To ask how much you spend on your children for Christmas?

[chubbycheeks26]

I imagine this has been done to death.

I am sick and tired of my mum telling me that I've spent too much on my 2 year old daughter, around £600. However, she's my only one and if she had siblings my budget would still be the same, just between them. I can afford it, so AIBU to spend this kind of money? Or am I being ridiculous?

£50 to £80. I think yours is excessive but your money.

I spend £100 on each of mine and most of that is on stocking presents. But they’re only 3 and 4 and I don’t get filler things/gift them things I’d buy them anyway. So they get proper toys in their stocking, some nice books, new pjs and then one big thing to share. But I do buy them things through the year rather than put it all together at Christmas, so for example they would both like scooters and need umbrellas but I’m just going to either look out for scooters in the jan sales or wait until it’s spring and the weather is nicer. Umbrellas I’ll just buy at some point and give them to them on a rainy day rather than use them to bulk out their pile

@Boymumzy

My mum tries this with me every year but she knows deep down that it falls on deaf ears 😂 I know I go overboard on birthdays and Christmas but I dont get in to debt, nothing is on credit, I do have to be more careful with money on the run up to Christmas to afford it - maybe looking at subscriptions and cancelling things I don't need/use, meal planning, buy less 'luxuries' like take aways, but thats not all bad. Look, she is your daughter + it's your money = do what you wish. Have a lovely Christmas! (To answer your question, DS14 £1500, DS13 £1500, DS8 £1200)

Please tell me you have a decent amount of savings.

I honestly don’t know what I’ve spent as I don’t add it up.

Daughter has a barbie camper (about £70) and son has pokemon stuff (£50) and we got them a shared second hand switch (£180) and some games for it (£60). They also both have a stocking of things like books (£30 ish each).

That’s more than we would usually spend as we wouldn’t normally do something like a switch but we bought it as a family thing. That amount is a bit excessive for my liking but think we did the switch because my OH secretly wants one too!!

It is a lot but it's an unusual year. The kids are being kept inside much more and you need to amuse them and try to get things that keep them active. The pickler triangle is great but they're bloody dear.

@Dawnlassie each to their own but I enjoy the Christmas Eve box!

@MRC20 the pikler certainly hoofed the spending up a notch!

@Sunshine1235 yeah I definitely don't use clothes or things like umbrellas for bulking out piles, I've only wrapped up some character clothing & pj's because she will love it! Her pile doesn't need bulking out and if it did I wouldn't use umbrellas, clothes etc to 'bulk it out'

Dawnlassie

Substantial savings? With these kids? They drain us dry 🥴😂

Have a lovely Christmas 🎄

I really don't like threads like this. I always think they're quite showy with people almost bragging.

It's been a tough year for so many people, there will be parents on here reading this barely able to afford anything and being made to feel worse.

If you want to spend £600 on your child then go ahead, don't show off on here under the guise of seeking reassurance

@lilmoopoo if I wanted to brag, I wouldn't do it on an anonymous forum!

They get what they need. My 16 year old will have had about £250.
My 13 yr old £130
My 11 yr old, £80.

Nothing to do with their ages. Just they've all asked for different things and my youngest has a very decent main present that is second hand.

£175 per child (I have two, with household income comfortably in top 1%)
£600 is excessive. Investing a portion for your daughters future and selecting a few quality gifts she will learn to really treasure would be wiser.
I feel with this “youtube” generation it is easy for kids to become obsessed with the process of unboxing plastic tat, rather than open ended play with good quality, simple toys. Guess which toys keep DS occupied and engaged longer and therefore make my life easier?

£3.5k. This is the most expensive Christmas we’ve had. A new game console for DS ended up costing over £1k. DD1 wanted a new laptop cost 1k aswell. Also a designer coat £600 and other clothes £400. The younger ones presents ended up being under 500 altogether. It’s the older DCs that are the problem. Why do they want such expensive things. Never again.

No idea, not loads. It just depends what they want/need.

About a 1000 for my 9 year old (ps5, hoverboard, nice clothes etc) and maybe 400ish on the 4 year old (kids fire tablet, new bike, clothes, toys,)

The way i see it is we missed out on our big holiday this year, i was nearly dead and spent 3 months in hospital and you live once so if you can afford it why not, my uncle died suddenly in the summer and he had about 70k in his bank, lived like a pauper, you cant take it with you so if you can, do so.

Around £250 each. They're both under 2.

I can see that it sounds excessive, but I get things that will last them the entire year, at least. Birthdays are fairly low key and we don't buy a whole lot during the year. For example DD1's balance bike and helmet came to £130. DD2's jumperoo and an activity table came to around the same. Then add in some smaller toys, clothes, etc, it doesn't take long to add up.

My partner and I buy less for ourselves at Christmas as we can get what we want during the year. Kids can't do that. We are both in stable jobs (key workers), too. I started shopping in September and I budgeted the entire thing on a spreadsheet so every expense is noted and paid for without going into debt.

I'm very much of the belief that you spend what you can afford and as long as you aren't financially going into debt over it, crack on. It's no one's business and you should do Christmas your own way.

I spent what I could afford and also started buying early (i.e. when I saw bits that she would like on Marketplace and just put them away). I have no interest in adding it up but reckon it could be between £250-£350. But she has a January birthday so some will get saved for then.

I don't see the need to justify my spending to anyone and have made sure it is all within my family's means. If it was only affordable to spend £50 then I would. If I had £600 to spend then you best believe I would spend that amount!

I spent more than usual this year I think it’s because of the year we’ve had. Hmmm not sure on the exact amount but it’s at least a few hundred for the 3 of them. I’m really resisting anything tech which helps keep it down (luckily they’re not asking for it yet as oldest is 7 and wants a bow and arrow). I got rainbows and a Wobbel board when they were younger - be careful not to get too roped in with those kind of toys as you can get hooked into spending silly amounts.

Oh forgot to answer the question. 2 year old and £50 this year. About the same for birthdays.

Will get plenty of gifts from his grandparents so there is no need. We do put £100 a month for him aside into an isa and hope to help with a house deposit for him years down the line. So that will he his real present.

I say spend what you like / can afford, especially this year! I've spent probably £250 on toddler dd, which is a lot... But does include clothes and pj's that she needed. And also we just have her at the moment. Would be less if we had other kids.

@Mustbemagic little offended you think all I have bought is 'plastic tat'. £600 includes a lot of quality wooden toys that I wouldn't buy outside of Christmas, days out and activities. I haven't just bought £600 worth of plastic toys that will last five minutes

@isitsummertimeyet that must have been so horrible for you and your family . Hope you're okay now though and on the mend. We missed out on two holidays this year too! One to Australia and one to Cape Verde so I had the money back from one of them and rebooted for next year for the other! I totally agree, you only live once!

@Dawnlassie I also put about the same in her savings account.

@Anothermother3 yeah I resisted a slide for her pikler! I got her some grimms cars - 50 bloody quid. She got a grimms rainbow for her birthday. I want a wobble board and ramp/slide for her pikler now 🙈