How do you handle souveneir money?

[lisaost]

I want to give her an allowance of sorts but I don't know if I should do it by the day, or have one allowance for Disney and one for Universal, or just one big allowance for the whole trip. Not sure she could 'budget' the whole trip thing.....and not sure giving her money every day woudn't encourage more spending than she would have without it. I'm not sure about the disney dollars because it does not factor in our visits to Univeral. I want to make her understand there's a limit to what she can spend but I don't want her to feel like she can't look for that special gift to bring home. I know I always do! I'm not even sure how much I should be giving her. I do plan on explaining that if she does not spend it all in one place, she can sort of 'carry forward' to the next venue.

How do you handle souveneirs? (she's 6 yrs old...the same one who was depressed about the trip being so far away....LOL)

 

[magic cruiser]

Actually I am looking for some guidelines about this, too. We are taking our 5 1/2 yr old grandson in 3 wks. I am not into spoiling my gchildren, just loving them and having fun and spending time w/ them ! But all that aside, I know buying souvenirs is part of the vacation. A friend told me that she gave her 6yo son money each day to spend and he became " obcessed" w/ how he was going to spend his money each day. So much that he focused more on that than the attractions. We are planning on buying our gson a pin for ea ride he goes on to put on his lanyard. Also, on his lanyard will be his room card ( non-charging ) . The card is encrypted w/ our name and rm # in case he gets lost..heaven forbid. We will go to the new toy store in DD the end of the trip so he can buy something special. He loves to dress up, so I'm sure I'll get him a costume. His birthday is soon after we get back. Sorry this was long !

 

[diznee25]

Lisa,
I went to WDW with my family 4 years ago when my sister was 6 years old. Here are some tips my parents used for her souviners!
They gave her a certain amount for WDW. We were there for 3 days. Once the money was gone that was it. This gave her the choice of buying a few little things or one nice thing.
Since you will be at WDW and USF, I would recommend giving your daughter a set amount of money for both places. Little children always find something they absloutley can't live without!
That way she will have memories from both places. And this still allows her to look for that special gift without you restricting her. With the set amount you could still get Disney Dollars. If she doesn't use all of them, you can exchange for cash.
I'm not sure about giving advice for the amount your daughter can spend for the whole trip. That depends on you and your husband. Some parents let their kids come home with tons of toys. My parents wanted my sister to pick one or two special things. My sister spent $15 and got a minnie mouse bride ears!
She didn't want anything else. If you're anything like my parents then I'd recommend roughly $50 for the entire trip. $25 at each place should be good.

Diznee25
WDW Christmas Bride Dec. 2003

 

[Jordan's MOM]

One thing that helps curb spending in the parks for us is that we don't buy untill the end of the day. I am not going to carry the stuff all over the parks! This helps cut down on wanting all the stuff that they plant at the end of each ride. We have done several things including giving an amount each day and a amount each trip. I have learned that with my DS if he has a set amount he thinks he has to spend it. He however does not really ask for very much through out our stay so it works best for us just to get what he wants with in reason.

 

[bananiem]

We told the kids we probably wouldn't be spending our souvenir money at the parks but that since we had most of the day the last day before our flight that we would spend that time at Downtown Disney. They were 6 and 4 1/2 and had no problem with that, since they knew ahead of time that the parks were for rides and food and shopping was on a certain day.

 

[RUDisney]

How do you deal with the handling of cash? Do you keep each child's money in a separate envelope in your pocket/fanny pack, or do you let the child carry it? I'm not crazy about giving ours, 6 & 7 direct access to cash or Disney Dollars. I was thinking about making some pretend money to give to them to carry so they can exchange it for merchandise. They return the pretend money to us and we purchase it for them. That way, if they lose $10 or $20 it doesn't cost us or them anything. Has anyone had any success with doing it this way?

The pitfalls that I see are making change. I certainly don't want to give them anything to the last penny, I'd have to round everything down to the nearest dollar.

 

[Barb D]

At that age I didn't even discuss money with my kids. I told them I would by them one t-shirt, one hat, and one small toy of their choosing. That was it.

When they got a little older they did have spending money.



(I put all the smileys in for my 2yo, who is looking over my shoulder and insists that I use ALL of them!)

 

[allforpooh]

We also deal with this issue each year and depending on the individual child there is no correct answer. Of couse it has gotten easier each year also.

I have always given my kids disney dollars for doing special things around the house along with some for birthday's. My oldest DD is 16 and it is no longer an issue. She has a set amount for the trip and she keeps it with her, or we keep it in the safe until she asks for it. My DD 9 is a little different she is a worrier so I have a very small change purse that I keep her money in and this stays in the backpack we carry into the parks. When she see's something that she wants she asks for her wallet and then goes up to the cashier herself. We have been doing this for several years and it works great.

We also talk about the things they would like to buy ahead of time. Hats, T-shirts, stuffed animals etc., if it looks like they are spending their money on alot of little things but haven't bought the item we talked about before hand, I will mention that they will still need a certain amount to get the item that was discussed and if they keep buying all of the other stuff they will not have enough money. I also mention that if they spend all of their money they will not be able to buy it. That way at the end of the trip they are not upset or disappointed that they did not get an item they wanted because they did not realize how much they were spending.

Denise

 

[marcyinPA]

We just went in June, and my DS (7) saved his own money for months for this trip. He had $70 total. I put it in a separate envelope from my own money but I carried it for him. Whenever he spotted something that he "had to have", I asked him how much it cost and we figured out how much he would have left. It's amazing how doing this made him stop and think and many times change his mind about buying something. By the second day of our trip, he was telling me that certain things were "too expensive" or "not worth it". Since it was his own money, though, I really tried to let him do the choosing of what he wanted unless it was very obviously JUNK. Then I felt I needed to intervene. I also tried to limit what he purchased to things that said "Disney World" on them...in other words, if the same things could be bought at the Disney Store in our mall at home, then I encouraged him to think twice.

I think our approach worked out very well...it made him responsible for what he was purchasing. He came home with a WDW visor, a WDW t-shirt, an autograph book and a lanyard and a few pins. He also came home with $20 left over to put back into his bank!!

I also have a DS (3) and we bought him the same amount of things as my older DS. He got a pirate hat, a t-shirt, a toy monorail car (one of those pull-back things) and a Mickey baseball cap. We just tried to keep it even.

Have a fun trip~

 

[Tinkerbells2000]

We have 4 children, ages, 2,4,6,and 8. The 6 and 8 year old have been 4,6,and 8 yr old have been earning money, and have gotten Disney dollars in their stocking, and Easter Baskets. Also, we have a big empty water bottle that we throw all of our loose change into. In about a week, we will begin to count that. Whatever is in there, on top of what they have earned, will be their spending $$. The 6 and 8 year old will, and do understand more than the 4 yr. old, but he wants to be like the "big kids" so we are doing the same with him. Once we figure out how much they have, we will then split it up equally for the days. If there is something they really, really want, then they will be encouraged to save their money, so that by the end of the week, they will have enough to go back and get that Special item... Hope that makes sense...

 

[mary lou]

My kids all got an allowance as well so they knew to save their money for the trip if they didn't have a way to earn extra money. We carried the money for the smaller ones or if they were anxious about losing it. We used to let the kids carry their tickets but after almost losing one (thank you to the kind person who told us we had dropped it), they use it and hand it back. If they had a substantial amount of money, we set up a charging system. We would pay for the item and they would "charge it" to their account. That way they wouldn't have to worry about exchange. They also got disney dollars for Christmas etc. We made our first stop the outlet store and got all our souveniers first. That way the only things they were interested in at the parks were things we knew we couldn't get there.

 

[Karel]

I guess I'm lucky - my kids hate to shop. This is good and bad. I drag them places, hoping they'll pick something out or usually they just pick the first thing they see to get it over with. They usually don't spend a lot of money but have very few rememberences from trip. They do love the pins. I love watching how their different spending habits develop. My oldest will constantly pick little things - a soda, a golf ball, a key chain. He devotes the most time to pin trading, and has a duck theme going. My middle picks one big thing and that's it - he's done, thank you very much. The youngest picks out a few things she likes and then shes done also.

The first time we went, I kept different envelopes for their money but this was a pain. I'll hand them the money they need and it comes out of their 'account'. I personally think $25 or so for the week is enough but we are not big spenders. I won't buy things we can get at home or elsewhere.

 

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Our last three trips had over 16 people each.
2) In each trip we had at least eight children.
3) We alotted a certain amount for souvenirs per adult/child.
4) We placed the money, evenly divided, into daily envelops.
5) The kids could spend their daily envelope, but no more.
6) If they had money left over, they put it into the next day.
7) If they didn't spend too much for several days, they had a wad.

8) On the last day, we would go to DD and let them blow the wad.

 

[TIdoublegaER]

Grandma usually gives my DDs(5 &10) some money ($20) to spend while they are on vacation. If they see something they like, I ask them if that is what they really want to spend their money and if they say yes, I let them get it. If its something really junky, I try to discourage it and try to help them look for something a little better. Once the money is gone its gone. Then we usually buy them some other nice souviener at the end of the trip. Should be interesting this year though. Each one has about $60 worth of Disney Dollars that they have gotten for various holidays. I'll probably split it up and let them spend a certain amount in the parks and the rest at DD. Of course if they have some left over, they can save it until next year.

 

[tonilea]

We divided DN's money by the number of days we were staying. (He had saved some and his other aunt gave him some too )
He was then allowed to decide how to spend his money. Any money not spent was rolled over to the next day. It worked well for us! DN is 7 years old. No fits, no demands. He knew when it was gone, that was it. He only carried about $5 cash in his fanny pack, I carried the rest, but he had access to it when ever he wanted.

 

[caskar]

I really messed up this year on money for my children. They had always been the type that had to spend money as soon as they get it. Even though they are only 8 and 11 they had shown they could not control their spending. So being a smart dad I decided to make a deal with them. All money they saved from Christmas until the Disney cruise and Disney World in June I would double. Ha! They would not spend any money. They horded it. I ended up giving both of them $100 plus. So they had over $200 to spend. I would not buy them anything on the ship or at Disney. It was fun watching them decided what to buy then subtrate to find the remaining money. If they asked for a snack, I would tell them sure "you have your own money." That cut down on snacks.

It was a learning experience for both my daughters and me. LOL
We had a great time.

 

[TSWJan78]

We let our kids pick one thing a day... this lept them happy and they usually had the next days thing picked before we left that day.... She got sunglasses 1 day... ears 1 day... Pajama's 1 day... it worked great for us.... We also did pressed pennies and they liked those!!

 

[lisaost]

We have decided to try sort of a game. This is a variation of several suggestions I got in the thread I posted asking how we can help her realize the trip was getting closer.
With 20 days to go I took a stack of 20 post it notes. On each one I wrote 1 trivia question and 1 'bonus activity'. We read the trivia question at dinner every night. She can ask for help from Mommy and Daddy to get the answer from the internet. Of course the goal is for her to learn about, and hopefully get excited about, the vacation. It's also helping her to see that the vacation is getting closer (along with the paper chain idea from the other thread). So when she gets the trivia question correct she earns $1 that we put in an envelope to save for her trip. The other item is a bonus activity like "Help mom set and clear the table" or "straighten up the bookshelf in your room" or on weekends "make birthday cards for your aunt and uncle". Stuff she should be doing ANYWAY but she has the option of saying NO also. But if she DOES do it she gets $2 for the bonus activity for a possible total of $3 per day - $60 for the whole trip (we will be there 10 days). So far she did one and passed on one.

She is very much enjoying the trivia. The first question was "Name the four theme parks at WDW". Seems easy but she did not know and took the opportunity to teach her. Tonight was easier: "Name three characters from "The Little Mermaid". She got that one by herself. DH and I had fun making up the questions for her! They get a little harder until the last night which is "Who has the best Mommy and Daddy in the whole wide world?". I need her to get to bed early that night....think she can figure it out??

Thanks all!