Giving kids a budget for the parks - best idea EVER!

[PDXmouse]

So I floated this idea a while back to get some input, and we decided to do it.

My kids are 14 and 16 and we are on our trip right now. I gave them X amount of cash at the start of the trip. Here are their instructions:

Mom and dad pay for grocery delivery to the hotel plus all meals out. They can order water with their meal. Mom and dad may or may not agree to pay for a dessert after a meal.

All snacks, sodas, and merchandise they have to use their own spending money. Candy at the airport? They use their cash. Cool t-shirt? It’s on them. Pretzel, icee, Mickey bar? They have to decide how bad they want it.

And bonus, anything they don’t spend they get to keep after the trip is done.

This has been FABULOUS for the trip. You can really see them thinking hard about how to spend their cash.

No more whining for sodas at meals (we did order some soda to be delivered to the hotel room, and they can bring that if they want.) No more negotiating for stuffed toys or sweet snacks.

In fact, my kids are mostly avoiding snacks! It’s crazy! These are the kids who would have been begging for snacks at almost every cart in past trips.

DS was horrified when the hotel wanted $5 for a bag of gummy bears, and instead went to the Walgreens by our hotel to buy himself some candy. Smart kid!

Anyway, I’m not sure if this belongs in this section but I figured it might appeal to someone. I think it would be good for tweens or teens, and is a great life lesson for the kids.

 

[mjkacmom]

ive been doing this with my 5 forever, WDW, cruises, water parks, amusement parks - they’re all In their 20’ now but not once begged, wined, or went over bunch. Their budgets were on the low side too.

 

[lanejudy]

We've done some form of budget for DD since she was 6 or 7 -- which started out as a small daily allotment for souvenirs (small amount each day, if it's not spent add to the next day's amount). Now as an older teen she manages the full amount across the length of stay, plus her snacks and treats. It's worked quite well.

 

[bluezy]

We did this for years when our five kids were younger (they're all adults now). We'd give them $XX for souvenirs and "extras" for the week. We'd pay for their meals but that didn't include dessert. We rarely eat dessert *anywhere*. They were allowed to have whatever they wanted to drink because in our family the rule was 1 soda with a meal on Friday or Saturday (at home), but on vacation, they could have it with every meal if they wanted to. They usually got soda a few times during the week but preferred water. We also bought a snack or two each day but usually something we could share as family -- like 2 big soft pretzels, or funnel cakes, etc. They sometimes used to pool their money to buy extra snacks/desserts to share. I think the biggest advantage was the souvenirs. They knew how much money they had to spend for the week and that if they wanted souvenirs, they needed to buy them. At home, we always had "the list" for when they wanted a new toy or game or something else they saw in a store. When they'd say, "Oooohhh! Can we get one of those (fill in the blank)!" I'd say, "Put it on your birthday/Christmas list." End of discussion. They usually forgot about the toy before we even got home and therefore, it never ended up on any list.

 

[snikki]

I give my teen daughter a souvenir/extras budget now. When she was younger she had a limit on items kind of budget. One stuffie and one toy per trip. Something like that.

I don’t include food, drinks or dessert into her budget. We mostly snack together in the parks and usually split things. She’s not the type to order food if she truly doesn’t want it. Same for dessert. We usually share it and only if it’s something we really want. I think last trip the only dessert we got at TS was CG and HC. We wanted the chocolate cake at SH71 but were too full. We had Gideon’s in the room and would grab sweets later in the night while at the parks and share them.

 

[ndjen04]

We did something similar with our then 6-year-old twins last year. Their grandparents had given us/them a bit of cash to use for the trip and we bought them each a Disney gift card with a set amount to spend on souvenirs (they aren't big snackers/sweet eaters, so no need to set limits there). They had just started learning about money and it was great to see them start to understand what things cost, how much they could spend, etc. We will likely do the same for all of our trips going forward.

 

[rdaky]

I think it's always a good idea to give the kids their own money for budget. I'd recommend a gift card, though. I was at Magic Kingdom one day and watched as a family with 5 or 6 kids had done this and each had a $100 bill and bought something small like a bag of candy. First of all, they wiped out the cashier of all of her change and that held up everyone as she had to call for change. Then the mom (of course) had to carry around multiple ziplock bags with names on them and had to stand there and sort through her bag to get the correct change with the correct ziplock bag. I bet she did that all day. Just do a gift card. So much easier for you and everyone else. lol

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

We've been doing this since they were little and traveling. When they were younger, we'd let them do chores to earn money and use that at WDW. For the most part, they already know we're not going crazy on souvenirs and stuff, but I feel like the days of begging for trashy trinkets are gone since mine are teens too. They're mostly into clothes and jewelry. Our last disney trip we only got one souvenir for each fo them so I feel like we got off easy. It's mostly food/snacks where we spend our disney dollars but when it's "their" money, they definitely do give more consideration for the purchase.

 

[accm]

My kids are younger (3 and 5), so we tell them they can each pick one thing to bring home at the end of the trip. During the trip, anytime they want something, they'll ask us to take a picture of it. Close to the end of the trip, I'll scroll through the photos with them and they'll make their pick.
I want to eventually get them to a point where they'll have spending money, but specially with a gift card, I don't know at what age kids really start understanding the value of money

 

[Donna M]

My kids are younger (3 and 5), so we tell them they can each pick one thing to bring home at the end of the trip. During the trip, anytime they want something, they'll ask us to take a picture of it. Close to the end of the trip, I'll scroll through the photos with them and they'll make their pick.
I want to eventually get them to a point where they'll have spending money, but specially with a gift card, I don't know at what age kids really start understanding the value of money

Last year my 4 yo grandson wanted the bubble wand and was very happy with it, still plays with it now. My daughter, the mom got off easy with the 5yo, she was thrilled with a bag of gummy worms.

 

[travelgirl06]

My girls (12, 9, and 5) earn money during the summer doing reading, chores and other activities that they can use on one trip at the end of the summer. Whatever is leftover they can keep.

I love the idea of including their splurge snacks in there. I may add a bit for each girl and tell them any snacks/treats that aren’t family snacks need to come out of this budget

 

[Mercdesman]

So I floated this idea a while back to get some input, and we decided to do it.

My kids are 14 and 16 and we are on our trip right now. I gave them X amount of cash at the start of the trip. Here are their instructions:

Mom and dad pay for grocery delivery to the hotel plus all meals out. They can order water with their meal. Mom and dad may or may not agree to pay for a dessert after a meal.

All snacks, sodas, and merchandise they have to use their own spending money. Candy at the airport? They use their cash. Cool t-shirt? It’s on them. Pretzel, icee, Mickey bar? They have to decide how bad they want it.

And bonus, anything they don’t spend they get to keep after the trip is done.

This has been FABULOUS for the trip. You can really see them thinking hard about how to spend their cash.

No more whining for sodas at meals (we did order some soda to be delivered to the hotel room, and they can bring that if they want.) No more negotiating for stuffed toys or sweet snacks.

In fact, my kids are mostly avoiding snacks! It’s crazy! These are the kids who would have been begging for snacks at almost every cart in past trips.

DS was horrified when the hotel wanted $5 for a bag of gummy bears, and instead went to the Walgreens by our hotel to buy himself some candy. Smart kid!

Anyway, I’m not sure if this belongs in this section but I figured it might appeal to someone. I think it would be good for tweens or teens, and is a great life lesson for the kids.

How much did you give them? My kids are 10 and 13.

 

[Psymonds]

So I floated this idea a while back to get some input, and we decided to do it.

My kids are 14 and 16 and we are on our trip right now. I gave them X amount of cash at the start of the trip. Here are their instructions:

Mom and dad pay for grocery delivery to the hotel plus all meals out. They can order water with their meal. Mom and dad may or may not agree to pay for a dessert after a meal.

All snacks, sodas, and merchandise they have to use their own spending money. Candy at the airport? They use their cash. Cool t-shirt? It’s on them. Pretzel, icee, Mickey bar? They have to decide how bad they want it.

And bonus, anything they don’t spend they get to keep after the trip is done.

This has been FABULOUS for the trip. You can really see them thinking hard about how to spend their cash.

No more whining for sodas at meals (we did order some soda to be delivered to the hotel room, and they can bring that if they want.) No more negotiating for stuffed toys or sweet snacks.

In fact, my kids are mostly avoiding snacks! It’s crazy! These are the kids who would have been begging for snacks at almost every cart in past trips.

DS was horrified when the hotel wanted $5 for a bag of gummy bears, and instead went to the Walgreens by our hotel to buy himself some candy. Smart kid!

Anyway, I’m not sure if this belongs in this section but I figured it might appeal to someone. I think it would be good for tweens or teens, and is a great life lesson for the kids.

Our kids know we carry snacks, will buy food, and we're good for one souvenir (think a t-shirt) per trip. If they want anything else they have their own money on their debit cards.