to only spend £50 each on my kids this year?

[SmugColditz]

it never occured to me that I would be unreasonabl;e to do this, but an aquaintance of mine has said "Oh, X says she is only spending £50 each on her kios this year, I think that's really tight, don't you?"

And me being me, I told her I was only spending £50 each too (less on ds2, if I'm honest) because what the hell is the point of spending more than you can afford, and that she herself says her kids broke all their Christmas presents in 3 weeks.

And she looked horrified.

So, if you have a 'normal' or less than average income, how much are you spending on your kids, and AIBU?

I think that seems a perfectly reasonable amount - there are plenty of bargains around at the moment too

£50 sounds ok
for dd that would buy one biggish thing and a couple of smaller bits and fun stuff for her stocking
don't think I'll spend much more than that

YANBU - we are only spending about that on DS1 (he will be 16months) and less on DS2 (hes 8 weeks and barely know night from day let alone xmas)

am totally fed up by the constant comparison of the cost of gifts rather than whether or not they are actually wanted/needed

YANBU. Don't listen to your show off of a friend.

YANBU.

You know YANBU.

Folk can spend what they like on Christmas, their choice, but they're mad to get into debt for it.

YANBU. It would seeem just as unreasonable to some people to spend £400, but it does happen. You spend what you can afford. It's all relative.

I was discussing this with Dh, he was on about getting a tv/dvd combo for dss. I've told him that we can only afford to spend £50 each on ds and dss. So I don't suppose anyone knows where we could get a TV/DVD combo for less £100? DSS's mum as offered to split the cost...
Actually would need to be less than £100 as it would be a bit rubbish just having one pressie from us especially as the TV/DVD would be at his mum's house...

So YANBU.

£50 sounds fine to me. We spend everything we earn on school fees, so we can't do big Christmas presents as well!!

It will be about £50 between them so we must be mega-mean

Have never gone overboard with presents (they are 5 and 3) This year they will be getting real grown-up Walkie-Talkies (paid for by Nectar points), a book each, a DVD to share and lots of bits in their stockings. If that sounds mean to anyone then tough, I'm as mean as a mean thing

Well, my kids are 5 and 2. So they don't know what things cost anyway. I've bought ds1 a metal detector which I'm sure will be fun.

i think it sounds more than ok.

this year weve spent more than usual as dd and ds1 have been asking for ds for a few years and weve decided this year we will.but we saved up hard.

Colditz, is it the National Geographic one because we bought one for dss recently and it was rubbish, broke straight away.
Think it was just cheap and nasty!

no, it's a cheap one I found in Boyes! I hope it doesn't break, but tbh ds1 isn't rough with his toys, so hopefully it will be fine.

no YANBU. we will be buying a Wii between our three boys and thats it except for a few stocking fillers......They get so much other stuff from GP, aunts/uncles/friends......

No YANBU - my DDs first christmas - she was 6 months - I spent maybe £15 on toys - its gone up since then though! ( I still love looking at the photo of her opening this pop-up thing.. her eyes are truly wide open!!)

This year I'm spending only what I can afford, who kows what the job situation will be like next year.

yanbu you spend what you want/can

metal detector, good for finding tin foil, cheap ones can be good fun - don't expect to find money - well we never did.
but i digress,
of course 50 is ample, i always find with stockings the amount i spend builds up and up and up

I have spent 99p on ds. I got him a really cool musical pop up book, as brand new, from a charity shop. He is also getting a pirate ship and some toy vehicles that I was given from a friend whose son has grown out of them, and I will knit him a nice jumper. Plus he has lots of family who will spoil him.

Cost is immaterial, IMO, it's the thought and the type of present that counts.

Meant to say he is only 19mths, so isn't really aware of Christmas anyway.

No yanbu! It is unreasonable to spend more than £50 imho

I must be unreasonable then, cos I'm spending more than £50 each on my three.

50 quid is a perfectly reasonable amount, and I think the best thing you can give a child is a parent who isn't stressed about having overstretched themselves financially. There's nothing pleasant for a child about seeing their parents cranky and depressed in July because they took out one of those Argos cards with an APR of 227% in December to buy Christmas presents.

DD and DSD will be getting about 50 spent between them.

On ds (18 months) I have bought a car thing for £5.99 that's it, he'll get loads from the family. For the dd's on the otherhand, I have already spent way more than £50 each

Don't know how old your kids are but it seems perfectly reasonable. We probably won't spend that much on ds at Christmas itself, especially given that he will only be 19+ months old. I get him clothes as he needs them and fairly small toys/books when I see something nice or a good offer (eg in TheBookPeople catalogue) or he shows interest in something that seems a good thing to encourage (eg colouring and drawing). I'm sure you can get something nice for them on that budget or a smaller one, whether one bigger item or some small toys.

My ds is still so young that he enjoys whatever you do with him, whether it's free like going to the playground or frittering money away in cafes. He's not going to assessing whether we've spent enough money on him, hopefully for a little while yet.