Dd - festivals... clothes... money!

[Baalam]

Dd is 17 and does quite a lot of babysitting. She bought herself tickets to a music festival next week. I said I would buy her some new shorts and a top as a present. She's just informed me that she has no money left from babysitting and therefore has no spending money for the festival. AIBU to say I will give her 60 quid for food and drinks but not buy the clothes? Can't really afford both tbh. She says she wants the clothes and isn't bothered about having no money for drinks and food

Is she going for the week?? Surely buy shorts and top for less £20 then plenty food drinks

£60 isn't a lot for a weekend's festival. Food is expensive at these things. Can she do some jobs around the house for some extras? We take 250 for the 3 of us for 4 days.Hope she has a great time 😊

Give her £60 let her spend it on what she wants and send her off with a big bottle of water and she'd load of flapjack/similar in her bag. She's 17 if she chooses clothes then she will have the flapjack to snack on while she learns a lesson about prioritising food

Can she pay you back any money she uses from future babysitting?

If I had the money I would give it to her, it doesn't matter if she does jobs or not.

I know 60 isn't enough but I assumed she'd saved some spending money

I don't think it's a good idea sending her off without money for food, if she will be drinking, which I assume most teenagers at festivals will be!

Does she have a camping stove or something? To be honest, when I was that age I used to rock up with about twenty quid and basically live off excitement. She doesn't need to buy all three meals a day from expensive stalls. She will figure it out. I basically did the same thing one year...sixty quid would have seemed loads to me. Hope she has a good time!

I'm not giving her a stove!! I'll definitely send her off with some food and drinks.

What are her friends like? Are they camping types?

Just remembered one festival when I was about 18 where we lived off a multipack of crisps and a bottle of Pimms....

When I went to festivals that age I didn't have much money either so would buy cheap wine and baked beans to bring with me. The beans were eaten cold.

Lol cheap wine and baked beans!!! Hahaha!!! Festivals have become far too cushy & centred around money making.

The camping stove option is the most sensible. Someone will have one she can borrow.

I think it's going to be quite a horrible grubby affair

She won't want to take a stove! I'd give her the £60 and let her budget it herself. I've been to festivals with less and survived

Well...if it is, it is. There's only a certain window in your life that you can put up with it. And to be fair...the festivals where I had the least weren't grubby as such. That depends on the people. I once went away with a horrible group of yahs who pretty much trashed their own campsite atvthe festival & it made living there very unpleasant as everywhere was trash. You can be quite comfortable & take care of your pitch with little to no money - in fact the two have very little to do with one another!!! Oh also : oatcakes, apples, peanut butter. Great festival breakfast/snack and so cheap. And tinned vineleaves! Cheap & so filling.

Food and drink is very expensive at festivals (and usually shite) - £6 upwards for a basic meal, beer around £5 a pint/bottle.

I hope she's not planning to ponce off her friends.

Which festival is it?

Stoves will be banned anyway. They are a fire hazard.

Pack of wraps and small tin no drain ring pull dinner - lunch

It is doable! One hot meal in evening

*tuna!

Stoves are banned

I think £60 is enough for 4 days. Packe her a bag of fruit, cereal bars and drinks. She probably won't starve. Make sure she takes lots of wet wipes.

New clothes for a festival is a silly idea. She should wear old stuff or hit some charity shops.

She should have some emergency money and some for food though.

Why didn't she save money from babysitting?

Stoves will be banned anyway. They are a fire hazard

There's loads of festivals where proper camping stoves aren't banned. Most festivals, however, will ban campfires and disposable barbeques.

I've not yet been to a festival where I can't take a camping stove (essential for copious cups of early morning coffee).

I would send her with cheap filling food. Flapjack, breakfast biscuits, those dried fruit bars, packets of digestives, wraps and john west flavoured tuna tins, use the lid to scoop it in! Peanut butter to put on a wrap. Them tuna pasta lunch things. Dried fruit and nuts if she likes them (she will when she's starving). She can fill an empty bottle with water at stand pipes. If her sleeping bag isn't great borrow one. My sleeping bag is four season and made such a difference to my camping experience, I no longer wake a 3am and shiver until morning.

I have done festivals as a student on a tight budget. Beer and food is expensive. Best to take a mixture of cider and lager and alternate!

If they are going by car they can do a second run for the food! If they have beer and food in the tent scatter the packets/cans over the floor, if anyone opens the door to steal stuff it makes it harder for them than a tidy bag of food or a crate of beer cans!

Also money and phone next to your feet in your sleeping bag at night, not near your hand or face.

Hope she enjoys.