PlayStations VS food

So she's cutting down on food costs to buy GIFTS FOR HER CHILDREN. Not splurging on herself. What's the problem ?

No sharing consoles in my house. If you don't game then you won't get it.

Not sure why she's going to Smyths for them like if she's paying cash. There are cheaper options, especially if she wants 3. It's a bit weird

What a dickhead comment.

The link between ultra processed food and ill health is well established. Do the children understand their health is being sacrificed. Are they even old enough to comprehend what some adults dont seem to.
www.theguardian.com/society/2024/feb/28/ultra-processed-food-32-harmful-effects-health-review

Food is obviously really important and a priority. It’s a shame because a lot of the healthiest food can be the cheapest - but only if you have time to prepare it.

She is at least showing her kids that if you want some thing, you may have to make sacrifices elsewhere.

FFS leave this 'friend' alone. If she was getting into enormous debt to buy her children their ideal Christmas gifts, it might be a different matter, but she's evidently saving on food money to afford these presents. You sound snobby and judgmental and I'm glad you're not a friend of mine.

Well you have a lovely time doing just that SuperGreens, that's exactly what OP wanted, a fellow frother.

Where you get off on calling supermarket brands cancer-causing I don't know, many people buy them, but I expect the OP's story has piqued your outrage what with pizza and nuggets.

I recognise goady when I see it.

She's buying her kids cancer causing junk food so she can on buying them addictive mind junk for Christmas. Yeah judging hard, shit lazy foolish parenting.

One thing I’ve learnt over the years is that we all make differenct choices with our money. Some people even burn it (cigarettes) or p it up a wall…

What grates on me is people who plead absolute poverty and then spend a fortune (thousands) on something like a holiday or new car.

OP's not getting nearly the hard time that she deserves and cutting back on food costs to service Christmas isn't unique. I don't know what OP serves her children and I don't care but neither is it relevant to critique another parent's shop. They're not here, they're not asking for advice, they've made the decision to cut back on food costs to take care of Playstations purchase.

What else is there to say? The rest of the year might look different entirely but if it doesn't, what is it that needs to be done about it? Other than pat the OP on the back for her entirely goady post. I'm not going to.

I think OP is getting a hard time here. Removing the PlayStations from the equation, I would typically feed my children something like a bolognaise which could cost a tenner with cheese, salad, garlic bread etc....Towards the end of the month if I'm stretched, for a few days I replace those sorts of meals with cheap pasta/pizza. I would not choose to feed them like this all the time to afford games consoles, that is imo a fairly poor parenting decision.

There is huge pressure on parents to provide the "perfect" christmas.

This is not new. If it's not the PS5 it's the PS4, or the N64, or a megadrive or even going back to the early 80s with the speccy.

These things have to be paid for out of squeezed household budgets.

Sharing also doesn't work when a lot of games only let you have one save, so if another wants to play it would overwrite the first. It was why we had two consoles as a gaming couple.

Anyway, it is up to people what they do and she is avoiding debt. I don't see yellow stickers as a big deal tbh.

Why do you refer to this woman as a friend, OP? That's really odd. You're so judgemental about her choices which have absolutely nothing to do with you.

You missed a trick (as PP suggested) by not saying that all the spending was on credit cards, yada yada. You could have really rubbed your thighs at the responses then. Ugh.

Poor effort. This thread and your friendship. Do your friend a favour, tell her that you post about her made up situation online and see if she still gives you the time of day. I wouldn't.

My two each have their own consoles, switches and gaming laptops. The idea of them sharing them is a nightmare frankly. I buy quite a few things from the Asda cheap range too, it's good value.

Mine used to share an account but it doesn't really work as they play online with friends, want to save their progress etc. we've evolved to them all having one, sometimes gifted, we were given a second hand one, one saved up - it's much easier and they can also watch Netflix/prime separately

Assuming OP's friend has teens (if she has younger children, then yes, ridiculous), it's not really practical to share. They will all want to be using it at the same time.

I don't think the cost of a PS5 is ridiculous for a teenager's Christmas present if it's affordable for the family and it's what they really want. I would perhaps be making them joint Christmas/birthday presents and/or asking the DC to contribute themselves if they had part time jobs. People do budget to afford Christmas presents. OP has only noticed because her friend has only started saving recently. If she'd bought the same level of food all year round, it wouldn't have been noticed.

Also 3 ps5 cost £1.200 she can get them to share a ps5 account and they can share games & play them at the same time. (We do this) so probably not as expensive as you judge!

I wouldn't buy presents that cost £2000 (well, who knows what I'll do in a few years if the kids ask nicely...) but I don't think buying the cheaper range is choosing presents over food. I'm not convinced a yellow sticker Asda pizza is nutritionally worse than waitrose's finest pizza. It makes sense not to shell out for brand names unnecessarily.

Haha I can just imagine 3 teenage boys sharing a PS5, not going to happen! 😂

My children have a console each, but my eldest has a learning disability and won't share his. Maybe similar type of thing?

Regardless of that you ARE being judgey. She's budgeting, hardly starving herself & her kids. That's normal parenting?

I can see where she's coming from and as long as she isn't getting into debt then I don't think it's a massive problem.
If you have 3 consoles there will be fewer arguments and they can even play together (they will probably play with their own sets of friends though). It would be practically impossible to share between 3.
Mine spent summer up the park playing football, but now it's pissing down with rain and getting dark. Especially for boys this is how they socialise in the winter now. It's a myth that they just sit on their own becoming more solitary, all I hear is constant chat and laughter.

She is doing what she can to make her children happy in a way she feels is best. Other than telling her good luck I wouldn't think twice about it let alone start a thread here about it.

Does one household need three playstations? probably not. I know nothing about her though so I am not going to judge. Maybe her children are all at awkward ages and won't play the same games, maybe they don't share space well or get on well. I can see how one playstation between three could cause issues then if you buy two to try and minimize issues one will end up left out.

On the off chance that this is true and not some made up bs to get the "anything more than a satsuma, a book voucher, and some new socks is frivolous." Brigade out this morning..

Do you seriously believe her kids will be comforted by the fact they don't have what they want because they've been eating birds eye nuggets?

Anyway, I hope she continues to buy cheap crap and puts the money to driving lessons so she can ditch your judgy arse.

Well, yeah. A PlayStation doesn’t cost 2k either. But three PlayStations do. For comparison, the cheapest iPhone (because you said blackberry and this is the zeitgeist equivalent) is £429. The cheapest PlayStation is £389. Throw in three copies a game or buy bundles instead of just the console and suddenly you’re at £2k.

The trouble with having three older kids is that their window for playing is so narrow. After school, activities, homework and anything else, then you get 1/3rd of a PlayStation to bicker over and hope that your friend will be able to hop on theirs to play with you during that narrow window of opportunity? For a lot of gamers (looking at the teenage boy demographic) we’re past the stage of “save your game, it’s time for dinner.” Game events happen in real time, and online games last until the time/game is over.

I, personally, wouldn’t buy three PlayStations, but I absolutely see where she’s coming from.