Kids' souvenir budget

We always say we will buy any shirt and hat he chooses, then give him $50. He looks around at peoples hats and clothes while we are there :)
We make a point of going into occasional shops to browse but he’s not interested in a lot of extras. On almost every trip, he’s made a lightsaber and spent his money on that. Once on Mickey crocs.
One thing to be careful of is to tell your kids there will be many, many shops. Many! So they have time to think things over. If it’s something specific that’s different, like an animal themed whatever from the AK....
 
Thanks, everyone, for the thoughtful input! I realized I didn't specify that my kids are 4 and 9, which will obviously make a difference in what chores I can have them do, how much money I even trust them with, etc. Also, I imagine it will be years before we're back at WDW, so I do want them the opportunity to get something special, while I also do want them to learn to be thoughtful about money, as stated above. Lots to think about!...
I also have a 4 yr old and we are heading to WDW next month, I was thinking the same as you, $50 gift card. But perhaps tying in her chore/behavioral chart for the chance for additional $$ is a good idea too. And perhaps for Easter I can tell family to get her gift cards for the Disney trip. While it will be a lesson in budgeting, I will probably not let her buy too much candy with it. And I will cover her a souvenir t-shirt. I think she will love this. In our past trips we haven't gotten too crazy on souvenirs, one small thing for each of us. And I semi regret not getting myself a Christmas Ornament and t-shirt.
 
We did $50 on our last trip and really talked to our DD about what she wanted. I actually think it worked great.... she got minnie ears, tinkerbell figurines, a key chain and a Anna pez dispenser. She is 6 and it was the first time we really had a budget for her. I was surprised at what she was able to purchase for $50.... (we have APs so we do have a discount.) But it really made her consider her gifts... we will definitely do it again!

Also, it was a gift card from grammy that she was spending.... so definitely having family give gift cards is a great idea.
 
We do anywhere between $50-$100 in gift cards for the kids to spend on their trip - not including snacks. And depending on how well they choose to spend their money it's possibly we may still buy them something else before we leave. My boys like to do collect pins so I usually surprise them with one specific to our resort or the year - some of those can be pricey for what they are imo.
 
My dds usually have about $100-$150 for a week trip which comes out to about $20 a day. They can buy something small each day or save it for something nicer.
 
I think $50 sounds fair.
My 4yo has been gifted $80 worth of gift cards, so that will be her spending money...but if she didn't have those, I would say $50 :-)
 
I think mine will end up with $65-$80 a piece. They’re getting gift cards for Easter & their birthdays. They’re 13, 9,and 2.
 


I have 2 seven year olds and we started with $20 for a souvenir, but we negotiated it up to $35 because they agreed to take another $15 for souvenir money instead of upgrading our 4 day tickets to park hoppers :) It was enough for them to pick out one small thing each in 2 different parks. I also bought them one "treat" snack a day in the park (mickey bar, cupcake, etc.) so maybe another $15 in snacks each.
 
After reading all of the other posters here I am feeling like I am from a different planet. What I do is save change, every night when I come home I empty my pockets and all the change and $1 dollar bills go into a huge Coca-Cola bank for vacations. Well we go about every 3rd year so the bank getting pretty full. I play no favorites my 17year old daughter and 8 year old god daughter split the loot equally. But since it has been 3 years they are getting around $800 each. My teen will spend it all on clothes and for the god daughter she talked me out of 1 day 2 park Universal tickets to she could do her beloved Harry Potter. I am betting she blows most of her money there. After watching youtube she has an impressive list of Harry Potter stuff written down.
 
I'm a pushover when it comes to souvenirs, but the best thing I ever did was tell DD that we were going to write down every thing we wanted during the trip and then we'd review the list on the last day and go back for the items we still really wanted. We note the store, price, and an item description. We have continued this every trip since, and it works really well for us.

We did this but used our phones to take pictures of the items and their prices. Our kids (5 & 2.5) had a $25 budget, but we bought them ears and tinkerbell surprised them with stuffed animals bought on sale at our local Disney store. The item my oldest wanted was on sale on the Disney store website, but not at the parks. I explained to him he could get the item now, or we could order it and wait two weeks, but he would have another $8 to spend now. I was shocked when he decided to wait.
 
We did this but used our phones to take pictures of the items and their prices. Our kids (5 & 2.5) had a $25 budget, but we bought them ears and tinkerbell surprised them with stuffed animals bought on sale at our local Disney store. ...

We're similar, with similar ages of kids. We take photos of things they want and towards the end of the trip go buy "the one thing" each kid wants. They don't quite understand money yet (well, the older ones does a little, but definitely not the toddler). We even had to coach my toddler up since he just wanted one car toy and we had to tell him he could get THREE cars...

We also buy them shirts before we go (much cheaper) but they can each pick a mouse ear/hat or shirt while we're there.
 
Our kids are young, 7 and 4. We went last year for the first time and really they didn’t really ask for anything. Doing some research we found that they have pin trading. We bought a bag of 50 Disney pins on eBay and a lanyards while at the park. They were able to trade pins with the cast members and that seemed good for them. It’s less expensive to buy them online before hand and then trade there. 4 pins at the parks can cost $25.
 
We don't give our girls spending money (6 and 4) but we tell them if they go all day without fighting we will stop at a store on the way out or take them in fantasia gifts when we get back to the resort and let them pick something out. Works most days :)
 
We allow our boys to earn Disney Gift cards by doing extra chores in the 2 months before a trip. I put up a list of what I need done and a $$ amount for each. When we go on the trip I put whatever they earned on a Disney Gift card and they can spend it however they like. Usually the amount ranged from$25-$60. Once they had $100 because they were given Disney gift cards for Christmas, that was too much.
 
I buy a tee shirt and one small item like a key chain for him and he gets $50 to spend on toy souvenirs. He's 6 now and good about waiting till the last couple of days to spend it.
 
When my kids first went they were 6 and 11. I think I gave them 80 dollars a piece. They were able to buy whatever they wanted including extra snacks. We were on free dining at the time. Major purchases like mickey ears and such I bought. They earned disney dollars by doing extra chores and I put extra in their easter baskets.
 
Those who give spending money or gift cards to kids @ Disney....how much are you allocating per day? Trip lengths vary which is why I'm asking.
TIA.
 
After reading all of the other posters here I am feeling like I am from a different planet. What I do is save change, every night when I come home I empty my pockets and all the change and $1 dollar bills go into a huge Coca-Cola bank for vacations. Well we go about every 3rd year so the bank getting pretty full. I play no favorites my 17year old daughter and 8 year old god daughter split the loot equally. But since it has been 3 years they are getting around $800 each. My teen will spend it all on clothes and for the god daughter she talked me out of 1 day 2 park Universal tickets to she could do her beloved Harry Potter. I am betting she blows most of her money there. After watching youtube she has an impressive list of Harry Potter stuff written down.

I used to do something like that too. But that was years ago. I no longer use cash for anything...I literally never carry any. I also don't buy much, so I never have change. Instead, I have a separate Paypal account that is earmarked for nothing but spending money, including WDW. Every paycheck, money goes in.

Those who give spending money or gift cards to kids @ Disney....how much are you allocating per day? Trip lengths vary which is why I'm asking.
TIA.

We don't do the "per day" thing. As you said, trip lengths can vary. Our shortest trips were 4 or 5 days, but our summer trips are 17 days. They bring $xxx amount with them and they need to make smart decisions. Often, we don't really give them time to shop during a given day, so that helps control it. We also constantly warn them about spending it all right away, because that'll leave them with nothing the rest of the trip. The younger they were, the more we really helped walk them through those decision making processes and guiding them. Now, at 13 (nearly 14), 10, 10 we give them more leeway. We still very much encourage being smart and talk to them about their choices, and to their credit, they do a great job. But we also let them have a bit more freedom with it. We have a family friend who is a CM, and she will "babysit" so DW and I can have date nights. The kids love her as a person, but also love shopping with her because of her discounts...LOL.
 
Like some people have suggested between $50-100 sounds good. Have you thought about looking though the Disney shopping app or Disney store on-line and checking out the price of things. This may help with figuring out how much you want to give them. Also remember if the child is contemplating about spending their money that not all items are available at every park. We made a special trip to AK on our last day for a souvenir that wasn't sold in any of the other parks or Disney Springs.
 
I used to do something like that too. But that was years ago. I no longer use cash for anything...I literally never carry any. I also don't buy much, so I never have change. Instead, I have a separate Paypal account that is earmarked for nothing but spending money, including WDW. Every paycheck, money goes in.



We don't do the "per day" thing. As you said, trip lengths can vary. Our shortest trips were 4 or 5 days, but our summer trips are 17 days. They bring $xxx amount with them and they need to make smart decisions. Often, we don't really give them time to shop during a given day, so that helps control it. We also constantly warn them about spending it all right away, because that'll leave them with nothing the rest of the trip. The younger they were, the more we really helped walk them through those decision making processes and guiding them. Now, at 13 (nearly 14), 10, 10 we give them more leeway. We still very much encourage being smart and talk to them about their choices, and to their credit, they do a great job. But we also let them have a bit more freedom with it. We have a family friend who is a CM, and she will "babysit" so DW and I can have date nights. The kids love her as a person, but also love shopping with her because of her discounts...LOL.

I'm fine with the smart choices and smiled to self during last trip when DGD had $200.00 to spend over a 12 day Disney trip (about 16 dollars per day).

She made wise choices with her funds, bought gifts for her parents, other grandmother and best friend. Came home with approx. $80.00 leftover. However, next trip, my niece and grand nephew, are joining us and I need to come up with a reasonable spending guideline for their parents. Snacks are already taken care of since we'll be using the dining plan.

The only places I tend to use cash anymore is on vacation. There is always a someplace that takes greenbacks only, LOL.
 

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