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.

Does saving it come at the expense of being able to build up family savings? If not then crack on and I see it as no different from being in the general pot first

£50 goes into ISA each month the rest goes activities.

Food
Electricity
Clothes
Gas
Everything.

I can't afford to save it.

I can go weeks without touching it then it gets hammered. But I only use it for kid related stuff.
School shoes, uniform, clothes, if they need some kit for an activity (looking at the new sleeping bag ive got my eldest who does scouts). We've just had half term and there was some left so I used some for coffee and cake when we'd been out as a treat.

It goes into the general spending pot at the moment. When he starts nursery it'll go towards those fees, and then I'm hoping to be able to save it instead when he reaches school age,

When our dc were young enough for us to get it, it went in the pot, which was then spent on bills, which would include things like food, heating and a roof over their heads, but also include things like school shoes etc which were more specifically for them. Initially I seem to remember it fairly much covered a tin of formula and a pack of nappies, but we never specifically put it aside for any particular things, it was just an important part of our household income.

Never heard of the concept of the Government funding savings accounts for dc of better off families, until reading about it on MN.

We do the same. Ours are pretty young. We saved theirs for a year, then put it into our housing deposit as we were buying our family home. Now we're building it back up to what it was before and plan to just keep putting it away each month. It's one pot for the one and two year old so we'll just split it when they're 18.

Just goes into the joint account but I spend a lot more than the amount each month on their hobbies + save for them too so I don’t feel bad about not specifically allocating it.

We have massively benefited from having 2 incomes just about below the threshold for ages so it has always been ‘nice’ money for us rather than essential - we’re very fortunate.

It goes into general funds, we certainly couldn’t afford to regularly save it.

We save it for birthdays, Xmas and the school clothes shopping each summer

@summerlovingvibes I’m the same. We don’t have investments or money in the family that will go to DC. It’s one of the only ways I can regularly save for DC, for uni, etc. I see from the thread we’re not alone.

@mummyava As to my low nurses wage: I’m on a band 6 and we live quite frugally (I’ve not been to a hairdressers since before the pandemic, clothes from eBay, that sort of thing) but I’m still living month to month. Our household income is below the government threshold so it doesn’t seem we’re playing unfairly?

Pre-teens it went into savings. Then we discussed what to do. So went directly to them as pocket money and some into their savings.

Never received any.

@Nonymousnurse just don't put in the bank, put into a stocks based investment fund otherwise inflation will erode value hugely

I used to use it towards something like clothing for my dc. Once they were a teen I gave it to them.

Clothes for her, nursery dinners, swimming once a fortnight.

It’s not like child benefit is dropped in to my account with a little flag that marks the cash as “Child Benefit”!!

It’s simply money in my account and I spend it on what I spend it. Whether that’s a new pair of school shoes for my son. Or a manicure for me!

Just general funds, but we do need to pay it back (high income child benefit charge).

We are lucky enough to not need to specifically plan day-to-day spending so no need for a specific pot. We’ve also got a savings pot of our own that we’ll use to carve out the car fund/house deposit/student loan if beneficial when the time comes.

Only one child here so less planning required!

I split it 50/50 between my DDs (17) and transfer it to them to pay for their travel to college. It just about covers the cost during term time. They keep any money they may accrue over the holidays.

Swimming lessons and school lunches

I’m a bit horrified at cb being given to those who can afford to save it as £18000 in a bank account, while it barely helps to cover necessities for the dc of those those worse off.

I’m sorry, but I’d rather it didn’t go at all to those who could afford to do that, and it should double for those on the poverty breadline.

I get why you’re taking it, free money after all, but I think it’s morally reprehensible.

I'd love to be able to put it aside for them - although we only receive it for two children and have 4. At the moment it just goes into the general pot.

Unless two children are two old to claim for. CB can be claimed for all your children. It's not limited to two.

Too*

@alotoftutus yes as said above Child Benefit is not restricted to just 2 children. Put a claim in for them.