I wouldn't mind general advice on this. I have 4 children (and a husband!) all of whom will have different levels of spending money, currently in dollars. I will be using 2 checking accounts with ATMs to pull our travel budget money out, but I don't want to mix my money with the kids'/husband's spending money for a variety of reasons (tracking the exchange rate, how much they started with, worrying about me pulling the maximum and then they want spending money). Anyone deal with this in the past? Last time I was there (92), we just exchanged cash and took the hit ('course the dollar was much better)... Now ATMs are the way to go, but I don't want to set up 4 other checking accounts. Any thoughts/suggestions?
Posted by
Florida, USA
12172 posts
It sounds like some paper clips could come in handy. When you pull money you can sort it into different piles but still keep the big bills inside your money belt.
We had each of our kids wear a neck pouch with their own passport and money.
My wife and I kept one credit card and one debit card each in our money belts (all from different accounts). You can put the money into your two accounts before you go. When you get there you can pull the daily maximums until you have each persons money available or you can just dole it out when you make your normal withdrawels.
The exchange rate will fluctuate. Rather than worry about it during your trip, build a budget on a reasonable guess at the exchange rate. If one kid gets $20 per day, decide ahead of time that will equal 14 euro and build their budgets based on that number (instead of one day it's 13.79 euros and the next it's 13.81).
Posted by
Fort Wayne, IN, USA
2349 posts
Well, it wasn't a perfect system, but I put my daughters' money in my account, and used a blank check register to keep track. Say one had $300, I'd take out x amount of British pounds, give her 40, that's about $80 US, and subtract that from her balance. That didn't really cover any conversion, but you could be more precise. Make them keep the money on them (money belt, yada yada) and you keep them apprised of their balance. Keeps them more aware of what they are spending. Personally, I paid for meals, but snacks were theirs to cover. It got a little hairy when I exchanged all our various leftover BP to Euros before we left London. Let's just say there was an accounting fee...