Spill the beans..

2gorgeousgirls

I aim to buy my 2 girls £250 worth of gifts each however by canny shopping and moneysaving I never pay that much. For instance, this year I have bought eldest daughter a Blackberry worth £140 but with my Tesco double exchange I only paid £75. Got a hairdryer half price, reduction on bikes and another phone for younger daughter etc etc.

Every year the girls write a list knowing that they will only get some of it. However, have to admit that, as this is my last year for Santa (9 year old doesn't believe but is pretending she does) I have gone overboard and bought everything on the list plus a bike each which neither asked for but both will love as 9 year old's bike is broken and 11 year old's getting too small.

All in all, I have spent £663 between the two of them but have £1045 worth of gifts.

Next year it's back to £250.;)

stargazer59

I guess i was lucky as a child, we would write letters to Santa, in reality mum would buy what she wanted us to have(there were 5 of us) then dad would go into town on Xmas eve, get all that was left on the lists and even get it all wrapped too!!!

I have 3 grown kids with partners of their own so they get less now, but i also have a 12 year old who will get more this year as i have finally started to receive maintainence for him. I don't have a budget , but have tried not to go too mad.

I think as long as you can afford it and do not use credit, go for it.

I love the shopping, the wrapping, the unwrapping.....in fact i just love Christmas!!! Its a wonderful time to be with family whether you spend £10 or £1000.

Nicksmum

Wow, I am amazed at the sums people spend on their children at Christmas! We spend £50 on each of our two sons who are 15 and 17.I put away £50 per month into a savings account so I have £600 to spend and no more,that has to cover everything including food.I have done this now for several years and its lovely to know we will not be in debt come January.As Martin says its not as if Christmas is not expected on 25th December so people should budget throughout the year for it.Incidentally both boys have birthdays in the early months of the year so they have had joint Christmas/birthday persents in the past if they wanted something big.

TheRealLane

When I looked at this thread, I was totally unprepared for the amounts that some people are spending, minted or skint. I have to say I am truly shocked that anyone would spend £1000 on a child every(?) christmas! My imagination would really struggle to spend a grand on toys for my DS (6) short of going on a Michael Jackson (rip) style spree (I'll have one of those... two of those...)

I've always seen Christmas as just a bit of fun, and about learning to give freely and recieve graciously, not an opportunity for kids to get a whole years worth of stuff in one go.

DS gets toys bought spontaneously, throughout the year. Plus...
About 30-50 spent on him for birthday (4 weeks before +mas)
25 spent on stocking fillers (hawkins ba*aar)
30 spent on bigger present for +mas day.

DS is also expected to make crafts for presents for rest of family and friends. He makes a list of who he wants to give something to, to make them smile. I cherish these years while he is too young to want a lot of "things".


All OH wants this year is some stilton, probably because I won't let it in the house any other time of year.

samphe

TheRealLane wrote: »

All OH wants this year is some stilton, probably because I won't let it in the house any other time of year.

Christmas is the only time of year I let my husband have sprouts

little_sweetie

tessie_bear wrote: »

we spend about a grand on each of our children...aged 6 and 12....ill put my hard hat on now but if u have it spend it i say....we spend about this every year

That's great if you can easily afford it but not so great if it's on the credit card. We could never afford to spend a fortune on our kids. They prefered to eat

KittyKate

My daughter is 7 months old and it's her first Christmas, but I've tried to be sensible because she's so small, she would just as happily play with the wrapping paper and tinsel I've bought her presents which are educational but fun, and books, and some clothes in the next size up, as she'll be bought so many toys from the family I'm sure she won't know which to play with first so I've probably not yet even spent £50 on her - I've bought her a Laugh and Learn ABC laptop, some books, a Mrs Santa outfit (couldn't resist ) and some Waybuloo crockery which she'll love. I'll probably get her a few little stocking fillers but that's enough - I'll take her lots of nice places whilst hubby is off work though. I'd really struggle to spend £1000 on her, not because I can't afford it, I can't justify it (not criticising those who do, of course).

For the rest of my family I try to get nice clothes, useful presents, personalised gifts and so on, as I hate the thought of spending £20 on a teddy bear which sits on a shelf and collects dust!! So I get smellies, clothes, gadgets, DVDs, books and so on. I probably spend about £300 on 8 main people and 6 'little gifts' for friends. I love doing personalised calendars and diaries, hampers, pamper boxes etc.

anniemf2508

I don't really set a budget...i spend what we can afford (i do all the xmas/birthday shopping as i know my OH would go over the top on the kids as he never really had anything when he was younger).
My daughter is 12 and hasn't really asked for alot except for a proper camera (one that takes 35mm film) and a pair of binoculars. We've got her the camera...second hand canon 500 off ebay which was only £30. In total with her stocking i think we'll have spent about £100.
My son is 5 and difficult as hes only just had his birthday, so most of the stuff he put on his xmas list he already got. So guessing it'll be more lego and the like for him. Will probably have spent about £60 in total.

They also get a xmas eve hamper with some games and stuff in (probably about £15 spend).

EVIESMUMMY_2

This thread is really interesting! If you have the money & are not getting in debt its your choice even if my jaw dropped on a few occasions,there are worse things to spend money on than your children!
My children will be 4 and 16 months and have spent £100 each inc christmas eve hamper, retail rrp would be much higher i buy through the year and everything is very mse, the 16 months olds gifts do include lots of practical gifts, pj's, dressing gown,cutlery etc & i may end up keeping a few things back.
Its my daughters birthday in december and have spent a similar amount again,they both also get alot from family & friends
We are also going to santas sleepover at Alton towers & the panto.
When my daughter was two i bought her allsorts and a friend said to me don't forget there will be other years! how true i could now do with a bigger house! I could hapily keep spending but in reality its enough.
I also have 2 step children we have spent around £50 each (looks more) they get alot from their mother & other family members.

mandlou

I am going about it the other way around this year - I made a list of what my 3 kids (13,6,2 by christmas) wanted/needed and then went about working out which of those things we could afford or how we could afford them. I have found in the past that setting budgets means spending money for the sake of it eg this year my eldest daughter needs some supplies for her GCSE art and photography/media technology courses she needs these so would have to spend the money in time anyway but it would have meant her 'budget' going up by £40 in previous years this would have meant raising her sisters budget by £40 also to 'keep it looking fair' however the reality is that they are not adding up the costs as they open the pressies.

My 6 year old wants a big barbie house so my husband will be building that at about 1/2 the cost of buying one and it will be decorated with left over paint/fabric etc we already have. A huge saving and a much more special gift - and will probably last far longer than some giant bit of pink plastic tat lol

We also recycle (although our big age gaps help us here as the younger ones don't tend to remember stuff) e.g this year my 6 year old has also asked for a dolls pram, this will come out of the loft and be her present from my 13 yr old (who used to own it) and her brother. Even if the 6 yr old does remember it it won't matter cos it is a present from her sister, we aren't trying to palm it off as being from santa lol.

We also have told our 6 year old that once you go to secondary school santa only brings you a stocking (prior to this in our house he does stocking and a 20-30 ish main gift) this meant that last year when our older daughter wanted an ipod we could give her a large chunk of the money towards it and didn't have to reduce this because we needed to spend another £20 quid from santa just to keep tha magic alive for the younger ones.

The children rarely get everything they ask for and have always undertood that santa doesn't bring sackfuls of toys. My little boy who turns 2 a week before xmas will get a stocking mostly full of vests/socks/cutlery and other such boring but useful items, and because he then doesn't get a birthday mid year he will be having some super cheap in the sales at this time of year outdoor toys to put away for the summer.

But to answer the question this year based on what each child wants/needs I will be spending:
DD1 £136.00
DD2 £118.00
DS £98.00 (including his bday on 17/12)

I reckon my new system works in previous years I would have spent about £200 each on the girls and about £150.00 on the little man.

Haven't got it all yet so hope to make some more savings with things like the argos weekly deals etc.

Nieces and nephews (x3) are 10.00 each (long standing arrangement with their parents and we all do the same)
Mine and OH's sisters and their hubbys - fun 'secret santa' type gift - you break the rules if you go over a fiver per person.
Our parents usually around £30.00 for each set of parents but I would rather get something they really want so we have a top limit of £40.00 per set.