Spill the beans..

Candy53

Well, we are officially poor. After going through the long hellish years of being in debt, and how it destroyed us, but this ended 4 years ago, we live by our means, and don't owe a penny to anyone.

Our 4 kids are now grown up. The two youngest, still live with us. We manage on my hubby's wage, and don't claim any benefits. We manage to pay the bills, and our kids told us that is the most important thing.

So, our kids will get about £30 each spent on them for Christmas. But, what I try to do is get things that they will appreciate, so this year it will be a couple of their fav dvds and chocs.
Now that they are grown up, I think they would rather us spend more on the food than the presents.


Candy.

Notjustamum_2

Just_Trying wrote: »

Boy, a grand a child whom are under 18, well I never!!! I think that is totally over the top, and as your kids grow up (unless they have a huge trust fund in waiting) will get a shock of their lives...

I earn over £50K pa ( more than the average I know and could afford to do that –but would never ), separated from the kids mum, spend around £500 between them for pressies at Xmas (however give them pocket money £120 per month each – which allows them to buy “stuff” all year round) which is totally sufficient in my opinion, and they are happy, grateful , balanced kids, who know the true value of money

PS Two girls 15 & 12

£120 per month each!!! Wow!!! My husband earns well over £50K per year too but our 13 year old gets £30 per month and our 8 year old currently doesn't get specific pocket money! You are a giving your girls a yearly income of £1440 so they probably don't need £1K at Christmas as well!

A.Jones

We've got a 3 year old. We are spending about £30 including advent presents (2nd hand duplo from ebay, something small every day) and stocking fillers.

There's no point in spending much more. He'll get loads of presents from relatives, which we will spread out giving him from Xmas day through to the new year.

He'll still play with the wrapping and the boxes more than the toys.

smk77

Notjustamum wrote: »

£120 per month each!!! Wow!!! My husband earns well over £50K per year too but our 13 year old gets £30 per month and our 8 year old currently doesn't get specific pocket money! You are a giving your girls a yearly income of £1440 so they probably don't need £1K at Christmas as well!

"Just Trying" is separated from the kids mum which kind of suggests that the kids live elsewhere so £120 a month probably helps towards general costs such as clothes. It's not comparable situation - unless of course you are separated from your husband.

miaandbeth

just depends on what they want and what we want to get them...but we buy them things all the time trhoughout the year so to them christmas comes all the time...just without the the old man in the white beard!

Clueless969

Hello all, Wilkins Micawber here - why on earth are so many of you, skint or not skint, spending so much money on presents for your children? What they want and will be "in peer-group fashion" for 5 minutes and what they need are completely different things.

I'm not Christian but, if you are, what is the religious significance of your present giving, unless your presents are gold, frankincense and myrrh? If you are of any other persuasion, why are you giving presents on a day that means nothing to you except it's a day off work? If you're Pagan and it seems that the Yule celebrators might be, how does the darkest time of the year equate with giving presents at all (other than maybe tokens) and why are some of you giving them Christmas presents too?

They might want presents, you might like to give them presents but why does the bill have to be so high? What's wrong with a token £5 or £10 per person spent on something edible or something fun/silly rather than something that is too frequently over-priced and only attractive because of peer group pressure?

For those of you that are skint (and I have certainly been there) why do so many of you go into debt each year and likely make the whole family suffer throughout the rest of the year whilst you service that debt, just so you can repeat the process next year?

If you have £1 spend 99p and raise two fingers to peer-group pressure and feelings of guilt.

With seasonal greetings and tongue only very slightly in cheek

I remain

Micawber, W Mr

tramsay

Don't have kids but my parents would always spend less than £50 on me, and that's with my dad's salary in the 90s of £40k

I'd have liked a games console but I was very happy with the toys etc

I don't see anything wrong with spending £100s as long as you can afford it, seems strange when families are really struggling and still fork out £100s on presents

Notjustamum_2

smk77 wrote: »

"Just Trying" is separated from the kids mum which kind of suggests that the kids live elsewhere so £120 a month probably helps towards general costs such as clothes. It's not comparable situation - unless of course you are separated from your husband.

Fair point but he did say that it was "pocket money" which he implies they can spend as they wish so I assumed that this amount was separate from any maintenance he may have to pay towards clothes etc.

Tashatutuw

I don't have children but have read this post with interest - I honestly feel from a lot of these posts that I was quite spoilt as a child!!

I don't know exactly how much my parents spent on me of course but from the volume and looking back at type of gifts I would say that spent closer to the £500 mark than the £100 mark and I feel blessed for that!!

We started Budget Christmas last year as the cost of Christmas was spiraling out of control and we were spending average £50-£100 on each person (we are a small family so only my parents, grandma and one aunt and uncle) but got to the point nobody knew WHAT they wanted and so we were handing over £30-£40 of vouchers until my Mum said enough was enough - we are now limited to £30 each person, we have expanded a little as OH will be joining us this year and I have a small cousin now but we had a GREAT Christmas last year!! We also split the cost of Christmas day and Boxing day to ease financial burden on my Mum and Grandma who host these days. We do 'secret santa' table presents - names drawn from a hate for the added fun and a limit of £5. We have as good a Christmas on a budget as we ever did on hundreds of pounds.

I am however drawn in by the 'Christmas Hamper' idea that many of you have mentioned - think I will be doing a nice one for OH and myself to celebrate a hard year and get into the Christmas mood! Less than 6 weeks now :T :T :T

reecy_2

I have 2 boys aged 13 and 9 and I don't really have a budget as such, I just buy bargains throughout the year I know they'll like. This year its worked out to be about £180 each which I'm quite pleased about as the true value is probably double that.
I don't think spending a lot of money on your kids at christmas makes them spoilt in the slightest, it's once a year! My two get one decent-ish gift on their birthdays, one present if they get good school reports, and I buy them a sweet on the way home from school on a Friday... if they want anything else they have to pay for it out of their pocket money.

One thing I would say to parents with younger kids though is to start small. I made the mistake of going mad when mine were little and bought loads of things simply because they were cheap and because I love seeing their little faces light up at the big pile under the tree, but after a week all those little gifts would end up as bedroom floor fodder. Sickening in retrospect. If I did it all again I would start at £20-30 and increase it by £10 each year unless there was something they really wanted...it's far easier to increase than it is to decrease when it comes to presents, especially as the presents start to get smaller .