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Spill the beans..

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  • Bumpmakesfour
    Bumpmakesfour Posts: 852 Forumite
    edited 11 November 2011 pm30 9:16PM
    WOWWWW!! And there was me thinking I spent a lot!I am absolutely -->:eek: at some of the amounts people spend purely on presents,especially on really young ones that wouldn't care if they had 50 quid spent because they prefer playing with the boxes anyway!
    So far have spent £200 each on the girls aged 5 and 7 and about £230 on DS who is almost 9 as he wanted some big lego sets,plus about £40 on the three stockings.We have done a "shared" family present eg a Wii last year or an xbox the year before so might get the Kinnect for them this year if i see a bargain but we have a baby bump due around xmas so might be a bit busy:p
    A lot of it has been bought in the sales and courtesy of the grabbit board so I've saved a fortune tbh and it looks like I've spent more than I actually have.There are sackfulls ready and wrapped up in the loft,our tree/floor will be full and I'm :) because I've saved cash and used some clubcard vouchers on double up.

    We could spend more if we wanted to and if I see anything tempting inbetween now and xmas I might grab it.We're not tight but I like treating the adults in my life too so refuse to waste hundreds of quid on plastic [STRIKE]carp[/STRIKE] toys that I'll be cursing over by boxing day after tripping over it five billion times and having to find somewhere for it to live.Last year we booked christmas dinner out at our fave country pub as a treat for the grown ups,cost a fair bit but was a lovely afternoon.
    We spend quite a lot in the run up to christmas,santa express train/grottos/ice skating/meals out.We do lots of baking,I make xmas eve hampers,we all get new christmas clothes etc so I guess I probably spend the same as some of the people I was originally shocked at but my spending is spread over other things than just presents.
    I put spare cash away to pay for things throughout the year that they'll enjoy like holidays/days out/birthday parties etc and we do reward charts at home that they get small treats for.Just makes more sense to us to spread treats out over the year rather than one day tbh xx
    Slightly mad mummy to four kidlets aged 4 months,6,7 and 8 :D:D:D xx
  • bobsa1
    bobsa1 Posts: 1,947 Forumite
    Gosh this thread has made me think! I thought I'd been generous but no where near some people! youngest dd aged 7 getting kiddizoom dvd camera, £23- sylvanian hotel £52 sylvanian furniture (all free with tesco points) zhu zhu pets £25 ish for 4 animals and three playsets, various sales- loads of amazon games bought for a couple of pounds each and a bop it bought for £10 in sainsburys sale so about £130 plus stocking and loads for her to open

    Same for teenage daughters got all bits in sales or points etc so I think I've spent about £150 each so maybe £400 for all 3 children. I do tend to pay for activities and stuff through the year and they go to private school so to be honest it's a struggle to come up with that.
  • mcja
    mcja Posts: 4,077 Forumite
    This thread has been really interesting to read but its sad that we (me inc) have all felt the need to explain why we have spent what we have spent on our kids. We all use this site as we dont like 'wasting' money so that we can spend it on the things that really matter.
    I didnt work until this Sept and I am only a dinner lady/reading asst so our spend is relative to our income as i suspect is £500/£1000 spends. Our kids are all loved the same and will all have a wonderful Christmas holidays.
    “Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff.”
  • I have one daughter aged 6

    I've spent roughly £300 and thats about what i spend every year.

    But this year i lost my part time job, it's me who usually buys all the birthday presents, clothes for me and daughter e.c.t and my partners wages pays the bills, mortgage and food. but despite loosing my job, i managed to buy all her christmas by using my (pittance) redundancy and pay in liu money. i don't have any money to buy anybody else presents ( i usually spend about £50 each on my parents and sibling, less on the in laws) but i've just started a new job so will see what kind of wage i get at the end of the month. i'll be buying my family (parents) presents, just might not be as generous as i normally am.
  • I think a lot also depends on what you spend on them during the year. I often see bargains for my children and will buy them and let them have them. My SIL, however, only buys for her children on birthdays and Christmas, so spends about £300 on each of them.
  • cef66
    cef66 Posts: 133 Forumite
    Your income may be smaller than others mcja but we all need lunchtime staff and reading assistants in our schools. As you said being loved is what matters the most. Your kids are lucky indeed.
  • Spend about £150 each on our 3 kids (13, 11 and 8) not including stocking fillers. They usually have about a dozen presents each to open on Christmas day but some of those are bought second hand off ebay or from charity shops, they don't mind at all, if they even notice.

    With presents for family and friends, extra food, decorations, entertainment and party clothes I try to keep total budget under £1000. I've discussed the budget with the older 2 and they are content with their share:T
  • I have one DD and I don't really have a budget some years I've spent £300 some I've spent almost £2000 :( It all depends on what money I have and what she is into, as she's got older the presents have got less but cost more. I suppose I just get what I can until christmas comes - Don't suppose that is very MSE though, maybe I should do a budget next year :)))))) But NO debt after years of spending months paying for christmas I now DON'T get it if I don't have the funds :)
    Winging life....
  • my twins will be 8 months at christmas. we have bought them one big,joint present between them- pollyanna rocking pony,£45, which should give them a good couple of years play. i bought 3 classic baby board books on amazon a couple of months ago for £12,3 toys at a nearly new sale for about £5, 2 long sleeved christmas tops- 1 each - from supermarket A for £2 each, and a humphreys corner elephant for £12. ive bought a pretty christmas dress for one of them(not sure which!!) from a nearly new for £1.50 and need to get another dress so they've both got one, hopefully from another sale. in total thats £80 with a dress still to buy- i thought i'd spent more so am pleased!

    For 2 of our nieces(we have 5!) i have been very bargainus. my husbands family have a lot more money than us and dont really appreciate that we havent got a lot of money. they spend a lot more on gifts and it doesnt occur to them that we cant and dont really want to. so, for these particular nieces, i went to mr T, doubled up my clubcard points and got £40.50 of clothing for 50p . they each have 2 long-sleeved tops and a pair of trousers. At a nearly new sale, i got them a toy present each , older one(5) an unopened m & s tiny ceramic tea-set all boxed and for the younger(3)an inset jigsaw puzzle,in lovely condition and complete. they each cost £1.50. i reckon at least £50 worth of gifts for £3.50!!:D

    now for the rest of the family..!:santa2:
    Aspire not to have more,
    but to be more
  • Oh my lord, that made me squirm. You are actually saying, in a roundabout way that the kids of working mothers have !!!! childhoods. You are, aren't you?


    kippers wrote: »
    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)
    Cogito ergo sum. Google it you lazy sod !!
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