To ask what you do with cash gifted to your kids?

[Monoblock67]

DS1 + 2 (aged 2 + 4) have been gifted some cash as part of their Christmas, £40 in total each.

I struggle with how to spend it each year, so can I ask, do you:

1. keep it till they need it for practical stuff (socks, clothes, shoes) etc. Which I’m not against but at the same time I feel a bit bad spending ‘their’ money on practical stuff when as a parent I should be providing it anyway.

2. put it towards their birthdays (both in January) so they can get bigger/more presents, which again feels cheeky

3. let them have at it and buy whatever they want, which results in meltdowns in the shop when they want a bigger present than they can buy, as they don’t ‘get’ the £40 limit (well the big one does but the little one doesn’t)

4. let them have at it and buy whatever they want which results in more useless clutter

5. suggest what they buy-which I don’t particularly like as as child my mum forever ‘told’ me what to spend my money on

Help!! I’m driving myself mad over something so bloody ridiculous

Deffo save when they dont care. They will have a nice suprise when they are old enough.

We always put any money ds got when he was young away in a bank account for him.

Ours are a bit older (7 & 9) so they do understand money. But we always put some money into a savings account and let them spend the rest. In this case I would put half into a savings account for them and the other half can be spending money. If they don’t understand money yet, are there cheap shops you can go to and they get to pick a certain number of things (ie 2 things) and any money that’s left over from this goes in savings.

We don't save it as the gift was given to the child in leiu of a present in our case, and isn't huge amounts. If it's 10 or 20 quid we buy something the child has asked for it put it in their home money box until there is something they want.

As a family we are given 100 a year and it gets spent on national trust pass. This really is life enhancing and forms the majority or our days out. I don't think the giver would like thank-you card that just said "thankyou for the money we've just added it to their savings.

IF the children were regularly gifted large gifts we would feel differently and save. Or possibly if we were better off and able to provide everything ourselves. But this way they tell granny what the £5 she gave them was spent on and we tell great grandpa about all the places we've been with national trust membership.

I can't see giving 1000 at 18 being worth more than that to be honest.

I always save cash given to the children (in their bank accounts) and they can have it when they need to buy a car or similar.

Our DS (8) saves up for things he wants, not what we want for him. It's his money to spend, not ours. He chooses what he spends his money on for himself, however we actively encourage him to save and if he doesn't want to spend it at all, that's fine.

He often takes money himself to spend when we go places too. Saves the 'mam can I have' and 'I want' gripes whilst we're out as he uses his own cashx

Spend a bit on a thing of their choice. A trip to TRU or Smyths in the holidays.
Bank the rest.
My son just put a large deposit on his first car with 20 years worth of gift savings.

Unless you are struggling financially i think its wrong to spend it in clothes and shoes which youd buy anywsy.

Ps love the nat trust idea.
Also annual pass for Alton towers or whatever youre nearest to when they get older.

Put it in their bank accounts. Mine are now 7 & 9 and are starting to have an understanding of money.
9 (ds) had £100 for his birthday. I banked it. He’d been banking on about a significant item (in addition to what we’d bought him) for MONTHS so I let him spend £90 of his money on it. & made him tell everyone who’d given him money what he had done. (It was about 6 weeks after his birthday. So he’d had time to think about it.
He’s had over £100 for Xmas. It’s in the bank! But has no aspirations to spend yet. But it’s a long time till his birthday. So who knows!!
DD is 7. Her birthday money and Xmas money has gone in the bank. She’s bought some pens for £5. But desperately wanted them!
Their savings accounts are on my banking app. So it’s easy to transfer money between accounts. I always do this with them now so they can see it when they’re buying something, they pay me.
(It also works the other way round for pocket money! Or when they give me cash!)

I usually shove it in my purse for 'safe keeping', spend it on wine and then end up trying to remember how much they got so they can choose something on Amazon when I'm feeling a bit more flush in the new year.

Savings. As they get older there are school trips to pay for - £500 for Berlin and some that are a lot of money. Plus they want cash to spend on thing themselves. Build it up for them if they want for nothing yet.