Michael Jackson Kids' Are Given a $8M a Year Allowance

As Michael Jackson's estate grows in value, the yearly allowance his children Prince, 17, Paris, 16, and Blanket, 12, share has increased from $5 million to $8 million-and it sounds like they take full advantage of it.

Page Six talks to sources including former Jackson friend Marc Schaffel, who's now engaged to Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe, for details on how the kids spend their money:

• ·         Prince has spent more than $50,000 on custom-made jewelry for three of his girlfriends, plus $40,000 on a new Ford pick-up truck. He wants to save enough money to buy back his father's Neverland Ranch, currently in control of creditors with an asking price of $35 million.

• ·         Paris also likes to buy gifts for friends, including shoes and athletic gear. The annual cost for her to stay at a therapeutic boarding school, following last year's suicide attempt, is also in the six figures.

• ·         Blanket likes to take his cousins to dinners at expensive restaurants; their nights out, which also include trips to the movies, typically come to about $500 plus tips. He also spends $200 an hour for karate lessons and a personal trainer.

The kids also take three vacations a year, totaling $350,000 including first-class airfare and security-in Hawaii, they stay in a $5,500-per-night suite; in Vegas, they sometimes rent the Bellagio's penthouse suite, which can cost as much as $5,000 per night.

Even so, "they're not [as bad] as their father" when it comes to spending wildly, one source says. Sources recall crazy stories about MJ, including the time Elizabeth Taylor pointed out jewels she liked in a catalog and Jackson sent two members of his security team on a private jet to Switzerland to buy them. He also spent $90,000 to impress Macaulay Culkin, sources say. Once, he took Culkin "on this expensive gondola-like ride along the ocean and buys Mac's caretaker an expensive necklace and sends her shopping just so he could spend time with him," a source says.