Christmas spend for each child this Christmas

fred246

We opened bank accounts for our children when they were young and pay them pocket money by standing order. People give them presents or money for christmas and so they have a very good income. They are in total control of their own accounts. I make them desktop PCs which are a fantastic long term investment so they can do their homework on. All other tech spending is up to them. One of them once bought a tablet but it was never used for long. They just buy smart phones. They research them for ages and decide exactly what features they want. Normally spend about £300 to £400. When they have spent that amount of their OWN MONEY they really look after them. They buy a case and never leave them on chairs or on the floor. Their friends seem to go through phones like mad. They sometimes break them on purpose so their parents will buy them an upgrade.

AndyBSG

Roughly 50-70 quid each on my two.

That's a 'main' present around the £40 mark and then just a few stocking fillers worth about £20-£30.

Most of the stocking fillers are what I would call educational toys though such as books and crafting things.

Could spend much more and the 'relatively' low spend is because I think that is enough IMO and too many kids nowadays seem to be growing up focused entirely on materialistic things.

SingleSue

fred246 wrote: »

We opened bank accounts for our children when they were young and pay them pocket money by standing order. People give them presents or money for christmas and so they have a very good income. They are in total control of their own accounts. I make them desktop PCs which are a fantastic long term investment so they can do their homework on. All other tech spending is up to them. One of them once bought a tablet but it was never used for long. They just buy smart phones. They research them for ages and decide exactly what features they want. Normally spend about £300 to £400. When they have spent that amount of their OWN MONEY they really look after them. They buy a case and never leave them on chairs or on the floor. Their friends seem to go through phones like mad. They sometimes break them on purpose so their parents will buy them an upgrade.

That's pretty much what I did apart from building computers for them (I probably could have but I got scared :rotfl:)

I've got youngest's Ipad 2 that he saved for and purchased when they had just come out, he gave it to me when he went off to uni last year as he had bought middle son's very well used but brick of an Ipad air (he also bought his own) for a very small amount and fixed it, again for a very small amount. He just very recently fixed his MacBook instead of buying a new one.

We shared a desktop and a laptop for a while until eldest bought his own laptop when he was 16 and it wasn't too long after that that youngest started building his first very simple desktop computers with his mid spec gaming pc saved for and finished a day or two after his 16th birthday and just days before his GCSE exams.


For us, it was out of necessity, I didn't have the finances to buy all the latest tech, it was simply a make do and mend thing so that was what we did and out of that, it sparked off an interest in youngest that brought him into this world (he has autism), opened his horizons and has set him on a career path. It also made the boys realise that if they mishandled or were too carefree with their items, there would be no replacements.


This year all told, I will be spending approx. £175 on 6 nieces and nephews, my parents, my ex mother in law, 3 (adult) children, 2 siblings and their partners plus the partners of one niece and one son.

So far on my Christmas list is Yorkshire teabags and Amazon vouchers so I can buy some books. I'm just not very materialistic.

JIL

My three are aged between 25 and 30. I used to buy a few bits and some cash but I'm not sure the little bits/gifts were what they wanted. I was buying socks and smellies and other things just to wrap up.Now I just give the cash £350 each. Their partners get a gift card and some smellies to the value of £50.
Christmas and birthdays are the only times my husband actually passes comment on how we should "spend" our money.
We give our parents £100 each and our nieces and nephews £20 each.
We don't tend to buy each other anything, we usually book a holiday to look forward to.

Sea_Shell

£20 each for the Nieces & Nephews, who are under 18. We don't buy for adults (with family agreement), or each other. We buy things as we need them throughout the year, we don't "save" things up for Christmas.

candygirl

JIL wrote: »

My three are aged between 25 and 30. I used to buy a few bits and some cash but I'm not sure the little bits/gifts were what they wanted. I was buying socks and smellies and other things just to wrap up.Now I just give the cash £350 each. Their partners get a gift card and some smellies to the value of £50.
Christmas and birthdays are the only times my husband actually passes comment on how we should "spend" our money.
We give our parents £100 each and our nieces and nephews £20 each.
We don't tend to buy each other anything, we usually book a holiday to look forward to.

Will you adopt me please?:eek::rotfl:

earthmother

This year, I'm aiming for the main present to be around the £50 mark (a new game each probably, looking at their lists), and then there will be another £25-ish on smaller bits.

There have been years when I've been a little more flush and it's been more - I think the largest spend has been about £150 each on the main gift (last year - eldest wanted a RC tank, youngest a basketball hoop, middle one went with gaming, a few years before they got a new Xbox One between them, the only time a console has been bought for them, rather than them saving for it) - but the norm is generally about the £75 mark overall for each.

As they get older (currently 17, 15 and 12), it's harder to make it look much, but they're all aware of the value of things and are getting good at saving etc if they want bigger stuff.

fred246

My parents always used to say "we have given you all the same" which made us check up and compare. We never say that to our children and I have never heard them checking the value of each other's presents. We don't really have to make them all equal every year. In private we sort of check that everything is roughly equal over the long term.

onlyroz

Any significant electronic item, like a phone, games console, tablet or computer, can easily cost hundreds of £££. Games themselves can cost £30-£80 if you buy them new. So I can see how it's easy for Christmas costs to extend into the several hundred.


For us, we typically budget around £200 per child.

Spendless

fred246 wrote: »

My parents always used to say "we have given you all the same" which made us check up and compare. We never say that to our children and I have never heard them checking the value of each other's presents. We don't really have to make them all equal every year. In private we sort of check that everything is roughly equal over the long term.

Agree with this. Last year our DS Christmas present from us was driving lessons. He passed his test at the first attempt yesterday. :T I haven't kept a tally but it will have cost in excess of £1K. His younger sister didn't get the same, the year she is old enough and wants to learn she will. That year DS will have far less