Spill the beans..

toffeeapple

Our budget is £250 each on main presents downstairs (2 kids aged 7 and 9) and then £100 in stocking fillers to open on our bed upstairs!

I am almost done, just a few 3ds games that aren't out yet, but have gone a little over budget yet again!! I think its about £300 each for main presents now due to the price of silly games.

loopylass

i have 4 children
boys 13,19 and 23( well he will be on the 23rd dec)
daughter 17

we give them each £150 in money and stocking fillers which usually costs between £100-£200 each

We save the money throughout the year otherwise we wouldn't be able to afford to do it

victory

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

I am not going to say how much then because compared to that it is pennies:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

carlamarie_2

ds1 and dd have had roughly £200 - £250 each spent on them and ds2 has had £100 (he will be only 7months at xmas)

they then get a christmas eve hamper which contains new pjs, bath stuff, character towels, cups, dvd and sweets etc

and then stocking which i spend about a tenner on each

zagfles

Lynn11 wrote: »

I have a DD who is 4yrs and bought all her presents and wrapped them. I have spent roughly about £130 (actual cost is nearer £200 as got reasonable deals) and hopefully able to still get new pjs from us for christmas eve. I have bump who will be born in the next 2-4weeks and I have spent a total of £10 for 3 items (as DD wants to write a list for santa for new sibling) and will be putting a bit of money in their bank account when born. I have this debate every year on if how much and if the bundle looks big enough. I am crossing my fingers that DD likes her bundles as she gave no ideas until last week and its all bought now since we will be busy near christmas with a newborn.

When our DD was 4 we'd got her a load of presents but on the last day at school she brought back a letter she had written to Santa saying she wanted a "tedy". So we rushed out last minute and found one in a charity shop for 50p, it was her favourite present:rotfl:

We never really think about the amount, it varies wildly from year to year, sometimes maybe £300 other years maybe £50, and sometimes vastly different amounts on each depending on what they want or need...

Tracey2609

My son is 16 and I have set myself a budget of £300.00 for him this year (I've been saving money throughout the year -so this year I will not be using the credit card), in previous years I've brought things as I've seen them and totted up the receipts after Christmas (all on the credit card by the way) :eek:

To be fair I may not spend the whole £300.00 on him as I do like to shop around for bargains - and it depends on his list...

I think that it's about being honest about what you can afford (and it's easier when children are younger - when times were really tight I brought my son gifts from car boots and charity shops), my son does not get pocket money throughout the year - although if he asks for a magazine or a cheap game occasionally he'll get it but if he asks for something which I think is too expensive I will tell him to put it on his Christmas list. More often than not he'll forget !

Mudbath

We probably spend about £50 on each of our two children for their stocking but this has always traditionally included their favourite smellies, a couple of books, underwear and a few joke toys (always a bath duck! - we have hundreds of them now!). So a lot of what they get in their stocking is things that i'd have to get anyway. The main present can vary from £20 (when my son was desperate for a darts board and I happened to get one in the sale) to this year when my DD is saving up for a laptop to 'help with school work'. We're putting £100 towards it, both sets of grandparents are contributing and she's paying half - she doesn't know we're doing this yet so shhhhhh!

gizzie121

Wow - some lucky children of the parents on this thread!! We tend to spend about £50 on each of our two children, until my husband decides to get 'tree presents'. Not sure where that idea came from, but he started it 3 years ago, laying to waste all my carefully budgeted presents.

However, we just bought my daughter a flute that was £1500, and apparently, that's not even a good one by flute standards, so she'll be getting a very small present this christmas for sure.

kippers

We spend approx £70 on each of my two dd's, this includes stocking fillers. This year we have a christmas eve box which contains a new dressing gown, PJ's and a christmas eve dvd to curl up and watch but they are desparately in need of the dressing gowns and PJ's and i have hung off giving them these so it seems like they have got more at xmas.

I wish we could spend more on them, but if they moan about not having more expensive things for xmas or birthdays, i give them the choice of me going out to work (coming home to an empty house after school, going to childcare in hols and no more friends round or hockey clubs after school, homemade cakes breads biscuits etc etc) or a limited budget on presents and me at home for them...they always choose the way we are lol

I don't think it does them any harm to have a limited budget spent on them, infact i think it makes them appriciate what they have...there are far more children worse off than my dd's. Also, we are not in debt in January and i'm very proud/grateful for that!

(My dd's are 11 & 13 yrs old)

skylight

I have 5 kids and I am spending around £150 on 4 of them this year (not the eldest as she is an adult now so gets adult stuff!!), plus approx £10 each for stockings and then around £200 on other family members and friends.

I do save and shop all year round though as there is no way I would want to do that in one go. Plus savvy shopping, discount vouchers, quidco etc so I can get a lot more for my money.#


Already bought the Christmas sweets - we have a "tip jar" that the kids put odd coins from pocket money in or anything they find in the street. It soon adds up and they find it quite fun to see how much it weighs etc. So we bought 3 tins from Asda of the £4 offer Roses etc.