How much should parents spend on a child for Christmas?

clareabella666

we went crazy last year with my 5 year old, he had £300 tv and at least £150 worth of toys, im feeling the pain now though as it was all on credit.

This year we have brought all xmas presents with spare cash rather than incurr more debt. we have spent roughly £150 on him this year and funnily enough he has more presents than last year.

candie_gill

There is no set amount at all, one parent could spend £60, shop in the sales, go to home bargains, B&M.. spot the odd decent bargain in £1 shop etc and end up with the same presents that a parent who has spent £200 in toys R us. I know this as i bagged a thomas the tank engine torch for my son in £1 shop, it came with batteries and else where costs nearly £5!

I spent £300 on my 18 month old this xmas, sounds obsurd i know! So i didnt wrap any of the clothes, or his pooh bear chair and gave him them a few months ago as normal treats and obviously he needs clothes anyway! I do regret spending that much though, had the money to spend and didnt put anything on credit.. next year he will be 2 and half.. im thinking £150 per xmas then. The thing with me is i start early (late july), then end up buying tons and not knowing i even had half of it!

fstillgoe

Hi there,

We have a 15 yoa and a 12 yoa and have spent a total of £150 each. This includes a good main present and quite a lot of good stocking fillers as well.

Having a look on the Christmas board has helped as well as we have managed to get some good presents for relatives - spent £50 on 6 people and managed to get good quality presents. Made hampers for all them. Was well chuffed.

You'd be surprised what you can do.

molerat

george27uk wrote: »

Me and my partner are in debt by 10,000 (down from 16,500) but we still have managed to get our 3 kids £200 each for xmas. we are not on well payed jobs. my gf works in a shop and im a cleaner 15hrs a week. its amazing when u put up mind to it (ebay) i never did like that stereo, or that exercise bike, oh and that tv we had in the attic. the moneys always there, you just need to look hard enough.

When i was younger, which isnt that long ago, kids still had about 100-200 pounds on them, and that was 15-20 years ago! what did a can of pop cost 20 years ago? 10p? now ur looking at 80p!! what im trying to say is, we cnt get much for our kids with 100 pounds. martin will hate me for saying all this, he thinks a box with baloons in is geat xmas present. i see where he is coming from but kids know what they want these days. and although im in big debt, my kids arent! and they will have what i can give them.

#sorry for the rant

£50 each, they will be happy with that, the remainder will pay off 4.5% of your debt. Buy more when you really can afford more.

li'l_p

I think it is all down to your own personal budget and your own principles.

Thankfully our daughter is 18 months old so doesn't quite understand the concept of money, Christmas or the latest toys, just yet! But we haven't gone wild either and we have spent £50 on a wardrobe worth of clothes from Primark. We have asked mostly for clothes for her this Christmas off other people too, purely because our house is already rammed with toys as we tend to go to the boot sales in the summer and pick up stuff all the time. I have put a few bits away for her too and then we have got her a few extra toys that we have picked up, but nothing excessive. In total we have probably spent £70.

As a kid in the 80's/90's, my parents didn't have a lot of money and we never had the amounts spent on us or got given the sorts of things that kids today get. Without sounding like my own parents, kids today don't know they are born! A few people have hit the nail on the head though and said that it is down to the parents and they often set the expectations of children and all too often it's the parents that get too carried away with competing with friends trying to out-do each other. And sadly, that's where kids don't learn anything but greed, and in later life debt because they are always striving to have the latest and greatest things.

Unfortunately there is a flipside too and too many kids have a terrible arrogance because of the way they are brought up wanting for nothing. My parent's could never afford some of the latest trends that some of the other kids had at school (it was all about trainers in my day, not mobiles or games consoles) and I was bullied relentlessly over my fashion or lack of it and the 'in things' I didn't have. It was horrible, but I would say that I have always known and accepted that my parents were limited in what they could afford and despite this they still bought us some good stuff, things we needed and some of the things we had asked for. Things I will remember and still cherish with fond memories to this day.

I would like to think I am a far more savvy person for it today knowing that my parent's may not have kept up with the Joneses, but they certainly did a good enough job in keeping us on the right path and I am well adjusted, savvy with my money, very thrifty, and actually very grateful for the lifestyle I lead because I am not a label freak and I don't spend beyond my means, and I actually get more of a buzz these days out of getting something second-hand or cheap as chips and I really hope these are the values that I instil in my daughter too.

Happy Christmas everyone!

wendall

I think it is up to individual people what they spend on their children, i know there is a lot of peer pressure for kids, latest clothes, phones trainers etc. Which can put pressure on parents to provide these items. I spend different amounts each year depending on what they need it has worked out about £250 on each of my kids this year, well i say kids but they are 17 and 21, my daughter the 21 year old is not working at the moment as she is having her 3rd major eye operation in Jan which fingers crossed will help her sight but also as the chance of leaving her blind in her left eye, this year she wanted a ereader as she struggles reading books and the kindle which i have chose can read some books back so that will be ok for her when she is tired, case and books etc with a new winter coat as soon mounted up, son at 17 needed new winter coat some clothes and he is off to uni in summer so he has a ipod docking station which he will be able to take with him. I must say that since i discovered the money saving site last year it has saved me an absolute fortune in money and has given me lots of tips and ideas.

tinkerbellsmum_2

I don't really set a budget but at the same time i;m always money saving so lots has come from ebay including my daugthers pc what was a bargin at 50 pound. my daugther has had about 150 on her shes 9 my son whos is 2 and a half has had about 90 my sons

themull1

about 350 each child (two) i don't budget each year, some years its less, just buy them things off their santa list, and surprises. I certainly couldn't just spend £50.00 on them, i would get nothing for that these days. I had more than that spent on me 30 years ago, and the price of things these days.....i like them having loads to open. but not rubbish bought for the sake of it, or because it was only a pound etc.

Meadows

How much should parents spend on a child for Christmas?

How long is a piece of string?

We all spend to our budget, some people can barely afford a few £'s other can afford much much more. We should spend what we are comfortable spending it does not matter how much so & so had spent on them, no one should feel pressured to spend more than they can afford and no one should be made to feel guilty because they have spent a lot on their child.

I shop throughout the year for good offers, start the real shopping in September and shop until I think that's enough.

maryotuam

I grew up in an extremely poor family but even though I was comfortably off when my kids were young, I never went mad with Xmas presents. They never got caught up in peer pressure and spurned brands. Neither of my grown up kids are materialistic and neither are in debt (apart from a mortgage and student loan). I'm very proud of them both.
I asked them recently if I had bean too mean and they said "no way" and they would instil the same values in their kids (when /if they have any).