Is 400 enough for two dc?

[Lipperfromchipper]

Just a Christmas question, dc are 6 and 4,
I have spent about 320 so far and was thinking if I spent another 80 between them on stocking fillers that would be plenty?? But I’m getting cold feet about that!!? How much have you spent on two dc of similar ages??

Spend what you like, if you can afford it, it's your money. However my advice would be at those ages spend as little as you can they honestly won't know or care. Wait till they're teenagers.....designer coats £350! AirPods £200. Scary! And before anybody says you don't have to buy those things, this is the real world where lots of teenagers do have these things.

Yeahyeahyeahyeeeeah The point was ragwort was indicating it was a bit of a waste to spend that money on Christmas rather than savings/ pensions if you don’t already have them. To which myself and others posters pointed out £400 a year isn’t much of a pension and not really worth it. To which ragwort came back saying it’s worth £125kk. Now we all know this means the contributions have been far in excess of £400 a year to achieve this, but the poster is still acting as though if you didn’t spend money on Xmas, you too could have a £125k pension pot at 18. Not so

@Passthecherrycoke I’m tempted to do the maths! But yes I take your point on the £400

Yes! I'm spending about £40 each on mine!

@philomenabutterfly How old are your dc? I often see posts like yours on here, but I don’t know anyone in real life who only spends that, except maybe on tiny babies, who don’t understand Christmas. I’m not trying to criticise, it’s just I’ve lived in posher areas, and very unposh areas, and never come across it, only on mumsnet, despite it’s middle class demographic.

@PhilomenaButterfly I am also interested in what age they are? What are you getting them?

@towers14 I don't know what world you live in, but in my world (and we earn well above the national average) and my dd's world, teenagers aren't wearing £350 coats! DD has AirPods though- but they aren't £200- DH bought them at duty free for much less, and CEX sell them for around £70 secondhand, and full price is only £139 at John Lewis or Argos!

My teenagers would never have a coat worth £350 😂😂😂, that’s just crazy, the most I’ve ever spent on a coat for myself is £80. I thought the hoodie I paid £50 for was crazy enough, even dd was shocked and said I could have bought her 2 cheaper ones instead. Teenagers do cost more than a toddler, you get less for your money but no way would I be buying designer coats, they can but them themselves when they get a job.

@FreeStar the designer coat is a boy thing, all his mates do have the latest designer stuff, and I know it's ridiculous, we've moved on from Nike to Hugo Boss! My Dd is happy with a bag full from Primark. It's the wireless charging AirPods I'm looking at, Amazon have a Black Friday offer though.

Don't teenagers lose coats frequently?

I have teenagers. We have a reasonable income. Some of their friends are very wealthy. Some of their friends families are property rich (houses built on inherited land) but have lowish incomes, some are not well off at all. They seem not to segregate by income at all (big state school with a total mix of everyone from a huge rural catchment - private schools exist but the kind of expensive private schools you get in England are very rare outside the transient ex pat population who use the international schools - most fee paying schools are "alternative" ideologically and run by parental collectives).

I'm glad to say I've never heard mention of £350 (or 350€) coats or any great interest in brands. School is non uniform.

You have teenagers that wear coats??

There is new version of AirPods out that are over £200. My DS is only 12 but very tall. It costs a fortune for boys so I completely understand what towers14 is saying. I’ve spend lots on designer clothes for my DS and we’re only in Nike, Adidas, Superdry and Northface.

I think you probably don't actually have to buy things just because they exist...

My teens do wear coats - it's really quite nippy where we live. I've never spent more than $200 on a coat for them.

DS has asked for the new Airpods at $250 and I'm struggling with the idea. What we usually do if he wants something expensive is we pay half and he pays the other half by doing chores.

If £400 is something you can easily put monthly to your pension or savings for your DC, then by all means blow it. If £400 is a stretch for super important things like savings and pensions then you know it's too much to put on material items that have no value the second it is bought. However doesn't matter what we think. It's what makes you happy. I earn 6 figures plus and in top 3% earners in the country yet I will still baulk in spending £400 quid. I'd think twice, because after all the bills, mortgage, pension, child trust fund, Xmas food etc , even I'd struggle to find a spare £400.

I think what you’ve bought them is lovely and absolutely enough, if you’re set on spending another £80 why not split it and put it in their bank accounts?

Way too much already . They are only young

@CookieDoughKid we’re talking about £400 a year, not a month

A grand total of £34 a month, in fact

£150 of that each would be going in my kids bank account at that age!

I already save all of the child benefit for them that’s 140 each. And as I said college/university is sorted also. But thank you.

£140 each? That’s changed since they took it off me

Wow, sounds like you’re fantastic with finances if your mortgage is paid, college sorted etc. We earn too much to receive child benefit but don’t have anywhere near enough to have all those things paid off at this stage.

If you can’t buy your kids what they want and spoil them one day a year what’s the point?!
When they turn 18 ‘sorry you only had a token present every single Christmas but you’ll thank me in your 70s when you have an extra few grand in your pension!’
If you’re going to be like that I hope you go without and scrimp and save without anything unnecessary for yourself as well.