What does everyone do re;budget when kids turn 18?

[makingmiracles]

Just wondering what everyone else does in regards to individual amounts spent once your kids turn 18/adults? At present they all get £150 worth of presents plus stocking, but do other people reduce down the amount once your kids turn into adults or when they have children themselves etc?

We are on benefits (disabled, mental health), and found that once we lost child benefit for the children it was much harder to give them the same as they had had before. Luckily they are both working full time, and they are still at home so able to buy whatever they want.

This year they will get either a stocking of bits, or a bag of edible goodies, and £30 cash each.

My dc won't even be finished school until the age of 19 so nothing will change really.

I’m late 30s with 2 DC but my parents have never re-evaluated their budget, just added ££ for the DCs and DH. Not complaining!

I've never set a budget, it's more a case of what ds would like (within reason).

At 18 I imagine ds will either want help with car insurance, money towards his college fund or some new clothes. I expect him to cost more at that age.

I dont have kids but the way my mum does it is she has kept budget the same but it's per household so if the adult child is on their own then they still get 'spoiled', once a partner is added its split between them and then once kids come along, the majority goes to the kids with the adults getting something smaller but she says this keeps things fair between myself who has no kids vs my sisters who have 2 or 3 children each

It doesn't hit until they are independent so not necessarily 18.
At the moment we have a mix of DD, all SD to one of us and some are earning more than their parent, some are in full time education, some are in education with jobs. One has ASD and still at home not earning.
So, we spend a dissimilar amount so those in education get a boost, those living at home get something personal, and those who are independent get something luxury which they wouldn't necessarily choose for themselves otherwise.
Plus all get the 'gift d'annee' (one year they all got mermaid blankets, another an sieved lounger that you filled by running along, for example) and a stocking of fun things (age appropriate).
Short answer: yes it changes based on their circumstance, but no it doesn't cut off at age 18.

We'll carry on with ours just the same once they're working, but nieces and nephews etc lose the pressies once they're working.

Mine hasn’t aged up yet, but my parents and DH’s parents both kept things steady as we aged. Once all the kids were out of the house, the parent’s financial situations improved and they actually increased the Christmas budgets for our generation.

DS 20, DD 22 no GC £150 each
From my parents they spend about £25-30 on me now which I’m more than happy with, they spend about the same on their GC each

I saw someone else mention budgeting by household. That is how our parents do it as well. The grandchildren all get treated equally, but if there are a lot of children in a particular household, the gifts for the parents in that household will be smaller. If someone is single and childless, the whole budget goes towards that person.

My dps have given me £100 cash for Christmas since my teens (in my 40s now).

In my time (quite long ago) gifts changed to cash, which I needed, as I was a student, so not spent on luxuries exactly but things like able to join in uni life eg join groups and get buses to activities/ join sports centre etc

I have a DD 25, DTSs 19, and an 11 year old all still at home. The older two (DTS2 has SN so can’t work) had part time jobs by the time they were 18 so buy big ticket items themselves anyway during the year. They don’t need a lot at Christmas but I normally spend around £200 each on stuff like designer clothes, nice perfume/aftershave + a stocking which can easily hit £50 each. I should imagine I’d have to do them a stocking when they leave home as well as they love the little bits in them. Booze, make up, posh shaving stuff, books etc.

DTS2 I spend a bit extra on depending on what he wants.

I still try to make sure they all have roughly the same amount of presents under the tree even though they’re adults as we open them one by one taking turns and I’d hate them to feel that they’ve only got a tiny pile of presents. Sometimes I wrap up a big bar of chocolate or a bottle of shower gel or a notepad so it looks like the same amount grin].

Well it will go down a little (I estimate about £20) as they will stop getting 'Santa' gifts.

but

It won't go down too much as they won't just stop getting things but will then switch to the adult traditions (example: Adult get assorted alcohols for the 12 days so instead of santa gifts they will get that instead)

Nothing has changed here for my ds 19 who is at uni , if anything he appreciates gifts even more now he is skint student

I don’t have a budget for the dc

I just buy what I think they will like/enjoy

This year one of my dc has a “main” present that cost £20, and one of the others has a “main” present that cost £180

Those two will not notice or care and will get the same amount of enjoyment so what does it matter

My mum still goes big at xmas on me and my siblings, and my kids too, so i like to return the favour and set aside a decent budget for her. Part of it is her husband is useless and never buys her anything, she buys stuff for herself and wraps it so I like to make sure she has nice surprises.

I think I'm going to be the same with my kids as well tbh, go big at xmas and spoil them even when they get older. If I can afford it and stuff why not x

I’ve been wondering the same this year, as ds(19) has properly moved out now, as opposed to living in halls last year. I also have ds(15) still living at home. Plus neither of them are here on Christmas Day. So in the end I’ve bought Ds1 a smaller gift, but I’ll also transfer him some money that it’s up to him if he spends going out with his gf, or buying something specific, or just general spending. Ds2 has got a new tablet, which he’ll love, but also use for school. Oh.. and both ds’s plus gf have just eat vouchers.
I’m not convinced I’ve played it right, but hopefully everyone will be happy. It’s a learning curve.

4 children all 18+ always give adult children cash gift at Xmas.
£200 cash each child sent by bank transfer.

2/4 didn't even notice or send thanks or a gift as we were away for Christmas.
1 lives overseas and said thank you, no gift.
1 thanked us and gave us lovely gifts.

Gifts for grandchildren only now. Adult children notified.

My DS still gets the same spent on him as he's been a student for the last few years. He gets lots of practical presents mixed with some treat things.

No absolutely not. My parents if anything upped my budget once I moved out. I didn't have tonnes of money when I bought my first house so it was really appreciated. I got £500 cash, £100 supermarket voucher (to help with the Xmas shop even though I didn't do the Christmas dinner) and then gifts maybe up to £100. My parents have always worked low paid jobs they are just very generous.

Only recently have they finally reduced it as she has quite a few grandkids now and spends at least £150 on each of them.

I now get £200 plus gifts but I've told her to stop this (she won't) she only works part time now and dad is no longer fit to work so is on disability benefit.