How many people do you buy for?

[Lovemusic33]

And how much do you spend per person/child….not including your own dc?

I’m just writing a list of people I need to buy for, 9 children and 10 adults, I have cut down on who I buy for but can’t really reduce it much more, the kids are mainly my DC’s nieces and nephews (my ex’s children’s children), so I buy them gifts from my dc who are not yet adults and then my niece and nephew. The adults are my parents and their partners (both remarried), my best friend, and my one remaining grandparent as well as the DC’s father and his partner (again I buy a token gift from the dc).

So if I spend £10-£15 on each that’s still over £200 😭

How much do you spend on each child/person? And how many are you buying for?

Are there any good token gift ideas for under £10 that will get used and not end up in landfill?

I spend about £50 on dh, we usually spend between £75 and £100 between us on each of our 2 dc, and I spend about £30-£40 each on the 4 adults and 2 children on my side of the family. Dh has 4 adults and no children to buy for on his side and tends to spend less than me (maybe £20 - £25) as his family tend to.

I buy for my parents. Last year I bought them a eufy robovac but I don’t always spend as much.
Also my sister and two close friends. I usually buy them the same/ similar thing .
Last year it was an EB teapot or a platter reduced in the summer sale so a huge saving. This year all three are getting fossil wallets ( already bought and reduced form £75 to about 25 .
I don’t buy any children other than my own because they didn’t need anything. I do buy nieces , nephews and friends’ children lovely birthday presents.

Sometimes my husband and I exchange presents but not always.

We have 8 siblings between us!
His 6 siblings & 5 partners cap it at £5 each, then they secret santa a gift at £40ish
DP dm £10-£20
My dm £30
My dsis & db £30 each
Each other £100
Teen dsc £140 each x2
Small dc £80 each x 2
Best friends x2 £10 each
My aunty & uncle & 3x grown up dc £10 each but I think we will secret santa this year (phew)
If anyone has a pet it may work to handmake special biscuits and put them in a fancy (killer with ribbon) jar for their pooch or cat instead of presents for the humans!
Homemade gifts from dc can help with the budget... we tie dyed socks one year and made everyone a cracker with a pair inside. One year we bought a glass and made lemoncello. Got charity shop board game for each household one year- they really liked that. I have received lovely thoughtful gifts that cost under a fiver- including a very special preloved book one year. I buy year round too which helps!!!

Too Many 😂
I have 21 nieces and nephews and 8 great-nieces and great-nephews that is not counting DH's side.
I only buy for nieces and nephews that don't have children the rest get gifts for their kids.
I buy for my Sisters(3) brothers (2), not inlaws.
3 friends
4 godchildren
Christmas is a nightmare 😜🎄🎅 every year I say next year I'm cutting back 😂

Adult dcs £250 each cash plus £50 each in gifts.
Dh £200
£50 each cash to 4 great nieces.
No one else.

5 adults (parents and brother)... up to £50 each, but usually a bit less
1 teenager... £30ish
4 Godchildren... no more than a fiver each, usually a book or craft kit sort of thing (we all agreed this between us)
Small box of chocolates for teachers, lollipop lady, extra curricular adults etc.

Well I buy for my 3 DC (£115 each) and DH.

Then I buy for Mam, Dad, Brother, MIL, FIL, SIL, 2x Cousins, 2 Aunts, 3 uncles.

£10 for Mam, Dad + Brother
£5 for everyone else
so approx. £80 spent on gifts for family but I only spend £500-£550 on xmas (including food).

I buy for our 3 kids, my OH, my mum and stepdad, sister and BIL, and my partners nephew so 4 kids, 5 adults.

Me and OH split the cost of the kids between us so we put in 250 each.

I spend upto £50 on mum, £30 on sis and upto £15 on stepdad and BIL. But I do use up my boots points in the 3 for 2 at xmas time which I take from the budget. I.e I've spent '15' on my BIL in boots points not actual cash.

I spend £100 on my OH but his birthday is just days after Xmas so i lump it under one budget and divide the presents x

DP parents about £70
My parents about £70
Our 3 children £700
My brother £20
2 nephews £40
Secret Santa/teachers etc £20
2 family friends children £25
Partner maybe £50
About £1000 on presents which is ridiculous. I don't know how to cut back really. I probably spend far too much on my nearly adult son as he wants money but then I always feel I need to get him some presents too.

@TheChosenTwo

I buy for around 50 people. Dh and I have large families and we still buy for grown up nieces/nephews and their children etc. Both our parents divorced and remarried so we have 4 ‘sets’ of parents. I don’t sweat the shopping though, I take a bit of time writing the list and then do it online over 2-3 evenings.

How do you choose what to buy I find that the hardest part.

@Lovemusic33

The tie dye kit might work for nephew and niece (they are 5 and 7), the others are younger, I haven’t got a clue what to buy the smallest 2 (age 1 and almost 3), they have so much already, I usually buy books or clothes. Then I have 3 teens to buy for 😬.

I just bought an orchard toys once upon a time jigsaw puzzle from amazon for £5.38 for my 3 year old nephew

We spend about £20-25 each on 6 adults and £10 each for 5 children.
(This doesn’t include husband and ds who I spend about £50 on each.)
I wish we could stop buying presents for SIL and her 5 children but that’s my husbands decision to make because it’s his family.

4 children (nieces and nephews)
7 adults (DH and our parents)

We don't buy for siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins etc. Grandparents will get a framed photo of the kids this year as DD started school so they will like her school pictures. We don't usually get them anything.

Zero. It's wonderful.

Mum and dad - £30 between them
MIL and fil - £30 between them
5 nephews on dh side - £10 each
BIl and Sil plus partners x 2 on DH side - £20 all in
DH - £150
Sister's family (her, BIL and 3 adult kids) - hamper, £40
Childminder - £10
Nursery teachers - £4
Year 1 teachers - £4
Friends kids x 2 - £5 each (book)
DS3 and DS5 - probably £150-£200 each

Previous years I have had a shorter list and much smaller budget per person, it just depends on the year.

The only adults we buy for are MIL and FIL and spend between £50 and £100, depends on what I find for them. All the other adults agreed to not buy for each other years ago, best decision ever! Then 4 nieces and nephews and a few friends kids, about £40 each.
We then just buy each other, if we want anything but we generally buy what we want through the year so we don’t always bother. We spend a lot on our own 2 kids though. And the dogs. 😂

@Umpapa we spend about £1500 on 27 people it’s ridiculous and not even most of that is on the kids. I’ve tried cutting down and managed to remove three people but I really would love to ditch Christmas tbh.

I usually buy for DH, DC x3, Mum, Dad, Nieces/nephews x8 and my friend.

But this year I have said I'm only buying for DH & DC as we just moved house so outgoings have trebled.

[quote Noeuf]@Umpapa we spend about £1500 on 27 people it’s ridiculous and not even most of that is on the kids. I’ve tried cutting down and managed to remove three people but I really would love to ditch Christmas tbh.[/quote]
It’s crazy isn’t it? I just think about what else I could spend that amount of money on.

I have just discovered I have loads of tesco club card points which I can use to get my DM and DSF a magazine subscription for gardeners world using £20 worth of vouchers so that’s kind of saved me a bit. I wish I could cut back more but I’ve already cut back quite a bit. I think I will just try and shop for bargains and edibles.

12. 6 adults 6 kids. Probably spend around 300 pounds.

I'd be leaving any gifts for ex's side of the family to him. Why are you buying gifts from your kids for his family? I'm sure he's well capable. That would cut out a few. Even if he didn't bother it's not up to you to buy for them anymore.

We buy for godchildren on my side (2 teens) - nothing for adults. Dh's family buy for our kids so we buy a gift for his mum and her Dh 'from our kids'. We also buy for his nieces/nephews (4 in total) and they buy for our kids. I only buy clothes for the smaller kids (under 5) as their houses are full of toys. I also buy for one aunt and one friend.

None just my DC.
I used too buy for nephews but they never bothered to say thank you and one year I was unwell and didn't manage to buy them anything and BIL went mad at me asking why I didn't buy them anything. So now I don't bother.

[quote Noeuf]@Umpapa we spend about £1500 on 27 people it’s ridiculous and not even most of that is on the kids. I’ve tried cutting down and managed to remove three people but I really would love to ditch Christmas tbh.[/quote]
Who has a gun to your head telling you that you have to buy for all these people? It's up to you to stop buying and it's very simple to say that you are not exchanging gifts this year so please don't buy for us - no further explanation needed.

Ugh it seems so much worse writing it down doesn’t it! I’ve usually started by now but still not bought a thing ( apart from our dcs )

Parents - generally around €150
Dh parents-around 80
7 nieces and nephews - 20/25 each - 150
We don’t buy for dh adult siblings
My nieces/nephews - €20 each - €80

3 godchildren - €50 each

Best friends 2 kids - €40 for both

Other best friend 2 kids - €40/50 for both

Auntie -€20
Uncle -€20
Godmother -€25

Granny €40

Children’s teachers - €20 each so €100🤯

Children’s after school activity teachers -prob max 5 each so €40

DH -€100

That’s shocking tbh 😳😳

I’ve actually cut down a lot , I used to buy for all friends children and friends but we stopped last year . Can’t cut any more out

notaroadrunner , I appreciate that but this is years of reciprocation, emotional ties, etc etc. If it was that easy I would. I’m slowly making changes but unless I want to disrupt all of the social network around me, and all the assumptions about us, our relationships, our finances etc it’s a slow process.