£100 Christmas budget per teen, I feel awful

£100 is plenty. I have £50 budget for my kids. Don’t borrow money or use charity. It’s not necessary. Just tell them your budget.

Ebay for the piano? Vinted for the trainers?

You can get A LOT of this second hand and it helps the environment quite a bit. Digital pianos, vinyl record player, skateboard - you can get nice, barely-touched versions of all of these. I agree beauty stuff and trainers CAN be expensive if they’ve asked for a specific thing (Adidas Sambas or Dior lip oil or something). They’re teens, that’s old enough to understand money is tight, and talk about whether they might like “dupes” (especially with makeup) - a LOT of name brand beauty things are just a waste of money.

£100 is a generous Christmas budget. Your DD are old enough to understand that there isn’t an unlimited amount of money. If Christmas is only about the value of their presents - time for a rethink for them about looking forward to a lovely day with you and their sibling.

Behave yourself and stop being so foul and crude to the OP. The father has gone back on his word and the OP is at a loss.

What an unpleasant reply and a particularly unpleasant turn of phrase.

£100 is still a lot of money. You shouldn’t feel bad when you’re trying to give your DC what they want. I think you need to be honest about your situation and offer them the option of reviewing their list and picking cheaper things or accepting second hand items if this means they can have exactly what they’ve asked for.

£100 is more than enough. And considerably more than many kids will get. Spend time with them, have some fun and try to think about what you gave got rather than what you haven't. Your kids will hopefully grow up to be thoughtful and grateful adults rather than the spoilt, entitled brats some families bring up when they think throwing cash at them is the same as showing love.

Ive just seen that you live rurally, have you tried googling your village+fund. A lot of villages have a small fund for villagers.

OP can you use Klarna or bnpl for something forxeach of the children? Not suggesting getting into thousands of debt but just to help then you could spread it out over nextcfew months?

I agree with the poster who said ‘talk to them’. We were pretty broke during my teenage years. I knew some of it. When my Mum talked to me honestly about budgets and priorities, I felt grown up and respected as well as loved. That’s a gift that can’t be taken away.

Horrible unkind and sanctimonious post. This post is exactly what is wrong with society and Christmas today.

Boils my piss that unsupportive posters like you aren't permanently banned from posting and kicking an OP when she is down.

That must be incredibly frustrating.

Definitely worth looking at second hand digital pianos. If there are any local music shops also enquire about ex hire. Theyre not great to buy online for value as they’re challenging to deliver so sometimes local purchase can be a good option.

Polaroid cameras - again. Look at second hand. Theyre often bought for weddings or similar and then never reused.

Re the digital piano, I'd definitely look at eBay.

This is really bad that their Dad has done this.

I think you have afew options:-

• credit card
• looking on Facebook sites and local selling sites for the keyboard and record player….
• speak to their dad and say, ok so you can’t do £200 each what can you do

I don’t think the post was grabby at all everyone needs to vent sometimes - we haven’t got a huge budget either but we do why we can with the money we have.

Nasty nasty. And no need either. Something wrong with someone's mind who takes that from OPs post

A very healthy family income but a total inability to read 🙄

They've asked for quite a lot of things, I'm assuming you usually have quite a large budget. At their age I would just tell them the budget won't cover what they have asked for this year and ask them to prioritize one thing.

Could you ask which item they would prefer? Explain the tight budget, as dad can no longer add to it. You have enough for perhaps one of the bigger gifts each and some little bits? Does DD1 want the keyboard (and nothing else) or the skateboard and a few other bits? Does DD2 want the Polaroid or the trainers? And then some other bits?

You are doing amazing.

See what you can get secondhand. Ive got my daughter second hand books which is much cheaper than new. Ask on Facebook if anyone is willing to do any swaps for anything you may have that you dont need.

For music equipment, Ask local music charities and independent stores if there is any way they could help. Also use turn2us to see if there is any specific grants you could get.

Christmas is all on me too. And its tough because the pressure is entirely on you.

Are you able to give a rough location so we can share any local suggestions?

Tell them the truth and that you can now only afford £100.
They are old enough to understand.
You haven't let them down. Their dad has. So don't you feel bad for one second 🙂

She doesn't have £300 per child though!

Read the thread. OO doesn't have £300, she has £100 per child because the father has let them all down and gone back on his word.

Second hand pianos are common, even been offered 2 free digital pianos already this year (via work)