Present budget for an almost 1 year old?

[Jennyrosity]

Hello. DD is our first child, and turns one in January. DH and I have agreed a present budget for her of £100, from which she gets one big present (a £50 rocking horse) and several stocking fillers - some Duplo, an Iggle Piggle (she loves him), a couple of wee cars and a few books, that sort of thing.

Does that seem reasonable? Bit mean? Too much? We can afford a bit more, but I'm not sure there's much point at her age, plus I don't want to get overwhelmed. She will get birthday presents a month later, and of course there will be presents from GPs, aunts and uncles, etc.

Advice for a novice please?!

As long as you can afford it without having to spend the year paying things off there is no thing as too much or too little!

i don't see that it matters much when she won't know what is going on or remember anything about it....

We aren't really getting our 1yo (well, 11mo at Christmas) anything! That probably makes us quite tight, but she will get loads from the rest of the family. Like you, we're thinking of just one 'useful' present, something like a rocking horse, little baby armchair etc, but we might hold off on buying that until the spring when she is ready for it. A few books and toys to unwrap, but that's it.

I honestly don't think there is much point buying them many present at that age and if you have a whole year to go before another lot of presents (as we do too) then you will be spending money throughout the year on bigger clothes, trikes, that sort of thing. So save your money and spend it throughout the year. If £100 is a limited budget for you, then that sounds fine.

We're not going to go overboard with our twins who will be 13 months by Xmas. Will probably buy them something bigger later in the year to play with in the garden instead. They'll get loads of toys from family and there is only room for so much plastic tat in our house

Wow, I can't imagine not getting her anything, it's her first Christmas! I know she won't know that, but I do! Maybe I'll scale back on the smaller presents though.

We had this last year and I think we just got him some pjs, book and clothes. Everyone else also bought clothes at our request too. This year he is almost two and much the same to be honest, but we do have two older brothers. I would perhaps be going for a pushwalkingthingy or some such. Having said that we usually spend about that on each of our three boys, one big present and the rest is a book, pjs and DVD for Christmas Eve and usually some paper, pens etc that I pick up from a local market, family buy all other stuff but they like a list which means we only really get what we can tolerate.

DD (our first) turned 1 two weeks ago, we set a £100 budget & bought iggle piggle, move and groove station, xylaphone (massive hit) & few other bits. Prior to her birthday we'd set a £100 budget for xmas and bought almost everything but stayed well under budget. However we got lots of bargains for our money including a £10 brand new rocking horse on ebay.

Some of her Christmas presents are practical, new pj's, beaker, rusks but we've also got toys 18 months+ so we won't be spending money throughout the year...or perhaps not as much as we otherwise would. I've tried tp plan it so between her birthday & xmas she's got everything she'll need.

However if I could go back in time I would have bought fewer toys for her birthday . Family and friends went nuts and I'm going to have to get rid of a considerable amount before her next birthday!!

My advise, buy practical things (including art and craft) to save you money later but also buy a few special things for birthday and Christmas but don't go overboard...unless your house is the size of buckingham palace!!

Our dd will be 11 months at christmas and we stuck to £350 for her around half of what our other 2dds get. Her wee face lights up everytime she sees new presents going under the tree

dd is 1 on the twelfth. we got her nothing fir her first Christmas.
this year we have bought her pyjamas for Christmas eve and she will get one or two other things. (this depends if i haven't sold them before then - not dodgy but i in a shop and have my eyes ob acouple of stock items)
whinnie the pooh fake phone and hide and squeak eggs.
that's it from us. she will get clothes and stuff from relatives.

Why do you care what other people think?
Buy what you think she will like and spend what you feel you can afford.