How much do you spend on your adult children at Christmas?

jackieb

jemb wrote: »

In turn though, how much do we all spend on the long suffering parentals? We've gone a bit silly this year as they have been far too good with us, helping pay the biggest chunk of wedding, lending us money for half our house deposit, so we've prob spent £350 between them. We usually spend around £100 for them both.

I usually spend about £70-£80 on them both. Mum gets the same every year. She gets an Estee Lauder Youthdew boxset which costs about £35 (you get the body lotion for peanuts if you buy the boxset as it's normally £19.50 on it's own). I sometimes feel bad as she always knows what she's getting, but it's what she likes and she has worn this perfume since it was £7 a bottle! And her perfume and lotion always run out just beofre Christmas, just in time for her to get her new one. Her birthday is tomorrow and one year I bought her some Estee Lauder Knowing perfume for that - she liked it but still preferred her old faithful. I think she'd be disappointed if she didn't get it. :rotfl: Dad usually gets a jumper for around £45.

*Louise*

My parents bought us loads of gifts until we left home, then we were considered 'grown ups' and gifts were (quite rightly) reduced.

For the past 10 years my mum has budgeted £50 per child and granchild. I convinced her to cut back to £30 this year as they have both been off work ill (I did say not to spend anything but she was having none of that!)

No one should 'expect' vast quantities of stuff at Christmas, it puts a lot of pressure on the giver and can lead to people putting themselves in debt

lushlifesaver

My parents usually spend £50 or less on my brother and I (unless there is something they really think we will love). I stopped asking for things when I got to 18 (I'm 21 now) as did my older brother. We tend to get practical things (pjs, slippers, socks) and a couple of treats.
I'm in charge of Christmas in our house so I pay for all the food etc, I've done that since I was 17 and got my first job! I spend up to £40 each on my mum, dad and brother. And £20 on my bestie

We prefer that the focus is the day and what it means to us as a family rather than how much gets spent on us/what we get. I guess we're quite lucky as none of us are particularly materialistic

aliasojo

This is a nightmare for me every year tbh. My eldest is 28 so in theory should be well out of the 'spending lots' stage and should be in the 'token gift' stage, BUT he has learning disabilities amongst other things so is much younger minded.

I end up giving him more than I would if he were a 'normal' 28 year old bloke. He probably ends up on a par with his 12 year old sister. Then, I feel I have to give his brother who is 22, a similar amount otherwise it's unfair.

I might have to become a Jehova Witness, at least that way I could avoid the present dilemma every year.

purple.sarah

jemb wrote: »

In turn though, how much do we all spend on the long suffering parentals? We've gone a bit silly this year as they have been far too good with us, helping pay the biggest chunk of wedding, lending us money for half our house deposit, so we've prob spent £350 between them. We usually spend around £100 for them both.

We had the same dilemma this year. Mum helped us pay for our wedding but we don't have much money (if we did we would have spent it on the wedding!) We're giving each set of parents a wedding photo made into a canvas to hang in their home (£15 each at a Tesco Extra photo shop) so they can relive the happy memories and a hamper. It works out at about £25 each.

valk_scot

Untill she passed away two years ago my mum would give me and my sister £25 each in M&S tokens and a box of Thorntons chocolates. The two husbands would get £20 in Amazon vouchers, the four grandkids would get £25 each in either cash or presents, depending on age. This still added up to £200 out my mum's purse which is a fair bit for a pensioner, especially as we all had perfectly good incomes (not rich, but enough) of our own. In return my sister and I would attempt to spend about £50 each on her but there was never anything she particularly wanted. We usually ended up taking her out for a nice lunch or two, though the year when I sponsored a cat at the local cat rescue in her name was very sucessful, lol.

I really think it depends on the income level. Pensioner parents shouldn't be struggling to buy big presents for adult kids on decent wages, I don't think. If parents are on good incomes and the "child" is still a struggling student or hard up in general then fair enough, but otherwise, no.

[Deleted User]

What I do is buy little bits and pieces for them throughout the year and put them away for Christmas , they are 26 & 27 years old and they still have a stocking each and so does my SIL now too! lol

And I LOVE buying them gifts and lavishing on them , can't seem to help it , am always thinking of them ( I do treat myself too of course! ) But it is the same with my Grandson - I know the toys he will LOVE and if I see it during the year for half price or even much less and I have the money I will grab it for him and put it away

I must have spent around £150 each , but spread throughout the year it is very affordable and I just LOVE it

( They make no demands and the gifts overwhelm them but I have had so many 'bad' years where I did no buying of presents up till Christmas itself and then just didn't really have the budget to get them all the nice bits I would have loved to & now I can thanks to MSE as it is just spread out over they year now , I just LOVE giving to them , probably always will!! ) xx

[Deleted User]

On DGS note , he was crying for his Mum today and INCONSOLABLE as she had to go out , so I tried the usual food bribe lol but it didn't work so decided to give him one of his pressies early as hate to see him in distress and it WORKED , kept him happy for HOURS , the music drove me mad after a couple of hours and put it away when Mummy came home but was the BEST 8 quid I've spent on him to see his happy face again!

It was the 'Penguin playground' by the way - Great toy , would recommend! :D