How much do you spend on children that aren't your own?

[BeccaBloomwood]

We do a secret santa for the adult family members which takes a lot of the financial stress away, but we still have a lot of children to buy for.

Excluding our own children, we have 13 children to buy for including nieces and nephews.

I was going to suggest to family friends the possibility of just exchanging a chocolate santa or little sweet treat this year, however they got in touch with us first to ask for suggestions and I suppose I was too embarassed to suggest the above in case they thought I was cheap

Is £10 for a gift for a family friend's child too cheap? Last year we received lovely gifts from them which seemed rubbish compared to what we got them, but we are trying quite hard to save money for an upcoming expense in the New Year so my budget isn't great.

How much would you spend on nieces and nephews? I was thinking £20? We also have 3 birthdays coming up before Christmas and 1 in early January so that doesn't help 😂

Finally, would you appreciate a £10 giftcard in lieue of a present? I don't want to pick something that will never be used and thought a giftcard might be a better option as the parents can chose something they will use or put it towards a bigger present? I was thinking Waterstones vouchers because who doesn't love books?!?

Thanks 😊

Simply spend what time s within your budget. What did you suggest when asked?

We spend £15 on friends children (three in total)... always pyjamas and a selection box.
£50 on niece and nephew but we only have the two.

Nephews birthday is Boxing Day so separate gift then.

We spend around £30 on nieces and nephews. We don't buy for any other children. I wouldn't buy for friends children. I wouldn't want them to buy for mine, they'll get enough stuff as it is.

I do £10-15 for friends' children and children of mine and DH's cousins then £30 for nephews for both Christmas and birthdays. I used to spend more but the kids all get piles and piles of stuff and it's too overwhelming for them (and their parent when it comes to finding homes for everything!).

I dont buy for any friends children and send £10 each to my SILs 6 kids. I buy for my younger nephew but not for my older nieces/nephews

£30-40 on nieces and nephews and £10ish on friends children, but we’ve agreed with friends not to do gifts this year

I have one niece who is a child and I spend £30 on her present. All other nieces and nephews are adults so I don’t bother. There is now one great niece so I spend about a tenner.

I only spend between £5-£7.50 on my nieces and nephews, spend more on birthdays. I have 10 of them though and it just adds up too much otherwise. I do shop early and tend to get things that would £10-£15 ish if they weren't in a sale.

Other children wise I only buy for my godson, I get him an individual present for his birthday but for Christmas I get him and his siblings a board game to play together. Price varies from year to year.

I've phased out buying for unrelated children. We buy for nieces and nephews but not their parents, and they reciprocate in kind - luckily we all became parents for the first time at the same time so we're all newly skinted together! About £15 per child, it was £10 when we had less cash.

I used to buy for friends children but it got out of control so now I just get them all selection boxes.

Exception to this is the years I've actually spent Christmas with a friend who has two DD, then I've got them something 'proper' to open on the day, and something for the parents too, since I've been a guest.

We've spent about £50 each on DP's teen nieces, but there are only the two of them to buy for and we don't have our own DC yet.

£15-£20 on nieces and nephews. (5 of them)
Usually a gift voucher or cash so we can post it in case we don’t see them over Christmas.

Only a couple of friends have kids and we usually just get a token gift between £5-£10

I think £10 is respectable - even generous - with such a large family.

If it was me, I'd stalk the shops to see which ones had 3 for 2 on toys and try and pick up a few hefty discounts.

We amend around £20 on niece and nephew, and £5-7 on the few friend's kids that we buy for.

£30-40 on nieces and nephews and around £10 on cousins children. I have 5 nieces and nephews and 11 cousins kids. Majority of cousins kids are girls below £10 and got them all a £10 Claire's accessories voucher with an Aldi chocolate reindeer in a gift bag. The ones we haven't seen in years get a selection box. They never make the effort with us so I'm not going to massive effort for them.

£15 per child

We only buy for 3 God children and six nieces and nephews. About £15 each but we usually go to The Entertainer in their September sales so £15 per child goes a long way.

This year £30-£40 on my niece (she's a teenager now, it was less when younger)
Other niece, we send money, they buy gifts from everyone (they live in Asia)

God children, up to £10, usually books or craft kits. Their parents spend similar on ours.

I spend £10 on each, I can’t really afford more, I buy for 8 children as well as 3 adult children (20’s) so it mounts up.

Im cheap, a maximum of £5

For my friends kids this year I have average under £2 each but got some decent offical items (like homebargain where sell off their 'moon and me' stuff dead cheap which I got for my friends 8 month old, I went into asda and they had the £1.99 set I just bought for £8.99).

I dont think cost matters, I have never expected anything for my kids off friends and view anything we do get as a nice gesture, I never looked up the prices but would be perplexed to get something obviously expensive.

• sorry meant Argos not Asda

Similar situation here.

We have 9 kids on one side of the family and 3 on the other side. So it's quite a lot.

I tend to do the Argos 2 for £15 gift. But it still ends up about £100 for all of them every year. And we hardly see them. Some of them we don't even see once a year.
It's quite annoying really. My DC usually end up getting poundland toy or a chocolate. But it's hard because I can never predict who's going to do that and who's going to give something a little more. Otherwise I would reciprocate accordingly.

Goodness any way you can stop this? Kids getting 13 presents of relatively cheap stuff plus what their own family gives them seems incredibly wasteful (assuming you get reciprocal presents).
I only buy for my kids, stepsons and my one niece, my sisters, and my mother in law. That's it. I dont give anything to friends or other relatives unless I'm visiting them and then it's flowers or wine or something homemade.

I spend £20 on my closest friends kids, but there are only 3! My step niece and nephew we agreed with my SIL just a small token so £5-10, and my niece usually around £50. But only big presents, not tat or 'filler' presents.

I have 16 nieces and nephews from 16 to newborn. They are h’s side and don’t do Christmas but they do new year. For those in this country (4) I buy a toy each usually in the sale so a bargain £10 rather than full price. Always toys as no one buys them toys - not even the parents really. I think it’s cultural. The others we wire money across. As far as we are aware it goes on the children. It works out to around £10 per child.

@Pipandmum

Goodness any way you can stop this? Kids getting 13 presents of relatively cheap stuff plus what their own family gives them seems incredibly wasteful (assuming you get reciprocal presents). I only buy for my kids, stepsons and my one niece, my sisters, and my mother in law. That's it. I dont give anything to friends or other relatives unless I'm visiting them and then it's flowers or wine or something homemade.

I’m guessing many are siblings so they won’t be getting 13 gifts in return? More like 5 gifts?

My kids don’t really get much in return for those we buy for, mine are now teens and no one in my family really bothers buying for them. My kids have nieces and nephews so we buy for them and get nothing in return.