what is acceptable??

Chipps

Only you can really decide what is "acceptable". One starting point might be, how much money do you have available to spend without borrowing? If that is £100, then £100 is acceptable, if it is £10, then £10 is acceptable.

We tend to look at an average of around £30 - £40 each, and I do work out how much Christmas & birthday presents will come to over a year, divide that by 12 & transfer that amount into a savings account each month, keeping the tally in a spreadsheet so that I can see what has been spent/saved over the year.

alisong_2

My 2 are 12 and 15. I usually spend about £80-£90 for birthday plus a treat which I try to do with tesco vouchers (paintball, chessington etc) and packed lunch etc. For Christmas, I probably spend about £100-£120 which is too much really and I'll be trying to get below £100 this year. They normally have one 'big' present which is generally something they've asked for recently and maybe 6-7 other presents which sounds like a lot but, in fact, they've been bought throughout the year at 'bargain' prices so may only have cost a few pounds but they think they're expensive (and so does everyone else actually)!. For example my dd had some gym gear from the Ellie Grey sale at £5 each, normally £30/£40:eek:. They also don't mind if their things are second hand. My daughter's main present this year was an ipod touch we brought off a friend of hers for £40 and which she absolutely loves. I didn't realise how expensive they were until I looked in CEX recently and the same one s/h was £95:eek:.

Loadsabob

charliee wrote: »

i remember fashion wheel (i am 34)... I never had one but it was a circular thing with different hats, tops, skirts/ trousers and you could spin them round and then you sort of brass rubbed it to make a picture of your chosen outfit.

to be honest i remember what my brother got for Xmas's more than what i got..

:rotfl:That's the one, Charliee! It's funny, some presents really stay in my mind. I think it has less to do with what they were or how much they cost, and more to do with how long I coveted them before I actually got one! I wanted the Fashion Wheel for aaaages, I think. I also wanted one of those heads to do the hair and make-up on, but never got one

Curious_George_2

Loadsabob wrote: »

I also wanted one of those heads to do the hair and make-up on, but never got one

I had a girls world... if its any consolation they ALL end up the same way...
with felt tip make up and a wonky crew cut!

I wanted a Mr frosty and hungry hungry hippos.... never got them

Loadsabob

Curious_George wrote: »

I had a girls world... if its any consolation they ALL end up the same way...
with felt tip make up and a wonky crew cut!

I wanted a Mr frosty and hungry hungry hippos.... never got them

Oh I REALLY wanted a Mr frosty! "And here comes Percy Penguin..."! Aww...never got one either.

Sorry to all for drawing everyone into a toy nostaligia fest!

DizzyK_2

Loadsabob wrote: »

Oh I REALLY wanted a Mr frosty! "And here comes Percy Penguin..."! Aww...never got one either.

Sorry to all for drawing everyone into a toy nostaligia fest!

I wanted one of those too! And I never got it either - was on my wish list till I was about 18, just out of principle!

People do go a bit mad.. a colleague was in Sainsbugs before Xmas stood behind a woman at the checkout who had 5 PS3s in her trolley :eek: and was telling her friend they were for her kids and that she'd be paying for them with her benefits :eek: That means the kids have a telly each, would all be getting games to go with those PS3s as if they can't share a console, it's unlikely they'd play swopsies with the games to go with.

My colleague was fuming still when he came into work the next day!


I tried a lot harder with my two this year but still got a bit of a look from DH on Xmas Day.. d*mn Father Christmas and his overspending habits (at least lots of it was practical stuff i'd have had to buy anyway...ahem...)

smileypigface

I aim for the £80 each mark, for my 3 children, for Christmas and about £50 for Birthdays.

However, I am one of those guilty conscience working mums (or maybe it's just me ) - as I've always been the main breadwinner I've never held back from buying stuff throughout the year as and when the kids need/request it. This is a big regret of mine - I find myself trying to spend money on them at Christmas and Birthdays and actually not being able to think of anything they want. To be honest, because it's all been on tap all the year they don't seem to have that feeling of big anticipation that I remember as a child - as when I was a kid it was very rare indeed to get anything if it wasn't your birthday or Christmas.

I re-married in 2008 and my new husband has helped me try and change this situation - we now have proper pocket money and opportunities to 'earn' a little extra for doing odd jobs. This has appeased my guilty conscience and given the kids some financial responsibility - also, this year, they all had a wish list so I felt I was actually buying gifts they want rather than just trying to spend an amount of money.

Boy, was that a lesson I learned the hard way!! We are now expecting a baby in the early summer and I plan a return to the type of approach both me and my husband grew up with - helped by the fact that the more I economise on our monthly budget the longer we will be able to afford me to stay off work.

The Christmas presents I remember the most were the dolls house my great uncle made for me and my sister to share - and the Sindy furniture my dad made out of cigar boxes (painted with the logo and everything) - and the Sindy clothes my mum sewed us. Perhaps it's because I'm older (and a bit wiser maybe ) I'm looking forward to going back to some of the traditional values with this baby! And I've learned too, that our house doesn't have to look like a branch of ELC for a baby to be happy!!!

Blimey, I sound like my mother!! You can tell I'm a new OS convert can't you

Pink.

As this thread has dropped down the Old Style board I've moved it over to the MoneySaving in Marriages, Relationships & Families board to see if you can get some more replies.

Hi, Martin’s asked me to post this in these circumstances: I’ve asked Board Guides to move threads if they’ll receive a better response elsewhere(please see this rule) so this post/thread has been moved to another board, where it should get more replies. If you have any questions about this policy please email [EMAIL="abuse@moneysavingexpert.com"]abuse@moneysavingexpert.com[/EMAIL].

Loadsabob

smileypigface wrote: »

To be honest, because it's all been on tap all the year they don't seem to have that feeling of big anticipation that I remember as a child - as when I was a kid it was very rare indeed to get anything if it wasn't your birthday or Christmas.

Ooh, yes, that sounds familiar to me, too. Presents were for birthdays and Christmas...that was normal, and I really love the way my childhood was, in the 80s. When my brother and I were really young, most of our clothes and toys used to come from 'The Thrift Shop' :eek: which was on the RAF camp where we lived. Books, too. I have early and very happy memories of travelling there on the bus and finding things I liked - baby clothes for use on my dolls! And many more of my clothes were hand-me-downs from my cousins. Funny, I see old photos of them and think "Hey, she's wearing my party dress!...oh yeah...:o" Wouldn't have occurred to me to look down on those things - it was really exciting to get a random bag full of clothes! But we never felt poor, and we weren't 'poor'. Mum just had to be careful, I guess, raising two kids on one income.

But Christmas and birthday presents were all the better for having had to wait for them, I think. And when I had my first TV in my room when I was about 13, I was over the moon! It was a portable we'd inherited from somewhere, and it had been a family TV before it was mine. But things like that were a rite of passage rather than a right.

*Louise*

Used to be £50 for birthdays but we have cut back to £30 each now since hubby was made redundant and now has a lower paid job - living within our means and all that. Plus, they get plenty from relatives as well so they don't notice.

Christmas is usually around £150-£200 each, DS1 was a little more last year as he got a mountain bike as a surprise. I usually put away the Child benefit and save that up to pay for christmas.


Ps - I loved my fashion wheel in the 80's as well :D