how much are we spending on our kids?

sarah*a

I've just added it up and in total cash amounts I've spent about £25 on DD(16). But she's got loads - including £50 Topshop vouchers which I got from survey sites/shop&scan etc. The rest are all either £1shop bargain buys or using free vouchers (ie: Debs/Currys)

A couple of years ago we moved house 2 weeks after xmas and everything just got packed into boxes which she never really unpacked properly - so last year she got a lot of them again and didn't realise:rotfl: which made us realise that we buy way too much - so we have cut down a lot.

Mind you - after her birthday this year she already thinks we're meany skinflints. She got caught shoplifting in the summer hols and OH had to pay for the stuff she took - so that's what she got for her birthday :rotfl::rotfl:seeing as she was obviously so desperate for it! :rotfl:

cocolgooh

I dont have kids but I always spend about £100 on my mum. She expects more though which can be quite annoying. I can imagine it would be simialr to having spoilt kids in that sense, always wanting more. Ah well. At least I try I suppose.

jakes-mum

sarah*a wrote: »

Mind you - after her birthday this year she already thinks we're meany skinflints. She got caught shoplifting in the summer hols and OH had to pay for the stuff she took - so that's what she got for her birthday :rotfl::rotfl:seeing as she was obviously so desperate for it! :rotfl:

This really made me giggle, that is exactly what I would have done!

Jacks_xxx

My revoltingly boring children want money this year so they will get ten crisp tenners each, plus something small and disposable to unwrap like beer or chocolate. This is a little more than we would normally spend but it's a nice round figure isn't it?

The eldest is saving up to leave home and the youngest for a laptop, so we decided to be as helpful as we can.

Sessie

Well, I have twins (boy and girl) who are 2 and a half (or will be by Xmas) and we have spent quite a bit on them - to be fair (and very MSE!) we got a lot of stuff in ELC once their 20% off offer kicked in last week so we got a lot of things for less than full price.

Shame I then took the "extra change" into Toys R Us eh???

Thing is, few if any of the toys are for our daughter or our son specifically, they are all for them both - no duplicating gifts so they have one each in OUR house!! How ridiculous!! On the day we will just let them open a present each until they are all done.

I've bought a lot of the Little People sets - the windmill (which came with a free horse and gypsy style caravan and extra people), the space rocket (which came with two free vehicles and extra people), Cherry Tree Cottage (which is GORGEOUS, even I can't wait to play with it!), a build-it-yourself wooden farm (Cobblestone Farm it's called) which came with free animals (though I bought a few more single animals). In Toys R Us I got them a HUGE Art Set (crayons, felt tips, paints, pencils, allsorts!) for £8 and a big set of washable paints and some foam number/letter stamps.

I have also got them elves coming to stay from 1 December (see the Christmas Elf 2010 thread if you don't know what I'm on about!) so have been buying little gifts from pound shops and Home Bargains etc.. to give them "from the elves" each evening after tea IF they have been good that day (have more than 50 now!! oops!).

I'm quite into giving educational toys - I don't mean just books and stuff, but toys where they learn by play - ie; houses where the front opens and has different rooms so the little people can have dinner at the table and sleep in the bedroom etc... I also spend a lot of time when I'm not at work, going through these scenarios with them and they love it, plus their vocabulary has become pretty good, though I am of course rather biased!

In total I'd say I've spent about £300 on both of them - ie in total, not each, including all the elf things AND the actual elves. This is a lot and I realise this but we had to wait 15 years and had two private IVF cycles to get them so, to us, they are priceless.

When they get another couple of years older, the spending will SERIOUSLY decrease as they gain an understanding of money and so they learn that you can't always have everything you want, but this year (and probably next...) well... let's just say I'll be cutting back and saving so I can get them lots of lovely things.

So long as the bills are paid and there's food in the cupboard, no harm done right?



x

themull1

jakes-mum wrote: »

This really made me giggle, that is exactly what I would have done!

She wouldn't have got anything if it was my daughter. :eek:

YORKSHIRELASS

We budget £150-£200 each but save all year and really put a lot of thought into what they get. I was just thinking as I read this thread that if you have got pre-school children you should be aware that you are setting precedents now for when they get older in terms of the type of presents they get and the amount they expect. We have always bought my kids things like pjs, undies, clothes and trainers for christmas (although they do get more exciting things too!) When I told a friend this she said her kids would be horrified but my two have always had things like this and love it. Now they are both 10 and 12 they get clothes at Christmas from shops I wouldnt normally buy from which makes it special.

zippybungle

YORKSHIRELASS wrote: »

We budget £150-£200 each but save all year and really put a lot of thought into what they get. I was just thinking as I read this thread that if you have got pre-school children you should be aware that you are setting precedents now for when they get older in terms of the type of presents they get and the amount they expect. We have always bought my kids things like pjs, undies, clothes and trainers for christmas (although they do get more exciting things too!) When I told a friend this she said her kids would be horrified but my two have always had things like this and love it. Now they are both 10 and 12 they get clothes at Christmas from shops I wouldnt normally buy from which makes it special.

I always buy quite a few practical things for my Kids too, such as Toothbrushes, Toothpaste, Underwear, PJ's, Clothes, Shower Gel, Bubble Bath, Slippers/Shoes. My Kids like these gifts as they usually have their favourire characters on or football team. These are all things which they would need anyway, but it makes it more exciting to have them all wrapped up to have at Xmas (and less clutter in the house!)

They do get plenty of toys too! (prob too many!)

Zippy x

fannyadams

I spend as little as possible on my boys (6 & 10) as they get LOADS of gifts from G'parents (3 sets) and it's hard enough giving a present list to the G'parents etc. Plus we don't celebrate Xmas...

They get loads of treats during the holidays (and throughout the year thanks to Clubcard) - we go out and do lots of free/nearly free/voucher things and they love spending time exploring our local area - we'll also Orange Wednesday for films we'd like to see this holiday and thanks to Maximiles we'll have Odeon Vouchers to spend on that.
They've both asked to do a football training camp this holiday too and the local footy club has a BOGOF offer so that's them sorted (2 days both boys £22)!

I can't see WHY there's the NEED to spend SO much money on children - I've decluttered my boys rooms this year and there's LOADS of stuff we recycled/ebayed/charity shopped.