phillyf Posted August 6, 2007 #1 Share Posted August 6, 2007 How much should a teenager be given for a ship board allowance? I have a 13 year old who will be given the teen passport drink coupons and perhaps five dollars a day for video games. Does this amount appear to be too little? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avidreader Posted August 6, 2007 #2 Share Posted August 6, 2007 Other than money for arcade, what else could they possibly need. food and drink and entertainment is already there. Give them the money in the beginning of trip and tell them when its gone no more and they will probally be going home with money.Good budget teaching. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tunseeker1 Posted August 6, 2007 #3 Share Posted August 6, 2007 It depends on how long you are going for and what you want them to get for them self. I advised a family on finances and when it came time for them to go on vacation they did a disney land/sea. I told them to give the kids $50 in small bills at the start of the trip at home. The money was for everything they wanted to buy including souvenirs. It worked well! The kids used the money for snacks in the airport and things that mom said were stupid and a waste of money! Only thing they did different then I advised was they gave the kids another $50 for the ship :eek: Oh and the kids were 8 and 10 at the time. Both came back with money and a great memory of what they bought themselves. 3 years later the older one went on a school trip for a month and the parents had no problem with him handling money himself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phillyf Posted August 6, 2007 Author #4 Share Posted August 6, 2007 avidreader Other than the arcade and a gift for his grandparents I cannot anticipate other expenses other than a soda at the beach. I liked your idea about giving him all the money ahead of time. He is a good spender and can easily manage the task while instilling the confidence in him that he is not to lose the money, which is his biggest fear. Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phillyf Posted August 6, 2007 Author #5 Share Posted August 6, 2007 Thanks for your great suggestions, I think I'll give him 35-50 and hopefully get back change. Small denominations excellent, perhaps some 1s 5s 10s and one 20 since I am hoping he will send 35. I think I'll suggest carry what you think you need and place the rest in a secure spot like the safe. Hopefully this will instill responsbility. Thanks again Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lostie Posted August 6, 2007 #6 Share Posted August 6, 2007 my brother gave his kids $20 a day. My kids were too young to understand $$$ at that time. But his one DS spent every cent and the other DS came home with a ton of $$$.LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tunseeker1 Posted August 6, 2007 #7 Share Posted August 6, 2007 One word of advice. Don't ask for change. If he knows he gets to keep the "change" from the trip then he might not spend it all. Then he will have money when he gets home for things you might normally buy for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nyflush Posted August 6, 2007 #8 Share Posted August 6, 2007 My son is 11 what I did was empty one of our change bins and I put about $40 in quaters in a zip-lock for the arcade and I gave him a $100 bill and he had $20 for his allowance that week and he had about $8 so that was to cover anything he wanted to buy for friends or himself in the Bahamas and Bermuda. So he came home with the $40 in quaters because he brought his Wii with us, The $100, and he wanted to tip the waitress in Bamboo and extra $6 dollars he spent $7 on 1 tee shirt he bought at GSC and how about instead of buying his friends hats shirts stuff like that like they get him. When we went to Bermuda he filled two empty water bottles with sand and put them it cute little corked bottles when we got home. So you never know what your kids are going to do. Of course he could'nt wait to get a video game when we got home and he took himself out for sushi with friends. If I would have told him I will give you $20 now and More as you need it he would have bought 5 smoothies the first day! So my son had $168 came home with $155 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
avidreader Posted August 6, 2007 #9 Share Posted August 6, 2007 I also would stress that any money left over at end of trip was his to keep. otherwise its just a spending account for work. lol The soda card and coupons from teen passport both worked on stirrup cay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warm Breezes Posted August 6, 2007 #10 Share Posted August 6, 2007 My kids both get paid their age in allowance (they need to do their daily chores to earn it). At the end of the week they get their allowance less $1 to go to their savings account, $1 to go to a vacation fund, and $1 to go to church. Once a year I put $52 each into their savings. They deliver their $1 to church every Sunday. When we go on our big vacation for the year they both get their $52 in vacation money to spend as they wish. Works for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ebedore Posted August 14, 2007 #11 Share Posted August 14, 2007 Since cash is not used onboard, they can't spend any of it. At the ports they can use cash but not on the ship. It was a difficult challenge we found to have to do a crash-course in credit management. We allowed the kids to have one smoothie and one soda per day. They could buy one souvenier tshirt onboard for the trip. They did great. Sometimes they didn't even get the sode (always got the smoothie though!) and a couple opportunities for Johnny Rockets but they don't care much for it after once or twice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare Keith1010 Posted August 14, 2007 #12 Share Posted August 14, 2007 When we took our kids on cruises which we did yearly, they would save some of their regular allowances for the cruise. Now, we did pay for items that would be charged against a shipboard account. So, the extra money they had would be for things such as purchasing little items in ports. This seemed to work out well. In terms of the shipboard account, we established agreed upon rules up front so there were no surprises. Keith Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare 01Sweetpea Posted August 14, 2007 #13 Share Posted August 14, 2007 Our kids will be 18, 15, 12 & 12 when we cruise next year. They are already aware that ANY spending money they need they must bring. So if they want the soda card, they have to pay for it, if my oldest daughter wants unlimited internet access for the 10 days, she must pay for it, arcade money, they have to cover it, tee-shirts from every port, yep they have to pay for it! DH & I haven't come up with the limit yet, but I'm guessing the oldest will be allowed to bring up to $300 (the internet & soda card alone is almost $200). Depends if she wants to go to the spa or not. The other 3, I'm sure the amount will be close to $200. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Warmer Climes Posted August 14, 2007 #14 Share Posted August 14, 2007 I give my kids each $100 and they can spend it or bring it home. I also buy soda cards for them. Usually they bring most of the money home aside from buying a few trinkets. Barb Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abitaturbodog Posted August 19, 2007 #15 Share Posted August 19, 2007 Keep in mind that the games in the arcade are .50 or $1.00 to play. Your son would go thru five bucks in five minutes! Usually the grandparents give my sons some arcade/spending money before we leave. They end up spending about $100 each for a 7 day cruise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phillyf Posted August 20, 2007 Author #16 Share Posted August 20, 2007 Thanks again for the terrific suggestions. We just returned and we wound up giving my son $20 for the arcade on the second day. Surprisingly he came back with change ! My son thought the arcade on the Spirit was much better than on the Dawn and played less and his friend wasn't interested in playing the arcade games. We gave him back the change to be used for anything he wants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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