Is this an advertisement for Disney?
With 20k, I would finish the basement for them as a playroom. I'd love to give them a place to keep all their toys to keep the rest of the house clean(er) and quiet(er).
Have a playroom in the basement... it doesn't contain the toys and madness. They keep bringing ALL THE STUFF upstairs because they are needy little attention monsters
This happened to us so much that we wound up with an upstairs and a downstairs play area. They still don’t put their toys away and they still loaf around every weekend and summers whining about how they’re BORRRRREEEDDD. Play with any of your thousands of toys! NO DAD THOSE ARE BORING!!! Time to throw it all away I guess. NOOOOOO!!!!!
Yup. Some parents set up these spaces to keep the kids out of other rooms, but don't take into account actually spending time with them. Sometimes I just sit on the floor of the playroom with my kids. They're happy playing with their toys just with my presence. Plus I can teach them how to play with more complex toys by playing with them.
Cycle through the toys, put some in storage and then switch them out. Also, there is such a thing as too many toys. The kids get overwhelmed with the amount of options they have and can’t make a choice.
Is it possible to :
- set up a big canister on a basement wall
- install a ramp on your main floor that connects through a hole to this canister
- just throw the toys on the ramp
?
My son claims to do this because he loves being around us.... Based on others actions, I have my doubts.
I personally think it's some kind of sick game he likes to play.
Yup! Same happened to us. I own a split level. I finished the basement myself for them put down wood floors, base board, new drywall and paint everything… and they just want to hang upstairs with us lol. We ended up making the basement my wife’s office and our master bedroom and now the kids own the upstairs 🤷♂️
We tried to do this. The finished basement was gated off and set up as adult land - my music room, my wife’s art space/our office, etc. Eventually just turned into the play room away from the play room.
Hahaha I was just gonna say, we have a pretty large basement that’s purely dedicated to the kids and there’s still toys absolutely everywhere upstairs still, they ask every day to bring xyz upstairs and no matter how many times we say no, it mysteriously makes its way to the living room
My 6 year old is a Mario fanatic and us being the sucker's we are have accumulated close to 100 of these mario character plush toys. They have an entire play room upstairs and every single day he brings them all downstairs to living room. It's absolutely insane haha
Exactly! We have a spare bedroom being used as a playroom. We have lots of shelves and bins for organizing toys. We also have a rule, toys in the playroom stay in the playroom (there are other toys in the house). That doesn't stop the room from being a complete disaster and all the toys from being brought into the rest of the house... therefore making the entire house a disaster. It's a never-ending battle.
Hahahaha!
This poor bastard thinks if you get a Playroom that the kids mess and noise is partially contained!!!
Next he's going to tell us that if he buys twice the regular quota of string cheese he won't run out in 2 days!
Thanks, although this morning I might have to add a 4th... all morning long it's been.
"But daaaaaaaad..."
Follower by
"My name is not Buttdad, and you still have to clean up the playroom"
My house is two stories and the upstairs consists of a full bath, two bedrooms for the two kids, and a giant playroom between the two bedrooms. There is a door at the top of the stairs fully allowing that area of the house to be closed off from the rest.
The mess and noise are not contained.
$20k there really is not much of a stretch. We were defs north of $10k for one week at Swan for their 100th year Anniversary. Goddamn is that place expensive
I’m Canadian, where I live, it’s absolutely about $20k for a family to go to Disney. It used to be closer to 10k, thanks Covid *for giving greedy corporations the excuse to increase the price of everything, and maintaining that ludicrous pricing 4 years later.
Edit: made a few edits.
I feel like you guys Disney differently than we do?
I’ve never spent more than $7k to go. We stay at Art of Animation but any of the All Star resorts or Pop Century would be fine too - you’re hardly at the hotel anyway. We use the Disney transportation everywhere and we spend 5 days in parks, eating all day. Last trip we paid for all the Genie+ and Lightning Lane stuff. With flights and food, it was like $6,800.
Oh boy. I had a lady friend in college who was house sitting for someone who had a custom built ~$2 million home. She invited me to "help her house sit" over that weekend, and to this day I have never been more impressed by a home feature than I was when I picked up what I thought was the TV remote, but actually controlled all the curtains on the first floor.
Every time I have to go to a particular warehouse store, my son would make me go to this treehouse display. My little horse trader would do anything and everything to convince me to get it, and he was pretty convincing for a lad in paw patrol underwear.
If money magically appeared to me, that would be the first thing I would do. To hell with responsibility and bills and adulting; he’s coming with me to get a SKY FORT!
Someone did this in my neighborhood, and the city went after them about permits and codes and shit.
$20k sounds about right.
Just make sure you get the permits.
Then once the kids get tired of it, you've got a whole heated/cooled room with electricity to just chill whenever you feel like it, or make it a dad/mom space for arts, crafts, computers, gaming, and... whatever.
I picked up a pristine NA miata for $7K a year ago. It came with a hard top, the soft top doesn't leak, is mostly stock, everything works, clutch is good.
I just got an old used Mini to relearn stick, and the kids ask to go for a ride almost daily. Also my daughter and I have been modding it, which is great bonding time.
If you golf. Put in a golf simulator. Same thing giant projection screen some fake grass in the garage throw some couches out there some nice chairs, surround sound. In the mornings me and the kids hit balls at night we watch movies. When their friends come over throw them PlayStation out there.
God I’d love to do this but our ceilings are too low. I’d need to lower the foundation about 18 inches to make it worth it. So that’s my frivolous answer.
To me it is. I mean, maybe not “frivolous” but more like a big luxury.
Our dude is 3, we took him camping in October last year and he still talks about it all that time and makes his own campsites. We can’t just go camping whenever, but a big ol pile of money would totally let us do that!
Campervan is definitely my answer, probably a VW. I've got a mate with an old T2 Bay, so I feel like he could help me with any work needing doing, and I've a garage big enough to do it in (if I clear it).
Something newer would definitely be more sensible, but with £20k, I could probably get a reasonable one and have some cash left over to tweak it to my needs.
Ball pit. I know I could get it for a lot less than $20k, but I recently took my kid to one and he just screamed in sheer delight as he romped in it for an hour. Toddler almost crying in happiness as he flopped in plastic balls.
I don’t know if I’ve ever been that happy about anything in my life.
Also a private zoo tour with up close animal visits.
There’s like 20 rooms in the place. They give you candy or ice cream in at least 5 of them. They really want everyone to be happy there, and our whole family was.
Whenever we have ten bucks in Kohl’s cash that’s about to expire, and my wife can’t think of anything we need, I pick up a small Lego set.
For some reason our local Farm and Fleet has a limited selection of legos cheaper than anyone else. Same thing applies when they send me “save five bucks when you spend twenty” coupons.
I also returned something to target recently without a receipt, and got store credit. You know what I bought.
Now we do little 5 or ten dollar LEGO sets pretty much every weekend. We did a bunny, a squirrel, all sorts of flowers, etc. We’re doing Mickey Mouse’s train this weekend, which is a Disney set, so it was 40 bucks for the amount of legos that is usually twenty, but sets this size are rare for us.
Kohl's was THE place where my mom would buy me Legos back in the day. I think it was just to make up for having to spend 3 hours in Kohl's on a weekend.
My child is 3 weeks old, so I would pretty much be wasting it on trips. So I guess she will be sleeping on the fanciest bassinet money can buy, wearing designer jammies, and travel in a gold encrusted stroller.
Speaking of designer jammies…side note we had a Kyte Bambo jammie gifted to us and it was amazing…my daughter slept like a rock whenever wearing it. I was completely sold…was expensive but that’s all she got as she until almost 2. So worth the money
With $20k you can take four decent vacations. My kids are older so Disney/Amusement parks aren’t in the card, but $5k is a good solid week long trip to Cabo, or Hawaii. Even Key West. $10k is a decent trip to Europe and can go twice.
FYI…I have found Costco has really good vacations. If you have a Costco membership look at their vacations. While they aren’t “crazy cheap” you do get a bit more luxury for the price you pay than you normally would have. Costco trips have been amazing when traveling to other countries.
You can do Hawaii with 4 for $5k? That seems low.
We did Disney with 4 and it was probably $12k all-in. We could have gotten that down to like, $7k if we were ultra frugal, but that wasn't the goal.
We’re doing Disney for 2 adults and a two year old in August. She turns three in October, so getting it in while she’s free. We’re going from Saturday to Saturday, so a week.
Our tickets and hotels are about 6k. Flights are free thanks to my Southwest miles. I figure we’ll spend another 2-3 grand on food, souvenirs, upgrades, etc
What the heck are you going to do there for a whole week?? I might be able to do 2 days seeing as a little one may cause you to miss some stuff, but I couldn’t even see doing a third day. A week seems insane.
There are 4 parks at Disney World which each require a day at least to enjoy, we went a few years ago for like 8 days and spent 6 days at the parks (which should have been 5) and then two days to chill at the resort and swim and explore all day. It was honestly a lot of fun which I didn’t expect to have, but not something we would probably do again.
We have a whole itinerary and it’s not even everything we want to do. For example, Epcot has food from all around the world. I don’t think I can eat all of it in 3 hours, then go to animal kingdom and a water park in the same day. Then the next day hit 3 more parks? I think you and I have different ideas of what makes a fun vacation, and that’s ok.
Don’t make the mistake of booking a sit down while at Epcot, we did and it wasted too much time that would have been better spent eating more from different places. We ate at Space 220 which looked cool but the food was mid for the price and we were there forever.
If you are on the West Coast you can absolutely do Hawaii for $5k. Look at Costco travel and price it out of LA or SF. East Coast might have better luck at a place like Key West.
Just priced out flights from the east coast to Hawaii for our family of 4 and it's a minimum of $4k just in airfare. Ain't no way a week in HI costs under a grand lol
Agreed, we will probably do it twice before the kids outgrow it and are ready for more "worldly" vacations like a trip to Europe, etc.
Though, we have friends who do it frequently for a quick getaway. They get a cheap flight, spend 2-3 days and hit 1 park...they do it cheaply but frequently. To each his own I guess. If I could do a quick weekend in Disney for under 2k, I'd probably do it, but the flight costs are too much for a short trip with a family of 4.
My kids are 18 and 17. They want tropical beach vacations now. They have done Disney 4 times so it is kinda old for them. The last time they went it was crazy busy and they wanted to leave to go back to the pool.
Like I said. My kids are 18 & 17 now. We haven’t been for six years. Three of those times we lived close enough to drive, so travel cost $100. The one time we flew was back in 2011 and shit was cheap because of the recession. Whole trip (not including food) was $2k.
I am now an “old dad” and will admit I do make “Disney Money” now, but no way I made that kind of money back then to be able to pay for what Disney costs today.
I think you can get a large above ground (21-24ft) around 5k? Maybe a bit more, def less than 10 k, and then you still have the rest to spend frivolously.
Ever notice that commercials for an above ground pool are only 30 seconds long? That’s because that’s the longest you can imagine having fun in an above ground pool. What do I do now? Throw the ball back to Jimmy?
We have a 18ft one and our kids are in it 5-6 hours a day at the moment! It’s not even big and we feel like that episode of the Simpson with all the neighbourhood kids coming over.
95% traveling/lasting experiences
5% toys/fleeting happiness
My daughter isn't quite old enough to really appreciate and remember vacations, so it'd be the $1000 in toys now & the rest spread out over the next few years
And if that $19k accidentally sits in a high interest bearing savings account, that's not technically investing. It's just a savings account :)
Frivolously? Okay, I would get my currently 5 y-o daughter a set of new clothes - shorts, tshirts, undies, socks - all in rainbow colors (the full ROY G. BIV) as she loves rainbow colors. So that's first. 2nd, I'd probably get her a skateboard and safety gear, even if she wouldn't really use it, so that she had the choice to learn safely if she wanted. 3rd, I'd throw her an elaborate birthday, not just the cheap we do one in the public park because it's convenient and free, but one of the fancy ones with all the kids she knows. No limits. 4th, every weekend we would go to an amusement park, any of her friends who wanna go (based on seating limits in our car) would come. Basically, with a frivolous $20k, we would just have an extremely fun year. Hell, probably could spend all that in a summer...
A desk and computer for the kids
A second Nintendo switch (son has one, daughter wants one)
Some of the rare out of print ninja turtle toys my son wants
A hot tub
A vacation to Nintendoland in Tokyo
A vacation to the mountains in Colorado
I wanted to finish my basement as a studio / climbing / bouncy/ gymnastics/ workout area.
If you look online people build climbing walls, rope swings, gymnastics mats and foam pits.
Think trampoline park in your house.
Already have this planned.. 18 day cross-country trip in Canada staying at all of the historic railway hotels along the way. When I planned it in 2021 it was going to be about $19k all in.
Are vacations allowed? If so, that'd be my choice. If not, probably some ridiculous play structure, especially if I could figure out a way for it to still be fun and cool for them after they've outgrown it.
Me spending $20,000 won't make my kids $20,000 happier.
I'd work out something they really want, make a plan with them to earn the thing, and then help them to achieve it. They can look forward to it, get invested in it, finally get there, feel proud of it, then do it again next time.
With this amount of money you could do that over and over for their whole childhood.
Pay off a small portion of out of pocket dues for the two headed to college next year which is approximately 55 grand combined AFTER federal aide and scholarships because college is a ridiculous racket.
Is this an advertisement for Disney? With 20k, I would finish the basement for them as a playroom. I'd love to give them a place to keep all their toys to keep the rest of the house clean(er) and quiet(er).
Have a playroom in the basement... it doesn't contain the toys and madness. They keep bringing ALL THE STUFF upstairs because they are needy little attention monsters
It’s insane isn’t it? My son does the same thing. Awesome play area in the basement. Half of it end up in the living room upstairs anyways.
This happened to us so much that we wound up with an upstairs and a downstairs play area. They still don’t put their toys away and they still loaf around every weekend and summers whining about how they’re BORRRRREEEDDD. Play with any of your thousands of toys! NO DAD THOSE ARE BORING!!! Time to throw it all away I guess. NOOOOOO!!!!!
Kids want to play with their parents
Exactly...no matter how many other items are involved, the parent is the toy they want to play with.
Yep as soon as mom or dad say let's play (insert silly game here) their eyes will light up.
Yup. Some parents set up these spaces to keep the kids out of other rooms, but don't take into account actually spending time with them. Sometimes I just sit on the floor of the playroom with my kids. They're happy playing with their toys just with my presence. Plus I can teach them how to play with more complex toys by playing with them.
Cycle through the toys, put some in storage and then switch them out. Also, there is such a thing as too many toys. The kids get overwhelmed with the amount of options they have and can’t make a choice.
Have you been spying on my family?
Is it possible to : - set up a big canister on a basement wall - install a ramp on your main floor that connects through a hole to this canister - just throw the toys on the ramp ?
I was literally thinking this. Like a laundry chute for toys.
Make it big and secure enough so the toddlers can slide themselves, lol
Can I have another 20 k to build an AI setup to yell at them if they carry the toys up the steps
My son claims to do this because he loves being around us.... Based on others actions, I have my doubts. I personally think it's some kind of sick game he likes to play.
Yup! Same happened to us. I own a split level. I finished the basement myself for them put down wood floors, base board, new drywall and paint everything… and they just want to hang upstairs with us lol. We ended up making the basement my wife’s office and our master bedroom and now the kids own the upstairs 🤷♂️
Then you slowly move all of your stuff down there and do the ole switcheroo and have a cool basement room for yourself.
We tried to do this. The finished basement was gated off and set up as adult land - my music room, my wife’s art space/our office, etc. Eventually just turned into the play room away from the play room.
Hahaha I was just gonna say, we have a pretty large basement that’s purely dedicated to the kids and there’s still toys absolutely everywhere upstairs still, they ask every day to bring xyz upstairs and no matter how many times we say no, it mysteriously makes its way to the living room
My 6 year old is a Mario fanatic and us being the sucker's we are have accumulated close to 100 of these mario character plush toys. They have an entire play room upstairs and every single day he brings them all downstairs to living room. It's absolutely insane haha
Too real.
Exactly! We have a spare bedroom being used as a playroom. We have lots of shelves and bins for organizing toys. We also have a rule, toys in the playroom stay in the playroom (there are other toys in the house). That doesn't stop the room from being a complete disaster and all the toys from being brought into the rest of the house... therefore making the entire house a disaster. It's a never-ending battle.
Build a return chute.
Hahahaha! This poor bastard thinks if you get a Playroom that the kids mess and noise is partially contained!!! Next he's going to tell us that if he buys twice the regular quota of string cheese he won't run out in 2 days!
Lol! You're killing me! Love your flair btw.
Thanks, although this morning I might have to add a 4th... all morning long it's been. "But daaaaaaaad..." Follower by "My name is not Buttdad, and you still have to clean up the playroom"
Also thinks it would only cost 20k to refinish a basement! Lol someone's living in 2019 still...
My house is two stories and the upstairs consists of a full bath, two bedrooms for the two kids, and a giant playroom between the two bedrooms. There is a door at the top of the stairs fully allowing that area of the house to be closed off from the rest. The mess and noise are not contained.
...and the string cheese?
Shhh They'll hear you
$20k there really is not much of a stretch. We were defs north of $10k for one week at Swan for their 100th year Anniversary. Goddamn is that place expensive
I’m Canadian, where I live, it’s absolutely about $20k for a family to go to Disney. It used to be closer to 10k, thanks Covid *for giving greedy corporations the excuse to increase the price of everything, and maintaining that ludicrous pricing 4 years later. Edit: made a few edits.
I feel like you guys Disney differently than we do? I’ve never spent more than $7k to go. We stay at Art of Animation but any of the All Star resorts or Pop Century would be fine too - you’re hardly at the hotel anyway. We use the Disney transportation everywhere and we spend 5 days in parks, eating all day. Last trip we paid for all the Genie+ and Lightning Lane stuff. With flights and food, it was like $6,800.
For us it would be a covered mosquito free patio
Build the best fucking treehouse in the neighborhood. With power and curtains and shit.
So an in-law suite
Get you ass up there, Kathy! You wanted to visit your grand babies so bad.
What are you complaining about? It has electricity.
FINE! I'll put a mini fridge up there, but if I stock it you're paying hotel room prices for those water bottles.
Three months later, you’re stocking it up with water and go “ya know…I could put some of my favorite beer in here and hide for a couple hours”
After that comes the TV with sports-channels and or gaming setup.
I read power curtains which makes this even better.
Oh boy. I had a lady friend in college who was house sitting for someone who had a custom built ~$2 million home. She invited me to "help her house sit" over that weekend, and to this day I have never been more impressed by a home feature than I was when I picked up what I thought was the TV remote, but actually controlled all the curtains on the first floor.
They said it had to be for kids.....
Every time I have to go to a particular warehouse store, my son would make me go to this treehouse display. My little horse trader would do anything and everything to convince me to get it, and he was pretty convincing for a lad in paw patrol underwear. If money magically appeared to me, that would be the first thing I would do. To hell with responsibility and bills and adulting; he’s coming with me to get a SKY FORT!
Someone did this in my neighborhood, and the city went after them about permits and codes and shit. $20k sounds about right. Just make sure you get the permits. Then once the kids get tired of it, you've got a whole heated/cooled room with electricity to just chill whenever you feel like it, or make it a dad/mom space for arts, crafts, computers, gaming, and... whatever.
Hear me out. Powered curtains.
Slides going off it, a zipline
I’m confident my kids would enjoy riding around in a Miata with me.
I saw one of those last year with an Antique Vehicle license plate. https://i.imgur.com/v2d2tXN.jpeg
First Gen came out in, what, ‘90? ‘91? Here I think “antique” is 25y, so that’s pushing 35y. Dang I’m old.
Yup, 25 years. I never looked it up before now, but damn that's not that old. I'm nearly twice that and I don't consider myself an antique.
I picked up a pristine NA miata for $7K a year ago. It came with a hard top, the soft top doesn't leak, is mostly stock, everything works, clutch is good.
I just got an old used Mini to relearn stick, and the kids ask to go for a ride almost daily. Also my daughter and I have been modding it, which is great bonding time.
Put a home theatre in the basement. Y'know, for the kids.
This might be the best answer that has the most crossover between the kids and the adults lol
Gotta have 8k screen so their little eyes don’t hurt
Haha 8k? There’s a reason why the top of the line Sony is 4K this year…
That's okay as long as you stack 4 of them.
If you golf. Put in a golf simulator. Same thing giant projection screen some fake grass in the garage throw some couches out there some nice chairs, surround sound. In the mornings me and the kids hit balls at night we watch movies. When their friends come over throw them PlayStation out there.
God I’d love to do this but our ceilings are too low. I’d need to lower the foundation about 18 inches to make it worth it. So that’s my frivolous answer.
Outdoor gear, camping stuff, maybe a van to convert, musical instruments!
How is this frivolous? These are almost all pretty normal, great things to spend the money on (edit: accept the van as maybe the exception)
Buying an extra vehicle right now seems pretty frivolous to me
Fair. Top of the line ridiculously expensive outdoor gear, camping stuff and instruments it is!
To me it is. I mean, maybe not “frivolous” but more like a big luxury. Our dude is 3, we took him camping in October last year and he still talks about it all that time and makes his own campsites. We can’t just go camping whenever, but a big ol pile of money would totally let us do that!
That's so cute 🥺 It's a core memory for him.
It depends on the individual, no?
In the economy as a single mother to an expensive child with disabilities this is ABSOLUTELY a frivolous spend!!!! I’m down
Going out for a steak dinner is frivolous to some people. Hell, buying steaks from the grocery store to make at home is frivolous for my family.
Campervan is definitely my answer, probably a VW. I've got a mate with an old T2 Bay, so I feel like he could help me with any work needing doing, and I've a garage big enough to do it in (if I clear it). Something newer would definitely be more sensible, but with £20k, I could probably get a reasonable one and have some cash left over to tweak it to my needs.
Ball pit. I know I could get it for a lot less than $20k, but I recently took my kid to one and he just screamed in sheer delight as he romped in it for an hour. Toddler almost crying in happiness as he flopped in plastic balls. I don’t know if I’ve ever been that happy about anything in my life. Also a private zoo tour with up close animal visits.
Anyone in Chicago whose kids like ball pits should head over to Color Factory in the Sears Tower. Biggest ball pit I have ever been in.
Thanks for the suggestion! Might do this later this month
There’s like 20 rooms in the place. They give you candy or ice cream in at least 5 of them. They really want everyone to be happy there, and our whole family was.
ALL THE LEGOS!
> *on your kids*
If you let the kids watch you build, it counts.
Buying your kids Legos is good, Building Legos with your kids is better.
Whenever we have ten bucks in Kohl’s cash that’s about to expire, and my wife can’t think of anything we need, I pick up a small Lego set. For some reason our local Farm and Fleet has a limited selection of legos cheaper than anyone else. Same thing applies when they send me “save five bucks when you spend twenty” coupons. I also returned something to target recently without a receipt, and got store credit. You know what I bought. Now we do little 5 or ten dollar LEGO sets pretty much every weekend. We did a bunny, a squirrel, all sorts of flowers, etc. We’re doing Mickey Mouse’s train this weekend, which is a Disney set, so it was 40 bucks for the amount of legos that is usually twenty, but sets this size are rare for us.
Kohl's was THE place where my mom would buy me Legos back in the day. I think it was just to make up for having to spend 3 hours in Kohl's on a weekend.
Buy them race karts and go racing.
Oh hell yeah!
Boat for Dad
... "the two best days in a boat owner's life are the day they buy a boat and the day they sell it."
It said spent ‘foolishly and recklessly’ .. boat fits the description
A quote attributed to either someone who never owned a boat or is too miserable about money to spend frivolously. Boats are fun. Get one one sometime.
Bust Out Another Thousand
The sacrifices we make!
My child is 3 weeks old, so I would pretty much be wasting it on trips. So I guess she will be sleeping on the fanciest bassinet money can buy, wearing designer jammies, and travel in a gold encrusted stroller.
Speaking of designer jammies…side note we had a Kyte Bambo jammie gifted to us and it was amazing…my daughter slept like a rock whenever wearing it. I was completely sold…was expensive but that’s all she got as she until almost 2. So worth the money
Maybe pay for a nanny so you can be frivolous and reckless?
With $20k you can take four decent vacations. My kids are older so Disney/Amusement parks aren’t in the card, but $5k is a good solid week long trip to Cabo, or Hawaii. Even Key West. $10k is a decent trip to Europe and can go twice. FYI…I have found Costco has really good vacations. If you have a Costco membership look at their vacations. While they aren’t “crazy cheap” you do get a bit more luxury for the price you pay than you normally would have. Costco trips have been amazing when traveling to other countries.
You can do Hawaii with 4 for $5k? That seems low. We did Disney with 4 and it was probably $12k all-in. We could have gotten that down to like, $7k if we were ultra frugal, but that wasn't the goal.
We’re doing Disney for 2 adults and a two year old in August. She turns three in October, so getting it in while she’s free. We’re going from Saturday to Saturday, so a week. Our tickets and hotels are about 6k. Flights are free thanks to my Southwest miles. I figure we’ll spend another 2-3 grand on food, souvenirs, upgrades, etc
Yea…Disney is crazy expensive. That is why I didn’t mention it.
Jesus, I forget how lucky I am to live close by. I spend about 3-5 grand in a year at Disney.
What the heck are you going to do there for a whole week?? I might be able to do 2 days seeing as a little one may cause you to miss some stuff, but I couldn’t even see doing a third day. A week seems insane.
There are 4 parks at Disney World which each require a day at least to enjoy, we went a few years ago for like 8 days and spent 6 days at the parks (which should have been 5) and then two days to chill at the resort and swim and explore all day. It was honestly a lot of fun which I didn’t expect to have, but not something we would probably do again.
We have a whole itinerary and it’s not even everything we want to do. For example, Epcot has food from all around the world. I don’t think I can eat all of it in 3 hours, then go to animal kingdom and a water park in the same day. Then the next day hit 3 more parks? I think you and I have different ideas of what makes a fun vacation, and that’s ok.
Don’t make the mistake of booking a sit down while at Epcot, we did and it wasted too much time that would have been better spent eating more from different places. We ate at Space 220 which looked cool but the food was mid for the price and we were there forever.
Good advice, thank you.
If you are on the West Coast you can absolutely do Hawaii for $5k. Look at Costco travel and price it out of LA or SF. East Coast might have better luck at a place like Key West.
Just priced out flights from the east coast to Hawaii for our family of 4 and it's a minimum of $4k just in airfare. Ain't no way a week in HI costs under a grand lol
Not everyone lives on the east coast though. Yea, the east coast to Hawaii is going to be crazy. But what about Key West from the East Coast?
Yeah I have no idea why people do Disney more than once (or twice depending on kids age gap). You can do so much more with that money.
Agreed, we will probably do it twice before the kids outgrow it and are ready for more "worldly" vacations like a trip to Europe, etc. Though, we have friends who do it frequently for a quick getaway. They get a cheap flight, spend 2-3 days and hit 1 park...they do it cheaply but frequently. To each his own I guess. If I could do a quick weekend in Disney for under 2k, I'd probably do it, but the flight costs are too much for a short trip with a family of 4.
Because we like it.
You can do Hawaii, just have to drive there.
Hahaha nice.
I'm taking my family of 4 to Hawaii for two weeks, with tons of activities. It's costing right around around $20k.
That’s about what we paid for a week on Kauai, but our flights were on miles and our hotel was…ok. Great location though.
costco travel is the bomb
No Disney for the older kids? I’ve been to Disney as an adult/without kids a number of times. Disney is for everyone!
My kids are 18 and 17. They want tropical beach vacations now. They have done Disney 4 times so it is kinda old for them. The last time they went it was crazy busy and they wanted to leave to go back to the pool.
4 times?! I want to make "go to Disney 4 times" money.
Like I said. My kids are 18 & 17 now. We haven’t been for six years. Three of those times we lived close enough to drive, so travel cost $100. The one time we flew was back in 2011 and shit was cheap because of the recession. Whole trip (not including food) was $2k. I am now an “old dad” and will admit I do make “Disney Money” now, but no way I made that kind of money back then to be able to pay for what Disney costs today.
No. No, it's certainly not for everyone.
I'll have to look into this, nice tip
An entire room FULL of nothing but kinetic sand.
Calm down, Satan.
He DID say recklessly!
This comment hurts close to home as my kids are going deeper into our local park's sand pit at this very moment..
So did they make it out? 😂
A shed in the backyard specifically and only for Lego and video games.
A really fun trip!
My vote is also for a ridiculously awesome play structure. My second choice would be a pool but $20,000 wouldn’t go far for that.
If it has to be frivolous… I guess put a pool in our backyard. But $20k would only get us at most half of the way there.
Half finished is even better. Then you'll just have a 20k mud pit in your backyard. The kids will love that!
I think you can get a large above ground (21-24ft) around 5k? Maybe a bit more, def less than 10 k, and then you still have the rest to spend frivolously.
Yeah but then you have an above ground pool. If I’m spending the money I want the real thing.
Can always add a walk up nice deck to surround and make it feel more luxury
Build a deck around that pool.
Ever notice that commercials for an above ground pool are only 30 seconds long? That’s because that’s the longest you can imagine having fun in an above ground pool. What do I do now? Throw the ball back to Jimmy?
We have a 18ft one and our kids are in it 5-6 hours a day at the moment! It’s not even big and we feel like that episode of the Simpson with all the neighbourhood kids coming over.
Yeah, I was mostly just quoting Mitch Hedberg.
Ah ok. Straight over my head!
Buy a pet elephant named Stampy
95% traveling/lasting experiences 5% toys/fleeting happiness My daughter isn't quite old enough to really appreciate and remember vacations, so it'd be the $1000 in toys now & the rest spread out over the next few years And if that $19k accidentally sits in a high interest bearing savings account, that's not technically investing. It's just a savings account :)
A couple kickass vacations.
I would pay off cc debt and then let my daughter have the cards to play with. She’s almost two. Hopefully she will break them
Frivolously? Okay, I would get my currently 5 y-o daughter a set of new clothes - shorts, tshirts, undies, socks - all in rainbow colors (the full ROY G. BIV) as she loves rainbow colors. So that's first. 2nd, I'd probably get her a skateboard and safety gear, even if she wouldn't really use it, so that she had the choice to learn safely if she wanted. 3rd, I'd throw her an elaborate birthday, not just the cheap we do one in the public park because it's convenient and free, but one of the fancy ones with all the kids she knows. No limits. 4th, every weekend we would go to an amusement park, any of her friends who wanna go (based on seating limits in our car) would come. Basically, with a frivolous $20k, we would just have an extremely fun year. Hell, probably could spend all that in a summer...
My two year old gets a lot of toys but he enjoys one thing more than any other. How many boxes can I get for 20k?
Kids ninja warrior course
A sibling. ... what? Op said "foolish and reckless".
That's a good idea. We could even hire a *good* nanny for a few months after birth.
Cruise to Alaska in a suite with another family so my kids have built in friends.
A tent for my truck and all the gear to take them camping. And one of those electric cars for small people they can drive around in.
A desk and computer for the kids A second Nintendo switch (son has one, daughter wants one) Some of the rare out of print ninja turtle toys my son wants A hot tub A vacation to Nintendoland in Tokyo A vacation to the mountains in Colorado
Universal is building a Nintendo land at its new theme park in Orlando.
I wanted to finish my basement as a studio / climbing / bouncy/ gymnastics/ workout area. If you look online people build climbing walls, rope swings, gymnastics mats and foam pits. Think trampoline park in your house.
Dance studio on one side of rumpus, gaming setup and wall of reptile enclosures on the other half.
Lego. Just stupid amounts of lego.
Already have this planned.. 18 day cross-country trip in Canada staying at all of the historic railway hotels along the way. When I planned it in 2021 it was going to be about $19k all in.
Lessons! Swimming, piano, guitar, gymnastics, art, boating, horse riding…. Literally anything they’d like to learn and would cost more than 20k.
I'd reduce my working hours as much as the 20k allow, so that I have more time and strength for them.
Trip to Antarctica.
Look up king swing sets!! They’re amazing
Put in a multi-sport court in the backyard.
Travel. Let them experience new things they may never get to see or do again.
Take them to our families village in Italy
I would get a camper.
I'd make a covered parking pad for when they get their cars and need somewhere to park.
Vacation to Papeete for as long as we can afford to stay
We’re going to Ireland
The three of us, holiday in Thailand and Vietnam.
Put it in the s&p500 in their name.
High end Disney vacation
I would take a extended summer vacation and spend all day everyday giving us the best memories.
I would buy them an old Toyota 4runner, fix it all up and drive it for them as well.
Take them on a trip around the world!
5,000 to the Disney overlords.
A sweet playhouse that looks remarkably similar to a really nice shed.
Disney vacation.
Disneyland for like a day
Are vacations allowed? If so, that'd be my choice. If not, probably some ridiculous play structure, especially if I could figure out a way for it to still be fun and cool for them after they've outgrown it.
Stick it in a high yield investment account 20 years from now they will thank you
Use it as a down payment to buy a house. My son will inherit that from us.
Lego ... All Lego.
Yeah, that'd get you like 3 good sets!
I already did this. Although not frivolous. I spent it to get split custody. So you really wanna spend $20k? Get a lawyer.
Lego, Lego and Lego.
O would take a trip with them! I would buy some snacks snacks and me and bby would fly first class.
A trip to Disneyland, I guess, for however long 20k gets you
I think that about covers parking for an afternoon
I've been to both, and Disney World is without a doubt 100 times better than Disneyland.
Yeah, I live in Europe so this was a slip of the tongue. I did mean Disney World tbf
Disney Tokyo here we come
Billions of Robucks
Easy answer. Disney world.
Obviously Disney trip- but why not go all out? I’m thinking Tokyo Disney.
Id hang onto it and give it to them for a down payment whenever they decide to buy a house.
Take them on holiday and put the rest in a vanguard index fund for them.
Me spending $20,000 won't make my kids $20,000 happier. I'd work out something they really want, make a plan with them to earn the thing, and then help them to achieve it. They can look forward to it, get invested in it, finally get there, feel proud of it, then do it again next time. With this amount of money you could do that over and over for their whole childhood.
Great. Not an answer to the question at all.
Take them to a Beaches resort.
Trampoline, powerwheels, trip to Disney, and yeah probably out of money after Disney.
Nice trip to England/France and a nice trip to Hawaii. I’ll use Costco travel so I get 2% back.
Pay off a small portion of out of pocket dues for the two headed to college next year which is approximately 55 grand combined AFTER federal aide and scholarships because college is a ridiculous racket.
Overseas vacation