Who is right, me or DH?

[JustMarriedAndLovingIt]

Second marriage for both of us. I have 1 child he has 2. We have decided after a very tight year financially that each child will only get £100 for Christmas presents plus around £20 for stocking.

Anyhow, I looked online and found that my son’s favourite shop has an outlet store on eBay 👍 I messaged DH and said I could probably get DS around £200 WORTH of clothes but only SPEND (this is important) his £100 budget.

My husband immediately said, ’well I suppose to make it fair we should raise my two’s budget to £200’

I said no but he got cross. I told him we could look in outlet stores for things for DSD but not sure he was getting it. Who’s right?

He heard "spend £200" and reacted accordingly.

If he's happy to extend the budget to 200, then I'd still spend the 100 in the outlet and buy another 100 of goods on top.
Everyone is happy and no arguments.
He doesn't need to know what the full price would be. Just the actual cost. And stick to it.

I am assuming, he is thinking the £100 spent on clothes is going to be in addition to the £100 on presents.

Or are you planning on just buying clothes for your son for Christmas.

You were right. You would be spending £100 and therefore it would be £100 worth of clothes. Perhaps you phrased it a little confusingly. The only thing would be ensuring your DS does not end up looking as though he has twice as many presents as the others. I suggest you look around to see if you can find a similar bargain for his children. If not then, if they are old enough, you just need to explain to them all that they have had the exact same amount of money spent on them.

Would he just be getting the clothes for Christmas?

In which case you are right. Point out that you would be spending £100 not £200!

Everyone is old enough to understand luckily. In actual fact I ‘only’ found £55 to buy but it was still worth £110. Maybe I should stop over thinking it, thanks 🙏

I will probably look and see if ebay have any outlet stores for aftershave that he can drown in, typical teenage boy!

Stop talking about worth and concentrate on cost.

Outlet clothes are usually last season's or have minor defects. Or cut the middle person.
So, they're worth what you pay for them.

I can kind of see both sides.

Personally I think it's more important to give gifts that are of equal value to the recipients, than to spend the same amount of money but one child get vastly more than the others.

You are right, not sure how he doesn't understand that your son is still only getting £100!!

If they were all getting identical lists ie one pair of trousers, one pair of trainers, two t-shirts etc but your outlet store meant that your DS would get two of everything, your H MAY have a point.

But as that’s unlikely to be the case, stop telling him the previous price of the items and note the actual amount you spend, that’s the only thing that counts. Similarly if you get anything for your DSDs on BOGOF you don’t count the cost of both items individually, you count the amount you spend.

Personally I think it's more important to give gifts that are of equal value to the recipients, than to spend the same amount of money but one child get vastly more than the others

I think it’s important to make it look like the gifts are of similar value, and to try and spend a roughly similar amount.

Sometimes it doesn’t work out that way eg if one child wants X Box games which are tiny but expensive, or jewellery for example.

But I’ve never heard of anyone using the I discounted price of an item as a guide when paying a discounted price. That’s just odd.

Why did you bring up 'worth'? Stuff is only worth what you're willing to pay for it. If you budget and spend £100, why does it matter what sort of discounts you get on stuff?