- So you spend all day having fun rather than constantly saying no and feeling like a Disney villian.
- No one gets to purchase everything they want, because no one has that sort of money. Kids might as well learn that now rather than face disappointment later on as adults.
- Children like to know what is going on in their lives. Knowing how much money they have to spend gives them control, which is something they may not get a lot of on vacation.
- How much money will they be bringing?
- Will you give them any money when they run out?
- Will you loan them any more money if they run out, assuming they will have to start paying it back upon return?
- Are they responsible for paying for any family activities during the vacation?
- Can their money be divided up into a per day allowance so the $$ isn’t used up on the first day?
- Can they do any chores before the trip to earn extra spending money?
My teens wanted to see Cirque de Soliel, and when I offered to pay for half their ticket, they weighed their options and decided they would rather spend their money adding the DisneyQuest/water park option to our annual passes. Several years ago, my kids chose to receive fewer Christmas presents so we could stay on vacation a few days longer. We laid out the money facts and let them decide, though it warmed my heart they chose family vacation over “stuff.” I think giving kids a choice or a say in vacation plans can be a great teaching tool.
Life Lessons with a Disney Twist: Teach Kids to Save Their Money
“We have a budget, and we can’t have it all. Let’s decide what is the best value for our money.”
I keep a notebook with my three children’s vacation savings written down. We call this “The Column.” My children pretty much keep money on their “Disney Column” all year ‘round. Each day of vacation, we start out at breakfast calling out column ammounts. They know per day how much money they have left. My husband and I do loan money, up to a certain amount that I know I can get my money back. I know surprise Disney trips look fun and exciting, but they don’t allow for kids doing chores and extra jobs ahead of time to pay for the souvenirs they will want in those gift shops.
We can’t have everything we want. The Donald Trumps of this world have a budget, and they are holding out on purchasing something, even if their scale is far more grand than ours. Not overspending or sticking to a budget in our every day lives is a life skill. You can blow your budget and make a bunch of purchases with your credit card, but dealing with the bill after you get home will just add to your post-Disney depression.
Avoid These 10 Mistakes That Can Wreck a Disney World Vacation
What better place to teach your kids to stick to the budget than on a Disney vacation, home of the Happiest Shopping on Earth!
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Amanda
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We weren’t allowed to buy souvenirs either growing up. I grew up in Bradenton, so we were only two hours away and frequently went with family, friends and on school trips. My parents reasoned that with the frequency we went, there was no reason for us to buy souvenirs. We were however allowed to buy with our own money. I’m pretty sure I still have that Magic 8 Ball somewhere. lol. I pretty much have laid it out with my daughter that she has x amount to spend and that is it. She does not get to ask for anything else and she can’t cry that she lost out on something better if she spends it early on. This proved to work for us and she seemed content with the stuffed unicorn toy she bought on our last Orlando trip. Like a previous poster, I am a fan of laying out ground rules with children before you do anything. They are more likely to listen and not to complain or have tantrums when they know what to expect in advance.
I never got to Disney as a kid, but we did go to King’s Dominion and Busch Gardens in Virginia. We ALWAYS brought our own lunch and either snuck it in or went out to the parking lot and had a picnic by the car.
As for souvenirs – I got postcards. Whenever we went somewhere on vacation, I’d get postcards, which I put into an album. Very cheap (yay!) Anything else would be gone by now, but I can look at my album and see the postcards of Hershey Park or the United Nations building (all crinkled because I lent it to a friend for his school report and he stuffed it in his pocket – I cried over that postcard for ages!)
Gosh, we went to WDW every summer starting the year it opened. Back then there were only the Contemporary and Fort Wilderness. All my friends stayed at the Contemporary, and we camped! I so badly wanted to stay at the Contemporary! We also got the A-E coupon books and my brother and I would save our money to buy more A coupons at the kiosks all over MK because we didn’t like the E rides so much (Cinderella’s Carousel and stuff like that).
For my kids, we shop on the last day we are in Orlando, at World of Disney at Downtown Disney. If the kids want something earlier in the week, I write it down and they know we will check WoD when we leave the resort. We then see what they are still interested in on that last day, and I get to save 10% by using my Disney Visa. When they were younger, I shopped at thrift stores and bought them t-shirts and stuffed animals and such before the trip.
We also love to stop at WoD for our free Ghiradelli chocolate and then we wash our hands with the yummy scrubs and slather on lotion at Basin, so the car smells nice on the drive home!
This made me smile–we bring our lunch in and share one drink for the whole family often :) Another way we make the shopping easier at Disneyland it eould be more difficult at WDW) is that we only shop on our last day. That way we can stroll through the shops all throughout our trip with no whining or begging. We all happily “window shop”. We always schedule time on our last day to visit the world of disney store and pick up one or two items for the kids that they have had their eye on during the trip. If there is something specific that we don’t think will be available at world of disney, we pick it up on the way out at night.
Because there is no expectation that we will buy something everytime we go into a store we are ALL much happier as we look at all the merchandise. It doesn’t stop the kids from asking, but it’s not a big deal when we say “not now”. And we get to watch them throughout the trip and figure out what they are drawn to as an impulse item, and what truly holds their interest.
A fun way to still give them some instant gratification without shelling out lots of money on souvenirs: squished pennies!! We have a little coin bag where we store shiny pennies and quarters collected throughout the year, and the kids are always on the hunt for penny squishers. It’s become one of our favorite souvenirs because of the fun of the hunt :)
Great article!! We have taken our boys to Disney four times in their young lives; and what has worked for us is to lay out the ground rules way before we leave (I do the same thing any time we go out shopping at any store.) Each child can pick out two souvenirs. When they find something they would love to have we have a small discussion about whether or not it is worth their use of their money….and they usually don’t pick out expensive toys! I think if you let your expectations be known early on, it can help to avoid problems later down the road.