budget for teenagers

[onlyoranges]

I wondered what limit you put on Christmas presents for your teens. Mine are after electrical stuff eg ipads and x box one but I am worried about the cost. How much do other people spend on their teens?

It's not true to say that spoiling a child results in a spoilt child IMO.

But what exactly does 'spoiling a child' actually mean? . Not being goady, as I genuinely don't know but in my case it would be spending £400 on an ipad - however - I am well aware that I spend more than that on my DS's school trips and what we save for his pension each year ............ and then we spend approx £100 on birthday/christmas presents.

I have worked out this years christmas budget and dd12 £250, ds9 £175, dd3 £75, this is affordable for me, if they needed/wanted anything more than that, I would consider a small amount of debt but try not to.They only get presents for Christmas and birthdays, have few other family presents and their pocket money pays for the odd mag and sweets so would take around 5 years to save for an iPad or similar.

My DCs are well into their twenties but I gave up stockings only 2 years ago ,when I realised that I was unintentionally spending about £100 on each of them-over the years the number of items had crept up .This was in addition to a 'main' present,costing about £50 .The fact that DC one's partner was there for Christmas was also a factor if I'm honest .
Trouble is DC2 actually prefers lots of smaller things...and I used to love accumulating things I knew they'd enjoy .
I did learn years ago though that it is better to get them things they really really want or need when they need them e.g a new bike .My DCs have never been especially materialistic and we have never been that indulgent .
But we have just given said grown up DCs substantial amounts of money towards property purchase ,which some of our friends would probably consider over generous .Each to their own .

I don't think spoiling is necessarily about material things, but it can be.

I think a lot of it is down to personality and some children are just more prone to be greedy and expect things and ask for things and are just never told "No". It's also about not appreciating things they do have, or considering others. Maybe it just begins really early with the way they are parented such as being allowed to deliberately break things or otherwise ruin them and then just to have them replaced, being allowed to have their wishes and wants placed at a priority over others at all times (not including small babies obv who rightly always get priority) and being given whatever item they ask for however expensive or appropriate.

I can remember a cousin of mine who used to prattle away a lot of nonsense as a young child (as they do) but whenever her mother was talking to an adult and she started talking, her mother would stop everyone and they all had to listen to what the cousin was saying. i was only a year older and I could never understand why this happened. Every other child had to stand and wait for a break in the conversation to ask or say anything unless it was an urgent request such as a split lip or toilet request. That's just one example, but basically whilst cousin wasn't materially spoilt, she ended up a total brat as she always expected the focus to be on her. On the other hand, i had a friend who had every toy money could buy but she was lovely and happy to share in her bounty with her friends, she never asked for anything but was expected to be polite and well mannered and got into trouble if she wasn't.

And should have said,would never have got into debt for presents for DCs Fortunately our poverty stricken days were mostly when they were too young to notice

Autumn - surely you don't give your teens a satsuma AND a chocolate coin? EACH? What spoiled children. Tsk tsk.

Normally £100 plus stocking. But my kids have had a tough two years, we had a difficult Xmas last year and the year before dp was extremely ill. This year I've just received a lump sum and so I've bought my two laptops. Big present but as they literally get nothing else through the year and even buying clothes has been a struggle, I'm happy to surprise them.

Dsd who is 19 is getting £200 cash and dsd who is 12 has asked for a 3ds which we've bought plus one game. They will both get other bits as well.

So my budget is roughly £250 each this year.

Ive spent £200 on her main present but it's educational and will help with school and GCSEs (computer software).

So on top of this present Im spending about another £200.

This year im hoping to spend around £100 each on dc as they don't really want anything in particular. Have previously bought laptops, ps3 and tablets. They only recently started to get pocket money of £5 a week so for them to save up to buy electronics themselves would take years. They rarely get money from family either. Have never got into debt for presents.

Well I am using a 2nd hand iPad mini, bought off eBay in excellent condition for £130, so if my DDs wanted one for Christmas they would get the same. Luckily we don't do stockings any more.

We don't have a strict budget, it depends what DS wants. Last year we spent £1000+ on a gaming computer but this year it will be under £100 as he just wants some smaller bits like games. I offered to get him driving lessons which would have cost a few hundred in total, but he's not keen on starting just yet. We pay for Christmas out of income so cost isn't the issue.

Around £300 each for 2 Dc. We have no debts. They also get lots of presents and about £700 cash from other people. They save a big chunk of that and spend the rest.

I always say my budget is around £100 per child but when I add everything up its more like £200. This year I've put my £200 for DS towards an Xbox and some family are putting in the rest to get it for him to open on Xmas morning. He is getting nothing else except very cheap stocking fillers!

We have one DD and have never had a budget as such, and she gets what she asks for and more.
Some years it might be big ticket items, other years less expensive items.
We do go all out at Christmas and birthday but thats our choice, we can afford it and we don't have any other children.

She is 19 now and she could never be described as "spoiled" contrary to the myths surrounding being generous to your children.

she could never be described as "spoiled" contrary to the myths surrounding being generous to your children

I see this as teaching your children that it is okay to be kind and generous to those you love - not that that lesson necessarily needs to be about things and money either.

I struggle to get mine to tell me what things they'd like since they realised that there was no Santa.....they were quite happy to gamble on whether Santa would bring things or not but there was no "paying" in that scenario. Now that they know it's bought and paid for by us, they don't ask for anything and getting a list of ideas is a struggle. They are always happy and grateful to receive things, especially when they get more from the ideas list than they would have thought we'd buy.

17yr old Dd, I will be buying very little in the way of actual gifts as I'm paying for her driving lessons. So I only plan on buying some pj's, perfume and make-up etc.

DD is 18. After I've bought everything I guess I'll have spent about £300 on her, which is less than last year because I've less money this year, and we spent about £500 on her 18th birthday a few months ago. She has a stocking and a few smaller presents along with two or three slightly more expensive things. No big ticket items though - but she did have a laptop for her 18th.

We have no friends or relatives so the only presents she gets are from us, I think over the years we have tried to compensate for that by buying her perhaps a bit too much.

About 200 each plus stockings.

Mine (teenagers) get £50 cash and about 50 in suprises. They do get money from other relatives so put it all together to buy more expensive items . Sometimes with the youngest (9) there isn't anything she particularly needs/wants and i don't buy for the sake of it so she gets lots of smaller things.