meals, we don't do as much snacking as when it is colder out.
 
This will work as long as your kids aren't foodies and you go during Food & Wine Festival. We did that for several years and boy, was that expensive.
 
If you have big eaters and are worried about spending a fortune on snacks I would make sure to pack some, or do a grocery store order and have some delivered to your room. That way your kids can take some in to the parks so they aren't tempted to buy every snack they see there LOL. Give them a daily allowance for snacks, if they choose not to spend it and it adds up over the vacation- let them use it for an additional souvenir, or a bunch of snacks to bring home.
 
Since you're still kind of throwing this trip together, look at buffets for the few sit-down meals that you'll do. Biergarten in Epcot and Crystal Palace in MK are both great choices. I figure that characters are not a huge part of your plans, given the kids' ages, but they can still fill up. Biergarten is also a ton of fun--oompah bands, etc. Since they're new to WDW, I would definitely plan for fun snacks--Dole Whip, Mickey bars, and my personal favorite, funnel cake.
 
A lot would depend on how old those teens are and whether they have experience budgeting their money. I would also consider their eating habits/appetites and whether they are getting full breakfast, lunch and dinner in addition to the snacks.

I certainly would not hand a 13-year-old a GC with $100 on it and expect them to judiciously manage their funds for 4 days. OTOH, I would not send a 16-year old boy off with just $25 in his pocket for the day if all he was given for breakfast was a muffin and a half pint of milk and won't be sitting down to another meal until dinner.
I can see that argument; however, if the teens have had little experience budgeting their money, I'd lean towards giving them some advice /looking at how much they can spend each day without running out /looking up cost of snacks on line so they'll have a sense of costs. If they do run out of money, it'd be a life lesson with no real consequence. You're going to feed them three meals a day, so they won't really be hungry, even if they run out of snack money.

Another half-way measure might be to give them DAILY money instead of WEEKLY money. For example, if you've decided that $10/day is enough, bring an envelope with just the right number of $10 bills and pass them out every morning. With this method, the kids might get into trouble on Day 1, but Day 2 would be a whole new day.

I'd also emphasize a "no borrowing from your siblings" rule.
 
Thanks, everyone! We leave later this week and I've decided to give them each a $50 gift card for snacks. So for the 3 days assuming they get the lower price stuff at $5 that's around 3 a day. Get bigger stuff and the quantity goes down but they're old enough to manage that. I'm sure we'll still end up picking up a couple misc snacks along the way as well and guessing we'll split some so they can try more things LOL. Anything over will have to come from their spending $. Personally I'm curious how less hungry/snacky they are when they realize they can buy actual items in lieu of a $6 cupcake. :teeth:

For spending money I *think* we're doing $100 each in cash. If it had been a trip with more planning than a week I probably wouldn't, but they really didn't have time to save for it and this way they can shop/save as they see fit.

We'll see how it goes and I'll update to report any disasters. :rolleyes2 Thanks again for everything!
 

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