This highlights how dependent souvenirs are on family budget. For some families, the trip itself is enough of a stretch that it’s better to forgo souvenirs. But for others maybe they save enough money through the year so that they can splurge while on the trip. And for yet others, budget isn’t a concern at all, but rather they just are considering the best way to keep from spoiling their kids.
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exactly… and there is no right or wrong way to handle it
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I was just coming back to say (again? differently?) that a reasonable souvenir allowance is whatever feels reasonable to you
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Each of us (DD4, DD9, DW, and I) had various gift cards set aside for us by the time we went. The kids had maybe 75 apiece, enough to get a couple decent things, but not really going too high for us. DW and I had agreed that if either of them came up a few dollars short on something we considered a worthy purchase, we would chip in to cover the gap, but the girls didn’t know that up front. The amounts worked for us, but what was reasonable for me could be way too little for someone else, or could also be overly exorbitant for another.
I think the big thing with the kids was giving them something that was theirs to direct, enough for them to have some choice, but also limited it to what I was willing to allow them to spend.
What we found in practice: there was a lot of “I wanna BUY SOMETHING”, especially when they got tired. We did control a bit more of when and where we would shop for them to pick something with their money.
For me as a very picky souvenir shopper: I do wish our arrival-day brief stop (and immediate departure) at Disney Springs had gone better and we had at least looked through our targeted stores. It would have been nice to see what we could get “anywhere” to help distinguish that from the truly exclusive items.
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I don’t think I have ever set a concrete limit, but I also am that parent that just says “no.” My personal feeling is that the more you try to explain it/rationaltize it, the more they to to find loopholes around it. No is a complete sentence, 
.
That said, looking back at things we’ve bought over the years, it probably averages out about $75 a child. In the beginning it was probably more, but nowadays we go often enough that it seems silly to spend that much every visit.
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My kids are very into “stuff” and honestly, my husband and I also like shopping, so we tend to err on the side of too much money. For our most recent trip we gave them $50 per park, plus they had some of their own money. The original theory was that they couldn’t spend it until the last day at each park but that fell apart almost immediately when my (soccer obsessed) son found a soccer ball on our first day. It kind of became a problem because my younger son got very “I have to buy something no I don’t know what I want it doesn’t matter I need to buy a toy” (at one point he wanted to buy a Bluetooth speaker and when I pointed out that he didn’t know what it was he said “that’s what’s fun about it!”) but we worked it out.
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This is kind of what we do, picking out things we are searching for ahead of time so that we can focus our energy, like a picture frame for DH or an outfit for Nuimo Stitch. Granted there are still the random reward purchases in the ride exit gift shops for making it out alive (I’m looking at you, POTC sword) but those are getting less. Having a goal souvenir in mind also keeps DD7 away from analysis overload trying to pick the perfect thing, if given a vague task like “you can pick 1 thing out” (she is her mother’s daughter after all).
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Oh this was an issue in HS for me
me, waving a $200 droid etc at my son: “hey did you see this?”
my wife, staring at me and muttering: “what. are. you doing??”
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I give my first grader (4) $25 dollar gift certificates at the beginning of the trip. She can spend one in each park. It’s a great way to teach budgeting! I will take pictures of all the things she liked throughout the day and then we will look at them as we sit down for dinner and she will make her final choice. After dinner we will go back to that store and she will make her purchase. That way she doesn’t “settle” for the first thing she see’s!
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for my 4 year old last week, we told her she can pick one souvenir. We told her that she just needed to remember what she wanted for a couple days so she can see what was available at all the parks and then we’d get what she wanted. first she wanted the light-up slinky dog, but then she saw a light saber and a lot of kids leaving with the $30 build-your-own. my daughter is very princess-y and we assumed she didn’t want it for real, so we asked her about 10 times to make sure that’s what she wanted, and not the light up slinky dog or something else. she opted for the saber and made the ugliest thing possible, i think. but she was happy.
i mean, as her dad, i knew i was going to get her something else, so i ended up getting her the minnie sipper from cosmic ray’s and she was really happy about that. i think she wanted a spinning light up mickey wizard thing too, from that small shop by MMRR, but she remembered she already got souvenirs. The only thing we straight up told her no about were the $30-50 minnie ears she wanted because they’d never be used, haha.
so short answer is around $60 for a 4 year old. It’s about the experiences, primarily - at least the way we try to raise her.
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Tricking your son into buying the souvenir you actually want for himself. Duh!
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Night time light up thingies. These are hard for kids to walk past.
We bring from home many, lots, gobs of the glow stuff bought from discount stores, before we leave. Our touring plan includes an afternoon rest, with plenty of time to don much glow stuff - one older family member from Louisiana puts the glow loop on his cap - before heading to the park of the evening.
If not planning afternoon breaks, plan to bring unopened glow stuff with you in the morning.
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We actually bought the light-up Slinky Dog as a reward for the 4-year-old riding SDD. It’s one of her favorite toys, though it’s also already gone through 3 sets of button batteries and is in need of set 4. I REALLY wish they had configured it to take a double or triple-a instead of those button batteries. 6 is a lot to go through.
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Some of that light up stuff is heavy, too. Impressive but not practical.
Altho, why would practicality be a thing with kid souvenirs at Disney? 
Rather than a set dollar amount, I used to tell my kids that I would buy them one t-shirt and one toy. Now that they are older, it’s just one t-shirt/hat/whatever.
What would an appropriate budget be for a 53 year old?
Asking for a friend.
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25% of your monthly wages.
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And of course, light sabers don’t count toward that total, as we all know. 
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We used to encourage buy nothing on the first day. This exact thing happened to DD on one of our trips. She was so bummed. She ended up not buying anything the entire trip except the last day to use her money. Then it was , “I guess I’ll take this”. We felt so bad.
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Smaller kids, smaller budgets. When my kids were little the budget was 1 regular size toy per park. If it was too much money, I would just say, that is too much money to spend on one toy. We would push the buying phase to the end of the day. Once they got older, maybe 10 or 11 but not really sure and the I want everything phase started, we started a budget. I think they started at $50 per trip (5 or 6 days) and ended at $100 as teens. We would generally buy the clothing they wanted but they also didn’t want much. DD always wanted a sweatshirt and DS a couple cool shirts. We used to put rules on when and where they could spend their money but this back fired and it’s just a bit controlling. If it’s their money to spend, I decided I would give advice but ultimately, they could do whatever they wanted with their money.
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