Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Xmas budgets

148 replies

FreshHerbs · 19/11/2017 22:31

Being nosy here.....
What’s your Xmas present budget for children.
Or if you have no children what’s your budget for family members/friends so forth
Have u a budget for family pets also....

My 2.5 year old £100
My 5 year old £200
My 6 year old £200
Other family members £20/£30 each
Have no pets

OP posts:
confusedlittleone · 20/11/2017 07:33

We're doing 200 per child and then a joint 300 present... all other family is 50 but they're all getting vouchers

GoGoGazelle · 20/11/2017 07:36

Under a grand for everything from presents to food and booze to work secret Santa and nights out to school Christmas fete and Christmas jumpers and Xmas tree.

Icequeen01 · 20/11/2017 07:40

We only have one DS 17 who will be 18 two weeks before Xmas! I literally feel as though money is leaking out of our account and we can't stop it!

For Xmas he asked for a new monitor which is £220. By the time we buy him a couple more bits such as pc games (which cost about £50 each) the total will probably be about £400 - £450.

He is having gifts amounting to about £1000 for his 18th plus a surprise trip to London to the theatre to see a comedy he will love and a meal in his favourite steak restaurant. The tickets cost around £300 (his nanna is also coming) and I guess the meal will cost over £200. All this and still have everyone else to buy for. I can't bear to add it all up!

FlowerPotMum · 20/11/2017 07:43

Kids( 9&12)- about £300 each. Includes a laptop and some stocking fillers.
DH- £60ish
Parents- £30 each.
Nieces - £20 each.

Jasminedes · 20/11/2017 07:44

£50 on each other and the dc, £10 for our stockings, £20 for dc stockings, and they are spending £10 each on us, although I have a feeling they are spending a little of their own money on us too this year. £30 for dniece and dnephew. Don't buy for adults in our extended family, maybe a small consumable item. Am going to budget £100 for christmas food (not just for the day, but might go over this as I have offered to cook a second turkey dinner).

Funnyfarmer · 20/11/2017 07:45

I try and save about £2000 for everything over the festive period. That covers, presents, days/evenings out. Food, drink, new clothes it's my dp's birthday the week before Christmas and both my dd's birthdays Christmas week so covers that too. Also we pay a little extra each month on bills so we're bill/rent (Ooh that will be mortgage next year Grin) free in December and most of January so that helps alot.
I don't really allocate how much to each person. They usually get what they deserve Grin

crisscrosscranky · 20/11/2017 07:46

There's a million of these threads here and on FB. I'm convinced that people are exaggerating their spends.

One year my DD asked for a £20 main present so we spent about £40 with her stocking. I'd never set a £100 budget then waste £60 on crap she doesn't want like some people seem to do to 'make it equal' with siblings!

kaytee87 · 20/11/2017 07:47

Don’t have a budget as such. Our son is only 16 months and we’re buying a play kitchen so however much that costs. Not getting him anything else as he will get presents from other people and won’t know the difference anyway.
My husband and I usually spend in the region of £500 on each other, about £50 on other family members on average but maybe a bit more on my nephew.

lornathewizzard · 20/11/2017 07:48

Kids 3 and 1 - £50 each
Me and DH - £50 each
Secret Santa for my side of family - £50 x 2 people
Other family kids - £20 x 5
Inlaws- £30 x 4
Friends kids and my friends - £20 x 5
Festive birthdays - 3 x £20
Donated gifts for foodbank - 3 x £20

We really try not to go overboard, especially with the kids, but with a big family it can very easily mount up. Secret Santa this year has probably saved us about £100

Ilovechocolatetoomuch · 20/11/2017 07:50

We spend £150 on ds
whatever on my DH depending on what he wants e.g I want a Dyson handheld and he wants a toolbox (rock and roll life for us).
Family members get £30 each.
Since my parents died last year I buy ds 1 a gift from them with the inheritance I was left.

wifeyhun · 20/11/2017 07:51

About £100 on each of my 2 children.
£50 on DP
£20-40 on parents.
Similar for MIL.

Don't buy for anyone else.

It's my DC birthday right before Xmas so we have the expense of that.

We have a big holiday next year we all rather we saved up for that.

LunasSpectreSpecs · 20/11/2017 07:52

This is about the tenth of these threads.

Who cares? I mean really, why does what I'm spending, or some randomer on the net affect what you're spending or intending to spend? It's not a fucking competition.

sunbird17 · 20/11/2017 07:53

DS (baby) I've spent £40, but it will increase next year.
DH £60
Parents £50 each
DSis, BIL, SIL and Dniece £40 each
Godchildren £20 each
I'll probably spend another £100 on stocking presents (everyone that is present on Christmas morning gets a stocking - this year each adult is buying 2 presents for each stocking)

bananafish81 · 20/11/2017 08:16

No children

No family budget as we haven't done presents since I was a kid (and we're in different countries for Xmas in any case)

DH and I don't really do Xmas presents either, we'll get a small stocking filler token gift for each other, but nothing more than £10-20. We have enough 'stuff', we'd rather just spend time with each other - we get stuff for each other throughout the year as and when, so no reason to buy anything just for the sake of it on a particular day of the year

If we had kids then of course we would do presents. But we can't have children so no real need to make a big deal out of Xmas when it's just the two of us

thecatsthecats · 20/11/2017 08:54

I don't especially budget, but I seem to have come to a system where I spend roughly the same collectively on each unit of people (like my fiance is one unit, his parents and brother count as a unit by themselves, whereas my parents and my sisters count as separate units with their own families). When I have kids, they'll be a unit each too, I guess!

I spent about £75 on each unit this year. A big present and a few little ones for my fiance, a present each for his parents and brother at roughly £25 each, a bigger present for my twin niece and nephew and something for their parents to share, random bits and pieces for my parents - joint and individual things.

Then about £10-£15 on two extras, so 5 x £75 plus about 25 makes for £400 for 14 people. Cat presents don't especially count, as I just buy a couple of extra nice bits of food.

I didn't know I had a system, but now I know I have, I quite like it!

livingasigo · 20/11/2017 08:59

Me and my partner spend around £400 on each other but we don't buy each other anything else at all (even birthday) all year round

My 1 year old has around £200 on Christmas.
Her birthday is also in December and he £100 for that.
She's our only child.

Everyone else in the family, so mum dad 4 brothers and sisters, 2 nieces, 2 nephews, MIL,FIL, 8 BIL+SIL, and 1 nan in law get £30 each....

Next year I've said I'm only buying for the children in the family as it's growing rapidly! Confused

roobrr · 20/11/2017 09:01

For the person who asked what we bought

His big presses were an Xbox and iPad, along with that I bought the usual bits, Lego etc, a robot dog etc.
I appreciate it sounds a lot but I save so I can do a big Christmas as I love it and he does too. X

Peachypie83 · 20/11/2017 09:03

DP: £100

DD/DSS (7/9): £150 Each

DS (6 months): £30

£20 limit on other family members

ghostyslovesheets · 20/11/2017 09:03

I try and spend between £1 and £100,000 on each child

somewhere in between those amounts anyway

seriously why do people post these thread endlessly like it matters what other people spend?

Ellisandra · 20/11/2017 09:04

"the usual bits" robot dog etc

Your business what you spend.

But you might like to pop your head into most peope's real world occasionally and realise that a robot dog on top of an Xbox and an iPad isn't really "the usual bits" for most people Grin

roobrr · 20/11/2017 09:07

Also DH and I don't buy for each other, we of course buy for family but Christmas is about the kids so as adults we tend to set a limit on gifts for each other.

roobrr · 20/11/2017 09:09

As I said I save a lot so I can do a big Christmas, I don't feel I should have to justify what I'm spending though.

Abra1d · 20/11/2017 09:10

Two student offspring, around £150-£200 each, including stocking and advent calendar. They are on student budgets so there are things they need.

Husband, around £130.

Other family members, £30 each.

We never spent the amounts some people spend on small children when they were little.

Openup41 · 20/11/2017 09:11

This reply has been deleted

Withdrawn at poster's request.

Laniakea · 20/11/2017 09:12

we buy for our parents (3), siblings/in laws (4) & nieces/nephews (3), budget is around 30-40 each. Dh & I get each other something small (about 20) - just so the dc see that it isn't all about them! - then I usually spend 800 in total between our 4 dc (it used to be less than that but our eldest is 17 now & it does get more expensive as they get older).

Total present budget is about £1200. Which feels like an awful lot. Then there's all the extra Christmas expenses - food, booze, tree/decorations, travel, wrapping, parties etc - this year I am determined to keep it under control.

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.

This thread is closed and is no longer accepting replies. Click here to start a new thread.

Swipe left for the next trending thread