Providing spending money for child going on hol

Spendless

Recently my daughter went away for a few days to the Seaside with her friend and her family. They went in SC accommodation and it was booked before my daughter was invited to go along with them. I gave some money to friend's Mum (£40) to cover daughter's expenses whilst she was there. My daughter also had £20 pocket money. In addition I had used some vouchers for the kids to have wristbands for the rides at a funfair (no admission charges, just pay for rides). Whilst there they went to the beach, played crazy golf and went out to a pub once. One day they went to an acquarium type place but daughter says she was asked to pay out of her pocket money (the £20), whereas I'd have thought her admission charge should have been included in the £40 I sent.

Let me make it clear I am not cross about this, the overall cost remains the same to me, just wondering if in future I give or allocate more money to dd and tell her to pay her own way for admissions etc and interested in others thought and the way they do it.

Lagoon

How old is DD? I'd say if she's 10 or over, I'd be giving her all of the money to manage on her own.

What were her friends parents doing with the money you gave them, if they didn't spend it on activities? Did you get it back at the end?

Spendless

She's 10 and the answer is I don't know, though the adults are parent (single mum) and her friend not mum and dad. They played crazy golf where she was paid in, went to beach (free) had a night in a pub/club (daughter says she had 1 drink but you know kids??) visited funfair (paid for by my vouchers) and had a meal in a fast food place. I had already been told they wouldn't be eating out due to the cost last time they visisted. I didn't receive any money back. I was told dd still had some money left but no idea where it was amongst her stuff, but husband couldn't find anything when he unpacked and dd said she's spent up.

Dunroamin

I think it would be reasonable for the £40 to be spent on food in the accommodation as well as food, drinks, ice creams etc whilst out. If the other family paid for (nearly) all of these, then it seems fair that your daughter paid for the aquarium admission.

Spendless

Dunroamin wrote: »

I think it would be reasonable for the £40 to be spent on food in the accommodation as well as food, drinks, ice creams etc whilst out. If the other family paid for (nearly) all of these, then it seems fair that your daughter paid for the aquarium admission.

In my mind that was what the £20 pocket money daughter had on her was for, to pay for the extras and not to go friend's mum for ice creams, or if they fancied a drink etc. They had said ,see my last post, that they wouldn't eat out, though I can see that can be impossible to keep to if you are out for a duration of time. There were no 'sit down meals' out except for the trip to fast food place. Food in the accommodation is all I can 'see' it went on. Like I said, I'm not annoyed more wondering if I allocated right amounts of money.

Dunroamin

Spendless wrote: »

In my mind that was what the £20 pocket money daughter had on her was for, to pay for the extras and not to go friend's mum for ice creams, or if they fancied a drink etc. They had said ,see my last post, that they wouldn't eat out, though I can see that can be impossible to keep to if you are out for a duration of time. There were no 'sit down meals' out except for the trip to fast food place. Food in the accommodation is all I can 'see' it went on. Like I said, I'm not annoyed more wondering if I allocated right amounts of money.

I think that you could view the sitation either way and the other mum was looking at it differently from you. A total of £60 for a trip like this sounds about right, whichever way it's divided.

Spendless

Dunroamin wrote: »

I think that you could view the sitation either way and the other mum was looking at it differently from you. A total of £60 for a trip like this sounds about right, whichever way it's divided.

Yes, it's just I gave dd £20 saying this is your pocket money for extras like drinks, ice-cream, [STRIKE]tat[/STRIKE] souvenirs and said but I've given (friend's) mum money for your other costs. Just so dd didn't feel uncomfortable if they were ordering a burger etc about the price and wondering if she had enough money on her. They were at the pay in desk at the attraction when dd was told 'you need to pay the lady' as I hadn't given her the cash to cover this to herself, I did wonder what would have happened if she'd spent up.

Ironically after viewing the attraction they have child gets in free with paying adult on their website, if I'd known they were going in advance I'd have printed them off too.

BitterAndTwisted

£60 to cover a ten year-old's expenses for "a few days" seems like a lot of money to me.

Still, giving a young child twenty quid for a few soft drinks and an ice-cream seems rather a lot, too. I probably would have given her the equivalent of one week's pocket-money and no more.

victory

I think £60 was a decent amount and should have covered it all, did you find your DD's money?

azzabazza

I don't think £40 is too much for a few days away. How many days away? What were the transport arrangements to the seaside? Admission to places like the aquarium can be quite expensive. Plus food, and other things do mount up. I think I would have given the Mum a bit more and said something along the lines of this should cover everything but if not I will settle up when you get home.

I would have given less to your daughter, say £10.

Spendless

They went for 4 nights, 3 full days there plus 2 travelling home, where they set off around lunch time on 1st day and arrived back around 3pm on last day (2 hours drive away). I did give dd £10 pocket money, however she had been given another £10 off my parents as a present and had saved that especially to take with her. They travelled by car and the aquarium child admission was around £5.

In addition to the £40 I had also provided £20 worth of vouchers getting the kids fairground rides for free.

victory - no money was found at the end