What do you spend child benefit on?

[Nonymousnurse]

I’m a nurse, two DC, married and husband is a middle income earner. We qualify for child benefit but do not receive any other public funds.

I’ve been saving the child benefit, never spent a single pence of it, with the idea of passing it to my DC when they are older. I told MIL this and she looked at me like I’m mad, said she always used it for courses, partie, etc. But I reckon I can get by on our wages so have put the CB in a savings pot. I realise I’m fortunate to be able to do this.

Just wondering if others save or spend their CB.

Day to day spending. I would love to be able to save it for them but we need it for food bills etc

Nah we saved it for her uni education.

£25 goes into a Junior ISA and the rest is in a separate pot which we use to buy him clothes or anything else he may need that month.

When Dd was newborn and small I was brassic and needed it to get through.

6 years on we’re much more comfortable. It just goes in with my wages and I put a set amount into savings for her each month. Hopefully as long as nothing terrible happens she should have enough for first car, uni and a house deposit by the time she’s 18/21.

But I know how fucking desperate it is relying on £20 a week to keep your head above water.

Nothing, we save ours too.

There's lots we could spend it on (baby essentials), but we choose to lose out on certain things so that we can give it to DD's when they're older when they'll really need it.

We aren't rich by any means like some PP's are suggesting about people who save CB, but even if we were, we're entitled to it.

I get child benefit, UC and child maintenance (single parent) it all just goes together with my wages in the same pot and spent on whatever is needed. I don't assign the different payments for specific things.

I may be wrong but for info I think if you need to pay it all back, then you can just register for it and not claim and still get the NI credits (saves the faff of having to pay back) ...others may correct me if I'm wrong

I put it in a separate account which I use to pay for swimming lessons, clothes, days out and little treats. It’s nice knowing there is money there for some extras. I would like to save more for them in the future but likely in my name.

Mine goes into a regular savings account each month. My earnings vary so some years I keep it all and some I have to repay it all. The years I can keep it, it just ends up in the pot - sometimes it pays for a holiday, sometimes goes on essentials

Goes into household pot.

If you can afford to save it fab.

I do the same along with any money he's been gifted. He's sitting at around £5000 just now at 19 months. Should be a nice little help in life for when he needs it.

I'm a single mum and child benefit goes into the general expenses.

DS is an endlessly hungry teen and easily eats £84 of food, every four weeks so I guess it goes on that.

He's an only child, so I'll worry about helping with a house deposit when I retire and downsize.

It just goes in the pot. Goes in.... one food shop plus various transport costs like train/taxi fares and it's usually gone within 4 days.

We don’t get it anymore but when we did (when DD was a baby) we put it in her savings account

I have a separate pot. I save it up and then if I need to get stuff but can’t afford to that month and he needs it quickly then I use his pot. He’s under 1 year atm and first child so we have been spending most of it every 3-4 payments. He seems to get to about £300 or so then it’s shit we need baby gates/pen, new clothes, this that etc.

Once it builds up again we need to get a new car seat system.

We are putting it into the pot while I am still on maternity leave, but when I go back to work it will be going into her savings account. We will however be getting big purchases she needs with it such as laptops, new bedroom furniture etc and whatever is left when she’s 18 will be hers for a car/house etc x

It gets spent on life. DC have cost me £180 this week in repairs, shoes and glasses.

And at least £100 of the CB is earmarked immediately (school bus fares, canteen, health issues, pocket money, phones etc, etc).

Food shopping

We live in Ireland. We get €140 a month for each of ours who are 6 and 2. We save €100, spend €40. Can't save it all as we are a one income family and need some of it on occasion.

This totals €21,600 per child by the time they are 18. The idea is to have money there for when we need it for larger purchases, a laptop, school trips abroad, driving lessons, car insurance, some help towards their first car or first home. We won't be telling them this money is theirs, it isn't. If they grow up and are PITA's, I'll be treating myself with the cash 😂. Saying that, if the boiler suddenly goes, we may well dip into it and pay it back over time as they need to be kept warm and clean too!

We add it to the pot and spend it on the household. I do intend on saving it from around 2 years of age.

What do you mean by you qualify for it? In Ireland, every child is entitled to child benefits. The money gets transferred to a parent's account monthly.

@Truestorypeeps slight cross post 🙈

I don't see how's it's disgraceful? I think it's a pretty amazing thing tbh. I never said I was well off - neither of us earn over 50K and therefore are entitled to it. I'm currently on SMP, we've used all of our savings and except for a few days each month I live in my overdraft. Yet we still choose to try and save our children the money because I know for sure we will never be well off enough to be able to give them chunks of money from our own savings as we simply won't have it.

So I guess I could say "I spend it on baby classes etc, but I also put aside money each month into children's savings" rather than saying i directly save it. But either way, the amount we receive from CB I don't touch, just squirrel away for them and live in my overdraft until I go back to work.

Goes towards life. There's always something that needs buying or replacing with two teens whose mother who contributes the grand sum of nothing.

When I was growing up I think it was £7 a week and my mum use it for my pocket money

School uniform, food, school trips, things for the child.

I wonder if people don't spend it because they don't need it and so wonder what to spend it on........ ummmm