How much do you spend on each child?

trepxe

I spend about £50 on easch of my boys unless there is something a bit dearer that they need. They are both teenagers now & we have struggled over the year to get & pay for the mortgage (we were both young when we had our first).
Now things are getting easier I would rather take them on a nice holiday to spend quality time together, than chuck hundreds of pounds at them for christmas & have them turn into spoilt brats who expect everything all the time, as I have seen others do

Rachie_B

we spend about £200 on each of our sons

we can afford it without going into debt,we are happy they are happy

I dont feel "bad" about spending that much ,obviously if we didnt have it to spend then the amount would be less to reflect that

buying our sons 1 present then "some clothes" just would horrify me,it doesnt seem right , IMO

whats right for one persons family / lifestyle isnt right for others ,there is no "right or wrong" answer here

if you can afford it and the kids are grateful then go for it

oh and we have nice holidays / cars blah blah blah so we arent using money that could be spent well elsewhere on xmas

trepxe

I wasn't saying I can't aford it, I certainly can now, I just don't want to ruin my children. I've seen many a spoilt brat & they have to realise at some time in their lives that money doesn't grow on tree & you have to work hard for it.

Rachie_B

trepxe wrote:

I wasn't saying I can't aford it, I certainly can now, I just don't want to ruin my children. I've seen many a spoilt brat & they have to realise at some time in their lives that money doesn't grow on tree & you have to work hard for it.

yes of course ,I agree ,thankfully my 2 sons arent like that. :beer:

the eldest @ 10 understands money doesnt grow on trees and doesnt get eg a mobile phone just because "everyone else has one" :rolleyes:

they both do "chores" for pocket money and understand when its spent its spent ,no asking for any more

they dont actually ask for a lot ,but we dont "spoil" them throughout the year so yes we go a little mad @ xmas if you cant splash out when the kids are young when can you

they grow up so fast as it is

There is a vast difference in the parent doing the "spoiling" than the child acting spoilt lol

Spud_2

My poll is proving interesting! But what does seem to make a difference is the age of the children. Hubby's daughter is 10 and we have been spending between £50-£75 on her each Christmas for the last few years including this year. We wouldn't dream of spending say £150 at this stage.

However as she gets older I can see this going up and not just because of inflation. At the moment we can get lots of little things and really make the money go a long way but as soon as you start talking about MP3 players, DVDs, bikes etc etc then it's easy to spend more. Incidentally we can afford to spend more but my point is that we choose not to. Our view is that overspending can create an expectancy and younger children generally don't appreciate the value of things. But if it makes someone happy to spend £££'s on their children, then what's wrong with that?

My parents were very hard up when I was young but my Mum bought presents all through the year and I ended up with a huge sackful every Christmas....big enough to crawl into! I know now they didn't spend as much as perhaps other friends parents but I just remember being SO excited at having so many presents to open, the cost didn't occur to me.

My intention of this poll was never to make anyone feel 'bad' or that they don't spend enough or conversely that they spend too much.

Please don't let the thread descend into anything other than a bit of fun!

Amanda65

Rachie_B wrote:

There is a vast difference in the parent doing the "spoiling" than the child acting spoilt lol

Well said Rachie - couldn't agree more

StartingAgainKayla70

I have 3 children, My oldest is 16 spend £150 cash so he can use it on whatever, Plus any bargains throughout the year I put up in the loft for him.

My 8 year old £150 on presents.

My 2 year old £50 on presents.

skystar

We only have my stepson who is 10 and I have just added up what we have spent and so far it is at £270 :eek: :eek:

I say so far as there are other things I have my eye on!

We are lucky as he never asks for anything. In fact when we asked him to make a Christmas list to send to Santa he had about 3 things on it and nothing cost more than about £20.

He also realises money doesn't grow on trees and knows that his dad and me both have to go to work to make money to pay for Christmas, holidays, new trainers, food on the table, etc....

I admit I do go overboard at Christmas but apart from birthdays this is the only time throughout the year he really gets anything.

His main present is a gameboy and some games. He loves Dr Who so is also getting a remote control K9 and Cyber Helmet. Just these things are nearly £200.

I wouldn't consider myself spoiled as a child but I remember at Christmas the living room being covered in presents for my sister and I and I think I just like to recreate what I had

I save all year for Christmas. If we couldn't afford it we wouldn't do it. So far I haven't actually spent any cash that we have saved. I have been using Greasypalm payouts, Nectar points, Boots points, vouchers from surveys, etc.

lilfairy

Myself and my brother have always received what we wanted at Christmas, but never expected it.

As we got older, and realised that mum & dad didnt always have the money to buy what we wanted, we altered our gift lists so that there wasnt any huge expenses on there.

I wouldnt say that I am spoilt, I am very lucky that my parents are willing to spend on me at christmas, I know my OH hasnt had it like that, and he has a budget set for him, and his parents will not go a penny over it.

lisaann72red

:j I spend about £75.00 each child. We have 4 children youngest 2 eldest 6. For the youngest he probably has a little less than that spent on him as he is not at the age to compare yet. Also I suppose it depends on how much of an expense the rest of the present list costs. I have approx 20 other people to buy for plus the extra bits and bobs for kids friends , teachers etc. I think whatever anyone spends is ok as long as it doesnt cause a massive debt. Happy christmas everyone. Lisa x
PS has anyone got there decs up yet a couple of houses are already lit up near me!!!:eek: