Spill the beans..

sunrise27_2

I've really enjoyed reading this thread
I love christmas and have always aimed to make it a very special time of year for my family but without going into debt over it - I start buying in January and save all year round
when the kids were little ( they're now 22 and 19 ) I always used to save a bit of the child benefit towards their presents as that stopped I make sure their christmas present money is part of our christmas budget
I budget for everything and like to know where every penny goes
I found it hard as they got older and instead of having mountains of cheaper presents they just had a few smaller expensive presents - this was particularly difficult when my daughter was younger and had lots of little presents but bcause my son had hit that age and wanted mobile phones , computer games etc he didn't have that many
this year I will be spending about £250 on each of them but I do try to get them practical gifts that they would normally have anyway but they just make more presents to open lol my daughter will have body sprays , pj's socks etc
they both have steady other halves who I spend about £50 on but this year is different as our son has moved out to live with his girlfriend so I decided that I couldn't spend £250 on him and £50 on her so I have combined their money and they are having some joint presents ( novelty tin of biscuits - money towards a new sideboard and a day trip to a football stadium which they will both enjoy ) then they are having some individual presents as well
my children weren't spoilt throughout the whole year so we enjoyed treating them at christmas - their birthdays are two weeks before christmas and three weeks after ( not good when I never wanted my children near christmas lol and not good a few years when one was 18 and the other 21 within weeks of eachother with christmas in between !!!
we try hard to make it a very special family time full of traditions and make sure we see all the extended family and even now they're older this is all still very important to them
even when they only had paper rounds they have always bought everyone christmas presents and the first year he was working properly my son was the first one to have his presents wrapped and under the tree and at 17 he was soooooo excited to give them out which was lovely , this year my daughter has a full time job and has absolutely loved going out and buying all her christmas presents and they are all wrapped up and ready and the best bit was she had a christmas notebook and a set budget for everyone - I taught her well lol

pippitypip_2

miss_renegade wrote: »

we've spent about £100 on our 3 year old this xmas. She gets spoilt by the rest of the family so we don't need to go mad. her main present cos about £40 and the rest are games etc. She'll be getting a new tv off her nanna and a leap pad from her great gran so it'd be silly spending loads!!

OK, I know I'm going to sound really rude and I honestly don't mean to be, but why does a 3 year old need their own TV? Let alone a new TV for xmas?

I read this and my mouth jumped open, so it's just an honest question and I don't mean any offence.

I don't have children but all through my own childhood my Mum and Dad made it clear they spent equal amounts of money on me and my sister without saying how much they'd spent. One year was a pretty bad one and it was about £10 each all round and others it was more, but we always knew the value of money and never got everything we wanted even in good times.

pippitypip

sunrise27_2

I too have always spent the same amount on my two , when our son got older and his presents didn't look as much as his sisters because he wanted more expensive things hubby suggested that maybe we should spend more on him so it looked as though they had the same but I refused as I see it as a life lesson that needs to be learnt
even now my daughter chooses to have lots of smaller presents whereas my son will choose to have a couple of more expensive presents as he likes his designer clothes etc - both are happy with their presents and know they are treated exactly the same
this year my daughter did see a bag she liked for £65 which I said she could have but that would be a chunk of her money gone - she took a few days but decided on a cheaper bag so has a bag and shoes now for the same amount - although she doesn't know she's got them I always get them do write a list and then I choose what we buy
she wanted uggs for christmas but knew if she had uggs and the first bag then that would be a lot of her christmas money gone so she did some searching and found a pair for £90 so we've put in £40 for her birthday present she's put in £40 anf her Nan is putting in the last tenner for her birthday - my daughter is more than happy with this arrangement and has the uggs shes wanted for ages
I do have to agree about tv's for young children , my children had to wait until they were in year six until they had a tv in their bedroom and at 13 they were allowed cable tv - my sister lets her children have things at the same time so if the older one gets a tv so does the younger one but I liked the idea of treating the older one different so they felt a bit more grown up and the younger one knew they had to wait and it always worked well but what used to really upset me was when I worked in a playgroup and the little children used to tell me they went to sleep in their bedrooms in front of a dvd - bedtome stories are so special and those children were missing out on important one to one time with their parents

nhampson

It really depends. The most spent was a laptop ready for uni.

I won't spend a lot on "junk" but will spend more if its a useful and/or necessary.

Bennett28

Did you really mean to write £1500 for a flute? I got one for my daughter through her school and it is a Yamaha and it cost a couple of hundred.

rozeepozee

Interesting thread and, if I didn't have a son of 5 and twins of 18 months, I would love to read it al!

I doubt we'll spend much on any of our's this year. Maybe £30 ish pound on our son, as he might ask for a dressing up outfit. Nothing for the twins, although they want for nothing. My son has a birthday in November and I believe he gets far too many present so I've talked to him about it and told him that he can open half of those given and the rest is being sent to Father Christmas for under the christmas tree. He's not objected and it means he has about ten ready wrapped pressies to open on Christmas morning and he'll also get plenty of presents from friends and the extended family.

I don't believe I need to spend much on them when they're so young and wonder what message it would give them if I did. We don't have a TV and I educate our eldest about advertising/marketing and how it makes you want things you don't need.

I'm sure there will come a point when they'll want expensive presents and I suppose we'll have to adapt when that time comes but I can't ever imagine we'll spend huge sums on them, unless it''s educational like a computer, but we already have those in the house anyway...

The emphasis I place on Christmas is it's a time to see family and friends. That's the enjoyment in it for us, which is what we model to our children.

rachel90

I don't have my own children but my fiance has 2 nieces and 2 nephews, he has more adult family members to buy for than me and we have decided to buy for our own family because he spends less on his family (its always been this way) and we go halves on the kids presents. We are buying for eachothers parents as well.
So my year looks like this;

Fiance: £100
Mum, Dad and Sister: £40 each
Fiances parents: £10 each
Kids: £20 each (Fiance to pay another £20 each for them)

Will probably get his brother something as well for around £10.
Doesn't really make much sense, he has 2 brothers and a sister, a brother in law and a sister in law, a mum, dad and step dad whereas I only have a mum, dad and sister so its something that makes sense to us! Used to buy for my grandparents but they told me that I shouldn't be spending my money on them and that I should be saving for a house! So don't buy for them anymore, just make sure I see them and give them a card obviously!

Agreed on £100 to spend on the fiance and him to spend on me as we usually go mad and just buy everything we think the other might like. This year, hes stuck as I have no idea what I want!!

eyekeeper

I don't celebrate christmas any more but still my children and I make christmas cards for friends and family from coloured paper and "stuff", we always made our own decorations which was great fun in the build up for the big day. All this lead to a very personal and warm touch the aim being that my children didn't grow up with the notion that everything needed to be bought from a shop and that life is not disposable. I would buy my children gifts but I didn't buy them 10 gifts beacause they would have been unhappy to have 7 or 9 gifts, when I choose a gift it has to represent some thing speacial. if your child is young what is the point buying so many toys they end up unwanted very quickly. Now my children are in the young teens and approching I dont do the christmas thing, but I will give my children gifts through out the year, when they have achieved a goal or surpassed them selves in some way.

Spending time with your children is worth so much.

compforus

Last year we spent £5. He had two games from a charity shop. Any money we were given we then spent on warm clothes for him. He was one very unhappy child.

...I can thank the tenants who lived in my flat, didn't pay the rent and then did a runner for that... if only they realised the consequences.

...bitter, me?

Lunar_Eclipse

sunrise27 wrote: »

I do have to agree about tv's for young children , my children had to wait until they were in year six until they had a tv in their bedroom and at 13 they were allowed cable tv [/QUOTE


Really like the way you handled the Uggs purchase, but laughed at the above, because I think Y6 (10/11) is really young to have a TV in the bedroom!:D