How much to spend on each child.

[fl68]

We have 4 children two teens and and 8 and 12yr old.
I'd say we've always gone a bit overboard and I've explained this year that we will be cutting back (more the older ones), but can I just ask, how much do people generally spend per child for Xmas?

Around £150 each. It does mean they get less now they're older but they're also old enough to understand why we have a budget so generally no outlandish requests that lead to disappointment!

I'm 64 and this might sound old-gittish but bear with, as I'm really talking to those for whom money is tight and who need to manage their children's expectations.

Money was always tight for my parents and as soon as we knew there was no Father Christmas (I was 5, let in on it by my 8 year old brother), they set us a cash limit which could not be breached. It worked well - we understood that as they were the ones buying the gifts, they had to be affordable.

For those with DC who still believe, I think the Mumsnetters who tell their children that it's DM/DD who pay for the gifts for Santa to bring are doing a sensible thing.

I spend £100 per child but sometimes have a few £ under or over. They get the same even the step children. We have some family gifts too such as a board game and national trust membership. :-)

Around £350-400 this year but I only have one child, and she’s a teenager. I have spent much less in previous years, I also got some vouchers as a Christmas bonus from work this year, I’ve never had any kind of bonus before so I was able to spend more than usual.

I'm spending around £200 per child this Xmas. Next Christmas will be a lot more as I will get new phones for them as the battery life is starting to diminish on the iPhone XRs. There is no right or wrong amount to spend and I certainly wouldn't go into debt over Christmas presents.

@mam0918 I can't believe that you have got a gaming console or gaming pc for £150 even second hand.

PS5's are £400 - £500 new, second hand they are not much less. A decent gaming pc starts at 1k again you are still not going to get a second hand one for less than half of that.

About £200.

It would be more as we were going to get ds a switch but his behaviour has been in the toilet the last month (broke his dads glasses which cost £195 to replace and then smashed my gaming console and then almost broke the tv). He can’t be trusted with his own right console now.

DS 11 - we've spent about £500 on him
DS 5 months - about £200

They have around the same amount of presents though, just that the 11yo has cost a fair bit more

well we did (not the PS5 but yes a gaming PC) once again they update SO quickly they drop in price massively, not sure why people try to argue with the FACT that we did... its not up for debate, it fact.

Mine are young, I've spent about £140 on them each. I started buying through the year so it didn't all come at once. I also used eBay fans Argos 2 for £15 and b&m had 2 for £20, which is helpful as mine are still little.

We spend £500 per child we have 2 children. ds 17 that equates to three times!! Thinking that’s prob too much on youngest as his needs are less hit can’t spend more on one than other.

*three items

£170 now they are adults and £200 to £300 when they were DC.

£40 each

It's about what u can afford and what u are comfortable spending.

My mum and dad went all out at Christmas so I follow suit. We always got a big present (or expensive present) followed by many others. As we got to teenage years instead of a big present we got £300 each and then plenty of stuff to open. They worked low paid jobs but saved all year for it.

My dh husbands family were not as generous despite higher income but he still got a decent amount spent on him.

My kids are still pretty young 3 and 5. Eldest is getting a Barbie dream house was £200 and I've spent over £100 on other gifts. I've really tried to not go so mad this year as they get so much from family too. 3yr old has just had a birthday so it's really hard to buy for her but I've still managed to spend over £200. Makes me feel a bit bad that I'm spending more on my eldest though.

I imagine when they get older it could easily be £500/600, tech is expensive!

DD1 - 16 - c.£220

DD2 - 14 - c. £150 - she’s Autistic, makes a list, doesn’t want anything other than what’s on the list. Last year I spent £82.50, the year before £250.

DD3 - 6 - c.£350

I’m the only family DD3 has (other than my elderly grandparents who put money into a bank account for each child) and so I spend more on her. She doesn’t get presents from anyone else.

DDs 1&2 have a wealthy father/child free Aunt who dotes on them/wealthy GPs and they get huge amounts.

DD2 finds it really overwhelming and the last few years she’s asked me to sell XYZ and put the cash in her account/gives it stuff to her sisters rather than have it sit gathering dust.

I don’t feel guilty on the gift givers because I’ve wasted years asking that they stick to her list even if it’s tiny/cheap stuff and they don’t listen.

Dd 11 gets around £1.5k spent on her at Christmas.

Ds 22 gets £1k cash and stocking fillers.
Dil gets £500 spent on presents
Granddaughter 1 gets £200 on presents

Sometimes it's a little more. Depending on what they want. We all write lists of what we would like so we don't end up with things we don't want.

Dh and I spent around £1.5K on each other.

I spend around £1k on food, drinks, other bits for Christmas and New Year.

How come your daughter gets more spent than your son?

What kind of gifts have you given that come to £1.5k for a child growing up?
Is it loads of small presents, or like a MacBook Pro and some smaller gifts?

@00100001 my son gets help during the year with things. When they moved into their house we bought the couch, dishwasher stuff like that. Helped with deposit.

It's usually a mix of big items with smaller bits.

Makes sense

I don’t really have a budget, whatever DS10 asks for I usually just buy.

This year, I’ve spent just over £1000 on him, I don’t tend to buy him items that he hasn’t asked for.

£50 each otherwise you're just teaching your children to be materialistic. We have a great Christmas with yummy food and lots of laughs.

mam0919

Perhaps the children of previous posters don’t already have all those things that yours does. They may be younger or finances may be tighter so these things are bought spread out over a greater number of birthdays and Christmas’s than yours.
They may think that spending anything more than a rather small amount on a baby who has no concept of Christmas to be a waste of time and/or money. They might have kept toys from their older children so the baby already has lots of toys.

It makes far more sense to me that you would spend more on older children and it seems to me that you are even if much of it is times of the year other than Christmas.

I'm pretty much the same, but just after last Christmas (and before the CoL crisis) we decided that me and my DH would only give each other one present, which will save a lot.

Just the one DD3 we have spent £80 on gifts and £25 on her stocking.