How much will you spend on your children at Christmas?

Phatmouse

Lillibet wrote:

Around £80 for Spud (1 year old) but £25 of that is a charity donation in his name, and we buy a bottle of port or wine & put away for him for when he is MUCh older!

I love that idea, it must be pretty good stuff to keep for that long, I assume he is the toddler in the photo. Can I ask how much you spend on a bottle if you don't mind and what kind of things to look out for when keeping it that long.

rchddap1

You're not a horror Phat....cos I'm doing the same. My bean will be around 3-4 weeks old. Nice idea about the bottle. I've been thinking about doing something special for later, and that's an option I haven't considered.

benbenandme

Have already asked relatives to just get my son a small token present (rather than the obscene amount of toys he normally gets) and to put the rest of the money in his savings account. I know some people think this isnt right as Christmas should be about kids and pressies (sure there should be some religious thing in there too somewhere!!:D )
I am going to do the same - I have been putting bits away all year for his stocking (mainly from mystery shops where I've had to make a small purchase, I look for anything suitable for him!) and then I'll put some money in his account at Christmas.
He will still have tons of stuff on the day from friends and family who choose not to do this so he won't go without!

msmicawber

I don't think you're a horror either - far too much unnecessary consumption in our society. I think when children are small, it's unnecessary to give them anything, or you could put some money in an account for them for when they're bigger.

finc

Lillibet wrote:

Around £80 for Spud (1 year old) but £25 of that is a charity donation in his name, and we buy a bottle of port or wine & put away for him for when he is MUCh older! So only about £40 on "stuff", some of which will be useful stuff like PJ's etc, plus one good (but very possibly 2nd hand) toy. He get's tons of stuff from others so we don't go overboard.

Perhaps have a different drink for each year though. I hate port and if I had 18 bottles of it to drink I'd be flogging it on ebay or giving it back for gifts .
Whisky or brandy, however mmmm a different story

Great idea though that I might just pinch for myself!

Jet

Thanks everyone.

I intended on spending £100 on my son and between £10 and £20 on others, so I'm probably about average.

I know of someone who thinks it's normal to spend £500 on each of her kids as well as the hundreds of pounds worth that her family will buy them. She has told me that it's "Cruel" to only spend £100 on each child!

She has told me that there are often still wrapped presents under the tree at new year because her children "can't be bothered" to open any more presents. :eek:

Personally I think she has other issues about her parenting skills and she realises this and tries to make up for it by "buying" the children.

cornbuddy

I always spend too much and always say never again!!!!!!!!! However now I do buy things throughout the year either over the internet or in the sales and once December arrives, I will go through all the stuff I have bought and decide what to give relatives.

As for the children, well they usually give me a list of what they want and I am beginning to find that as they get older, the price is going down slightly!!!! I always tell them that I will get them what I can afford. As for OH, I usually buy him presents that he has to share with me (such as tickets, a weekend away etc).

Gingham_Ribbon

Santa will bring no more than £50 worth of things. However, there are grandparents who like to go that extra mile.

julesangles

hi
i spend about 100-150 tops. i dont buy for any sisters or sister in laws. parents about 20 quid for two of them top. loads of sales bargains (mainly next clearance store this year)
neices and nephews 10 quid max!
hubbie and me dont buy each other gifts we both put 50 quid in the pot and over pay the mortgage. boring or what

funky-footprints

ive never realy thought about it as setting a budget on the kids ........ They have always had what they wanted or what i felt they needed. at 5 and 3 thier demands arent expensive. My son wanted a wooden castle last year (£20 in the ELc sale) that was his main present, it wasnt about the cost it was what he had been asking for all year. my daughter wanted a piano (£25 keyboard elc sale) I guess with them still being young things dont get a value. they have a main present under the tree off mummy & daddy and they open thier stocking from father christmas first thing.

they had quite a bit in thier stocking but i never added it up as it was things i bought during the year, pjamas, new slippers, socks, undies, along with a jigsaw each, new felts etc etc. maybe i spend about £200 on them each, but i havnt added it up before.

later afternoon they have in the past got a joint present of father christmas , last year it was a vtech vsmile with a few games, that i bought on ebay, the year before they had a farm yard.

I havnt clue what we are doing this year .... i guess i wont start panicking until they reach an age when materialism begins.

we have however always set a max budget of £1,000 (eek !!) for christmas spend on family and friends. Our kids are not included in that budget (I normally buy dh's presents out of that £1,000 as i dont work, and at the moment dh prefers to buy mine seperately and that spend is discretionary.) i am doing everything in my power to stop buying for certain persons !!! I have cut 4 off the list from last year and its only August !!

We tend to spend the majority of that on my parents (£250) dhs parents (divorced and re-married) £200 max (less if we can) our brothers 4 of them with 2 wives £150, 3 nieces and 1 nephew £150. that leaves £250 for me to spend on dh and other family and friends, godhchildren etc.

we dont buy birthday pressents for these people during the year so we dont mind spending the extra at christmas.
x