Kids Kept Asking for Money

We belong to a local pool.  Except when the kids are at summer camp, we tend to go to the pool almost every day.  Once we get there, the kids were begging for money at every swim break.  I certainly didn't want to waste money this way.  Most of the snacks are in the one dollar price range.  So starting last year,  what I did was tell the kids that they could have $2 per week.  Then they could choose how to spend it.  They could spend it at the snack bar in any way they chose during the week.  Or they could pack their own snacks and keep the $2 for their savings.  It has been very interesting.  They both started out the first week by spending their $2 on the first day for an ice cream.  Then they had nothing left for the rest of the week.  The second week they broke the money up and bought two snacks on two different days.  Then by the third week, one of them packed snacks every day and the other one bought a treat one day.  This year, they have only bought snacks once or twice the whole summer.  I always bring a long a bag with waters and pretzels and/or fruit because I don't want them to go hungry.  But the budgeting they are learning from this has been wonderful.  They are setting their own priorities and spending according to what they decide is important.  Plus, it has completely eliminated them bugging me for money every time we are at the pool.  I am thinking that I can probably extend this strategy to other areas of our life.

Thanks!  It worked so well for us that two of my friends started doing the same thing at the pool with their kids.  That makes it even easier because my kids' friends have the same snack budget.  They even talk about when and how they are going to spend their snack money or if they plan to save it.  I am hoping to extend this to clothing at some point in the near future.  I am just trying to figure out a reasonable budget for that.