“B” is for Budgeting – ABCs of Homeschooling

This is our second week of our ABCs of Homeschooling with Dawn and The Momma Knows.  Since it is the second week, we must be on the letter “B”.

With “B”, we are going to think about math and budgeting.   As parents, we immediately think about everyday household budgeting (i.e. rent or mortgage, utilities, groceries, and gas); however, that kind of budgeting doesn’t interest either child when studying “real life” math.  So, like many areas of study, we “Disneyfy” budgeting.

While the cost of airfare and lodging are above DS8, the cost of souvenirs and food is not.  So, I discuss the airfare and lodging with DD12 and utilize the souvenirs and food budgeting with both children.

Let’s start with dining!  I will be the first to admit that I do not like the Disneyland dining plan because it just doesn’t work for our family.  It is very different than the Walt Disney World dining plan, which I dearly love.  One of our first things to budget/plan after our trip is reserved is dining.  We reference two different websites to get an idea of what is currently on the restaurant menus:  Walt Disney World and Disneyland.  The menus and prices are not always 100% correct because Disney changes some menus frequently, but it does give a good picture of the cost.  We sit down and go through the menus to decide where we would like to eat and to estimate the cost of each meal (and total trip estimate).  If we are going to Walt Disney World, we compare the total trip estimate to the cost of the standard Disney Dining Plan.  If the estimate is higher than the cost of the dining plan, we add the dining plan to our Walt Disney World reservation.

The other “Disneyfied” budgeting that we have the kids do is for souvenirs.  This budgeting is made so much easier now that the Disney Store has added many Disney Parks souvenirs to their website.  At this point, we tell the kids how much they will have put on a gift card or in Disney Dollars for the trip.  This amount varies with the length of time that we will be at Disneyland or Walt Disney World.  Both kids get to spend time drooling perusing the possible souvenirs on the Disney Store website and write down what they might want to buy.  While there are so many more items at the parks than what the Disney Store carries, this actually does give them an idea of what they want to buy.

Because they go to Disneyland or Walt Disney World with an idea of their budget for the trip, the kids have become more choosy in their souvenir purchases.  Often, we get down to the night before we leave to go home, and they are rushing to go back to the store where they saw certain items that they wanted to buy.  They don’t spend it in the first day that they are there, and there aren’t as many questions such as:  “Can I buy this…

balloon?” or “Can I have…

that R2D2 popcorn container?”  They are becoming more aware of what they have versus what they want to buy, and that is the beginning of being budget-conscious.