to ask how much you are planning to spend on Xmas gifts?

[JoeyJoeJoeJuniorShabadoo]

Not a goady/judgey thread at all, just keen to set myself a budget so I don't go crazy this year again

I'm wondering how much people generally budget to spend on gifts in total (so friends, family etc. not just children)
Is anyone else anal enough to set a budget per category? i'm so sad eg. £10 for aunts/uncles £20 per friend etc etc.


(to balance out the sheer nosiness of this thread, please see left for a picture of a grumpy Christmas cat)

[SingingSamosa]

Does anyone feel bad if they don't spend the same on each child? Is it wrong to do so? I don't think it is wrong by the way, just want other people's opinions

I don't spend the same on each child. I will when they are old enough to understand though. At the age they are now (almost 8, 6 and 4) all they care about is that they've all got the same NUMBER of presents I always make sure that happens!

We don't really buy our children extra things through the year (except maybe the odd comic or something) as we feel they have more than enough as it is. One DD has a January birthday so she get's things then too, and DS has a November bday so he's doing well by Christmas too! We tend to have a big bedroom and playroom sort out a few weeks before Christmas, sorting things to put in the attic, charity, bin and local hospitals. The children really like sorting things to give to children who won't have any presents for Christmas and I think this is a really nice thing for them to do each year.

[StepAwayFromTheEcclesCakes]

nieces and nephews £25 each. Ds's around £500 plus a cash gift, DH whatever is on his list. DB's agreed years ago no presents and Mum and Dad are no longer here to buy for. Ds's don't get much throughout the year even as kids they did not get stuff often, unless it was a birthday so I always went overboard at xmas. now they are older it costs more too but I do spoil them, but tbh I work hard full time to be able to give us things we want and a good life. As does DH so we do appreciate being able to do this for them in the same way we appreciate the way we can afford out home and to save, but we worked hard through uni and shit jobs to work our way up to it and it has taken us to our 50's to finally feel we have what we wanted.

[seasidesally]

sweetsomethings he will love that,one happy boy this year

[Moodyblue1]

DS usually around £500
DD only newborn so probably £50 on stuff she will need in a few months time
DH around £200
My parents £50 each
In laws £40 each
Brother & sister £20 each
Nieces & nephews £30 each

I always tend to go slightly over what I've budgeted though

[riverboat1]

Probably around £50 each on my mum, DP, DSS and my best friend.

About £20 each on DP's parents and my extended family members (aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews etc) who we'll be with on the day.

So in total about £350-£400 on presents.

[DragonMamma]

mascara I try to keep it equal between the 2DC but as DD is older, she sometimes gets more as she wants more electronic stuff. DS is only 4 so is happy with figures - his time will come and then it'll be more even.
The actual amount of presents is usually the same though.

[DragonMamma]

The 2 DC's will have about £300 each.
DH is usually £150 and he will spend the same on me.
£100 on my DM and her husband
£30 on my DF
£50 on my grandparents

We have a large family and are very close but last year we agreed to stop spending on each other as it was getting expensive and ridiculous. Everybody was much happier and less stressed as a result!

[MascaraAndConverse89]

Does anyone feel bad if they don't spend the same on each child? Is it wrong to do so? I don't think it is wrong by the way, just want other people's opinions.

[OstentatiousBreastfeeder]

We don't budget. And actually we've never 'costed' christmas before, so I don't even end up knowing how much we spent!

I know we don't spend an awful lot though. We pick up bargains from about September and stop when the pile in the cupboard looks sufficient, about 5-10 presents per child depending on the size.

[Palomb]

Try not to think about it too much

Kids probably £350 each x2. They are both having new bikes this year
DH and I spend about the same on each other - £350, maybe a bit more.
£30 nieces and nephews and cousins x6
Parents £40x4
Grandparents £40
Siblings £10x3
Work colleagues £10x2

I'm not going to add up how much that is


Both my dc have birthdays in the weeks after Christmas too although we spend less on those so £150x2

[MascaraAndConverse89]

Forgot to add how much we'll be spending!
About £250 on each child.

[MascaraAndConverse89]

We don't buy presents for anyone apart from the kids and sometimes each other. They know that after the kids have been bought for we don't really have much money to go and get everyone else a gift.
I do feel bad about not giving, and I've told them they really shouldn't feel like they have to buy anything for us, but they all say "We don't give to receive". At least, my side of the family do anyway.

[WeirdCatLadyIsFeelingFestive]

Oh, I forgot, I've also spent £50 on my best mates three dd's. Ive done them a snoopy movie gift collection; plush snoopy, snoopy books, money for cinema tickets, popcorn and choccy. I've put it all together in a box which I've covered and shaped so it looks like snoopys dog house

[ginmakesitallok]

I've never really added up how much we spend....
Dd1 is getting a lap top - about £300
Dd2 - about £120
Neices/nephews £25 each x6 £150
SILs/BILS £20 each £80
DM and Dmil £50 ish each
DP £100 ish

FUCK! wish I hadn't done that.....

[HackerFucker22]

DP and I don't do gifts, kids are 3 and almost 1 and both have birthdays within a month of Xmas so we won't spend too much on them.

We save all our coins throughout the year and that is our Xmas fund (tree, food we have Xmas dinner at my folks and booze)

I use my Nectar points as well.

All in we'll probably spend £200 and another £150 on actual presents. I have been stockpiling already.

[WeirdCatLadyIsFeelingFestive]

Dh and I have December/January birthdays so we don't buy each other Christmas gifts. Father Christmas still gets us a stocking though, I believe he spends around £50 on us. We've spent £150 on dd(14) but I think Santa has also spent about £350 on her. He also does stocking gifts for the pets, bless him [santa]

Best mate £75, ddad £65. And that's about it, we don't have many people to buy for.

I think Christmas spending should be only what you can comfortably afford, I would never go into debt for Christmas, but we are lucky in that we've never had to. I imagine if life is pretty grim the rest of the year the temptation to push the boat out for Christmas would be strong.

[Hi5Hello]

I save 5% of my wage through the year for Christmas. From this I buy all the presents for DH, DDs, DSDs, family and friends, trips and food. Out of this our DDs, DADs and DH get about £250 covering stocking, tree and main present. I spend about £50 on the family Christmas Eve hamper too.

I know a lot of MNers will not agree with this but presents for the DDs and DH (and mine from DH) are spread over the week between Christmas and New Year. We set them a. Challenge or a Quiz or a Code each morning to hunt that days present down. DH and I take it in turn to set them so the other can join in too.

I buy presents through the year and food from late October onwards.
Christmas is a big deal in our family and keeping to a budget helps me not great stressed about it.

[Runwayqueen]

We have only brought for DD. DP are having a weekend away next year so have agreed no gifts for each other. My sister is saving for a house deposit and had asked we don't exchange gifts this year, and my parents always say to concentrate on dd and no gifts for them.

Normally we budget £200 for dd. This year I was gifted a voucher of £100 from work, so I've topped up her Christmas gifts using that. I could have saved £100 obviously but as she is the one who looses every Saturday without complaining because I'm at work I haven't, I've just got her more. She misses a lot because I'm at work, including Christmas Day so I felt she should benefit.

Next year it will be back to £200.

[HackerFucker22]

Between us we have 8 siblings, (plus their partners), 13 nieces and nephews, both sets of parents plus our 2 kids.

Even if we did just token gifts it is difficult to manage!! So we'll just get all the kids something small and I will take a bag of goodies (Prosecco, posh biscuits, posh chocolate) to both my folks and the in laws on the day as we will visit them both.

[mrsjanedoe]

The amounts are only ridiculous or horrendous if you can't afford them. If you spend the money you have, no credit card, no overdraft etc, then it's fine, isn't it?

Starting January with a mountain of debts must be so depressing otherwise

[Senpai]

200 on DD
150 on DH
50 each for parents, brother
25 on FIL (He never buys us gifts, but gets DD a token)

So...525 ish.

I also start buying in October, so it's not a huge splurge for me in December when I have to juggle bills and stuff too.

[Unreasonablebetty]

My post read to be really bad, but I promise it's not half as bad of me as it sounds.
Last year I went to my mums who had bought me pjs in the sale, and gone to bovingdon market and got me a fake dior perfume and some aerosols.

My parents bought my husband a god awful wallet, and some thermal socks- they just had a faux fur lining, and deep heat.

One sister told me she didn't have money to buy us a gift,
The other got an asda bubble bath for me. Told husband that we could share if we wanted.

MIL didn't buy her son a gift, not at all. Told him they would pay towards training to further his career, told him same for his birthday, that's the last it was mentioned.

[Unreasonablebetty]

I usually spend horrendous amounts. I've no idea where my DDs presents usually tally up from me and DH but I would say over £1000 most years and it all ends up hardly used crap.

Depends on how much I like DH, if he's been a twat then he ends up with nothing. That happened one year. Usually £500 ish.

MIL usually about £100 same as my mum would usually get. I always buy really nice pjs and Ted Baker gowns or Perfume or skincare stuff

FIL and Dad usually get about £80 each, dad usually has a pair of trainers and whiskey, FIL got a Chanel set last year as he's never had aftershave before.

I usually buy sisters something from the Dior counter. Last year I stole their foundations and went to debenhams and got the closest shades I could find.

This year. I'm not doing it. I get myself too frazzled finding all this money to come from somewhere, and then I get annoyed by people with their obligatory moaning, then they decide that they like the gifts they have.
And family members tend to buy us shit gifts they don't even think about, or buy for me and not my husband. In laws did that last year.

This year my DD is getting £200 of gifts from Santa, and we were supposed to be going to France in January.

I'm feeling so calm this year.. Terrible, but calm.

[SingingSamosa]

I spend:

£25 on each of my nieces and nephew
£40 on my sister and her husband (between them as usually get a joint present)
About £100 on my husband
£30 ish each on my mum and MIL
£10 each on some close family friends (who are quite hard up and feel very uncomfortable if I spend more)

I have no idea what I spend on the children (7, 6, 4) as I just keep a list of presents for everyone in an open document on my laptop. When someone (anyone who I buy for) mentions something they'd like, I add it to the list and when I buy it (often on offer) then I highlight it in red. I probably don't spend an equal amount on the children as they are all still fairly young and at that age it's all about the quantity not cost (as they are mostly from Santa!) so I just make sure that they all have the same number. The younger children still like a lot of tat and so they don't have the same amount spent on them as the eldest - who is starting to appreciate more quality things.
I don't tend to go in for all the electronic things that kids seem to all get these days and so the things I buy for them tend to be books, games, outdoor toys, arts and craft stuff etc. So I don't buy mega expensive things but I expect they add up. I buy them about 10-12 presents each.