How much is your budget for your mid-teens?

[Alrighteo]

I've spent £300 and her Dad will probably spend a similar amount - well £200 at least. She didn't need any of the big ticket tech items this year (thankfully), so it's mainly clothes/trainers and makeup.

Are we in the 'normal' ballpark for a mid teen?

She's good in that you give her a budget and she'll stick to it. So she picked out 3 items she wanted. There's another item I wanted to buy her and before she got back to me about what she wanted, I ordered a very expensive trio of contouring sticks by Fenty (£60!!!!) which I couldn't cancel when she said she wanted clothes. So my original budget was £200, but it's ended up rounding up to £300. It will mean she'll get two surprises, but my credit card bill was quite the surprise this month too

We don’t have a budget however spend what we can afford and never put anything on credit.

Ds’s have everything in their wish lists plus a little additional surprises and subscriptions

I have only one child. The list of things I want to buy for DS as his main presents AND stocking will cost £146 TOTAL.

And I am concerned that it might be a bit of a stretch so I will have to cut down the list.

The actual amount you are spending is completely irrelevant. What matters is that YOU can AFFORD whatever you are spending. Beyond that it's entirely up to you how much you spend.

I don't generally have a set budget. It depends on what she asks for. She's 13 now so presents are more expensive. Experimenting with make up and likes fashion so it all mounts up. We have spent over £1000 this year as her main present is a phone but that's all been paid upfront. No debt,she's not a spoilt brat even though I do go a bit over the top as I love Christmas so I don't see the harm. We all have our own ideas. As long as the children are happy then that's all that matters 🎄🎅🏼☺️

We don't set a budget as such - although we don't have credit cards or overdrafts so it depends how much we have saved I guess.

13 year old has asked for a desk and chair this year. We've spent just under £300 all in for gifts and stockings.

Mine has asked me for a new iphone and just doesn't get why that isn't happening (he has an iPhone, just wants an upgrade!) it is insane.

Probably about £350 -400 on ds this year. Usually a bit less but we have come into some cash (not a life changing amount or anything!!)

Next year the new ps5 will be out so hoping it isn't £££££££££

@Leflic you forgot to buy your child Xmas gifts one year? How? God I don't know him and I'm upset for him. How awful of you.

Hopefully pp will just give him the ££ for the years of therapy he'll want in the future.

No budget as such. Last year I struggled to spend anything on her as there was nothing she needed or wanted.

Still not anything she wants this year but needs a new winter coat and her third-hand phone has been limping along for months. She’d be getting new ones anyway even if it wasn’t Xmas so I feel both lucky and a bit guilty!

SharonFromAccounts How awful of me ? Well I didn’t do it on purpose ....

But like I said. He really wasn’t bothered. He did get some money but lack of gifts didn’t phase him. Not being polite or anything, generally quite fine. He was 14 not 4.
To be fair, he’s not materialistic - not interested in branded clothes or having stuff because it’s the latest . He’s got an old iPhone 5 for texting and streaming but he isn’t interested in upgrading it.

How on earth didn’t you realise Leflic? I mean come on, what about when you were wrapping everyone’s gifts??! I hope you made it up to him in spades afterwards. A 14 year old is still very much a child. I’m in my forties and I’d be upset!!

Well to be fair she may have been in hospital or similar. As otherwise you would rush out to the shops on Christmas Eve rather than leave a child with nothing on Christmas day.

I totally don’t get how you can completely forget presents for a child too. I really hope he’s an only child and didn’t have siblings sitting with presents!

I actually cannot imagine forgetting to get presents for my child as for me they are the sole focus of Christmas. By that I mean sorting her out first is our no. 1 priority and then after that we sort out all other presents for other family and each other.

we don't have a set budget, it totally depends on what she asks for. She is 14 and this is the first year where she herself has been conscious of budget, and I think this is coming from chats with school friends, not us.

We know that main thing she would love and will get that plus some other things like clothes and makeup/beauty stuff and she will be thrilled

@Leflic of course you forgot to buy your child's presents 🤦‍♀️👎.

I'm not sure there is a ballpark figure as it will depend on

• what you can afford
• what you want to spend (this not necessarily being related to the first point)
• what DC want (I'd stretch the budget to buy an item they really wanted, but wouldn't buy things "just because")
• whether you buy them just "wants" or "needs" at Christmas as well
• how much they are bought during the rest of the year
• their/your family expectations (do you normally buy Primark or designer)
• how much other family members buy them

Teens here have no particular big ticket wants this year - so we'll probably spend around £150, maybe £200 each.

Have spent £250 on each of mine so £500 total. No big expensive items just lots of bits and pieces. We have a very small family so they will only get gifts from a few others so I am comfortable with that. Not got myself in debt and the gifts I have bought are both wants and needs and will be appreciated.

Like another poster said we don’t have a budget. I just buy what they ask for. This year has been more expensive as upgraded both Consoles and brought a new phone for eldest DS. Spend what you can afford OP it’s entirely up to you.

That’s a huge sum. We wouldn’t spend anything like that- maybe £100 typically.