To ask how much you plan on spending on DCs at Christmas?

[Snowflakes1122]

I ask because dc10 seems to have a lot of friends getting the iPhone 6 or 7 for Christmas. I'm talking 9/10 year old kids!

I was planning on spending £150 per child (we have 3 dcs)

What do you think is an acceptable amount to spend on your children at Christmas?

Absolute max of £150 per child (5DCs) I would never spend £1000 on 1 child even if we were lottery winners.

As others have said surely every family is different.

We are fairly low income and save throughout the year to give ourselves a whole Christmas budget of £250. That's for 2 dc and both our mums and also something small for each of us. For many that wouldn't be much but we've had past Christmases where we've gone through the charity shops just to get the kids something to open and not had anything ourselves at all.

I've got friends who spend £800 upwards on just their children. I'd love to be able to do that but we would have to live on beans on toast for the whole year and sell a kidney or something.

I think last year it reached about £1k all in - that's for our 2 DCs, my 3 adult DSCs, and various family members, new decorations etc

No jeffing way would my 9yo be getting an iPhone next Christmas though. She knows she will get a basic phone for her 11th birthday.

My DCs don't really do wish lists either, actually this year is the first time DD knows what she's getting from nanny - she has wanted a build a bear for several years now, and so I suggested I arrange a voucher and my mum is going to give that to her. Santa brings surprises here.

€100-120. One child, he is 5yo.

Spend what you can afford.

TBH I would quite happily spend several times that on Christmas if I (a) had the money to spare and (b) had space to put cool toys! Not into gadgets and all the latest must haves etc I would just get more Lego, magazine subscriptions, board games etc and even more books. :o

maybe because it's easier for their parents than it would be if they made them in December.

Two months notice to plan and shop for presents costing around £100 in total

If you were planning massive purchases maybe you'd need two months to sort it out.

One DS and it probably will go up to near enough £1000 (it usually is around £500), only because he needs a new tv so thought we'd just get him one for part of his Christmas, that will be nearly half the cost. He's asked for Anki overdrive and to buy a decent set with all the cars is quite expensive plus we always buy him a big £100+ Lego set at Christmas.

This year I have broken my rule of setting a budget and sticking to it . My youngest has got about £150 - but that is 3 large presents (kitchen and keyboard - clad valley as she is not yet 2! and easel). My eldest has broken the bank - she has had about £250 - she got a phone (second hand iPhone 5 - half of value was part of Christmas as it was more than we were willing to pay for a phone that wasn't a birthday or Christmas gift), 3 bath bomb/lip balm/gunge making kits, and a ball jointed doll - that cost £160 (and that doesn't include any clothes for it - just wig and its eyes!!! ) She is 14. We have spent more than we normally would (even when we only had one child they would get no more than £130 on a good year but that is because this year money is a little easier than it has ever been though we are not wealthy and we have saved hard for these gifts for them and we don't buy for anyone else but my parents spend about £50 on them and in laws get them a small gift each as well).

Jellybean How old is your son, if you don't mind me asking? I'm trying to reconcile your comment that he "needs a (£500) TV" with "big lego set"!

I spend about £250-300 each on my 3 dcs.

£6,375,498.63 HTH

He does need a new tv, his is really small and old (given to us by my brother). He doesn't need a £500 one but I want to buy him a decent one, purely because I'm planning on it lasting a good few years (my old Samsung one lasted us around 10 years before we recently upgraded). Again he doesn't need a Lego set on top of that, I'm buying him one because I want to, he's obsessed with the stuff and I like to get him a big set he wouldn't normally get willy nilly during the rest of the year.

We were getting the TV anyway, I just thought we'd hold off until Christmas purely because it's another thing to open.

QueenLizzel

£100 is huge to some people, how rude!

As I said in an earlier post I my children write their lists now (actually it's November on Tuesday!) so I can spread the cost- only one more payday before Christmas for me 😮

oh sod off

£100 maximum on DS (14), to include main gift and stocking fillers. I usually spend around this.

Depends what I can afford. I have spent 400 up to now, if i see anything else and I can afford it then I will buy it.

Probably around 100 quid. Maybe a bit less. She will get plenty from grandparents and friends.

3 DC, we spend anything between £150-£300 each depending. Some years we have spend a heck of a lot more because we have horses, so they might have asked for a new saddle/rugs/boots etc.

How much do you spend at Xmas, the one question guaranteed to cause a row on mumsnet

About £5 worth of stocking gifts and maybe £15-20 for the other gifts each. (We do the 4 gifts - want, need, wear and read).

Well it's going to depend on so much, and be different for everyone.

This year we're spending around £150-200 per child (we have 2). I would struggle to spend more without just throwing money at them - they're only little so don't need expensive tech stuff yet & we really don't need loads more 'stuff'. They will both get nice things that they want / will like and enough for a decent sized pile for that real Christmas morning excitement.

"£150 per child is a perfectly acceptable amount"

Well actually £150 per child seems a lot to me. We spend less than that and always have done. Except for the year we bought a family PS4.

To some people it seems to be important to buy a lot of gifts and spend a lot of money. I can't work out why that is - hopefully it makes everyone in the family genuinely happy.

I've got a 17yo and her joint birthday and Christmas presents is as many driving lessons as she needs to pass her test. That will work out as much more than we'd normally spend, plus she will get smaller gifts to open on the day like vouchers for cinema/Starbucks etc. So there is no fixed amount for her, it's a flexible price.

Dd2 is 6 so won't have as much spent on her this year, she doesn't need much. I suppose the budget will be between £100-£200. Then she will get loads of presents from extended family.

When dd1 was 10 she did get a phone, but it was a pretty cheap one. She still doesn't have a particularly posh phone, and it will be staying that way.

I have 2 DSDs aged 12 and 16. We will prob spend about £300 each on them, but they get a lot less (about £100) on their birthdays.

Last year £50 as I was on maternity leave, this year £100 plus about £5 on stocking fillers. About half of DS presents are second hand. TBH we could afford a lot more this year but DS will be very happy with what he has got and doesn't need anything else. My mum has also spent about £100 on him and he gets plenty throughout the year as his interests change or just because I see something I know he'd like. As he gets older I imagine the budget will go up to about £200 with half of that being on his main present.
I don't think I'd buy a nine year old an iPhone (although I don't have a nine year old yet so can't really say) but for a 10 year old who will soon be 11 and going to secondary school I would consider an iPhone 5c or 4s which you can get for about £100 now. Definitely not the latest model though.