Lower budget parents (£150 ish per child) - what are you buying?

[AllYearsAround]

We tend to spend around £150 per child, not a strict budget but feels about the right amount for us.
Interested to know what others with a similar budget buy! It always seems like very much on the low side by Mumsnet standards.

Mine:
Teen - a couple of Star Wars lego sets
Jeans and a shirt
Dressing gown
An under 16s driving lesson
Stocking with sweets, toiletries etc
£20 cash

Tween - squishmallow
Beyblade set
A fitness/activity tracker
Top and trousers
Ticket to a theatre show
Sewing kit
Comic subscription
Stocking with sweets, hair bobbles, earrings

Kiddo - squishmallow
Art set
Baby doll
Board game
Ticket to a theatre show
Teddy
Dress
Book
Stocking with sweets, bath stuff

You can’t get much with 50 quid these days…..maybe a Toddler but that’s about it

It’s 2024 ….I doubt any child gets just one present …..even parents who are struggling financially will buy more than one present…..are you in the U.K.?

I'd have thought so too.
Even if it's second hand charity shop finds or gifts through giving trees, food banks or salvation army.

I'd think any child getting up to nothing is neglected and not just because of poverty.

This is enormously short sighted.

There are many many families now running “negative budgets”— their income CANNOT meet their basic expenditure for rent/food/utilities. For those families indeed, even a second hand gift may not be possible. And shame and fear prevent lots of people from asking for help- fear that their kids will be taken away from them, for example.

Not being able to buy a child a gift must not be understood as a sign of parental neglect. It IS a sign of societal failure, and neglect by the state, in their duty of care to our most vulnerable families.

This is the done thing. Even my 93 yr old granny remembers opening a stocking with multiple items so the "one present" thing isn't really a thing.
Although I was having this exact conversation with .t husband last night.

THE story is Santa has a workshop where his elves make toys for the children and then he flies around the world delivering a gift to each child.
I wonder why it turned into each child getting Santa's full sack worth!

come on, I don't mean one present in total. I mean one present per gift giver.
Yours, scrooge, apparently

and I'm not talking about stockings

DS1 "only" has one present from me most years. But it's one thing costing £60/£70 ish.

Are you asking why the norm in this country is for children to get a pile of Christmas presents from parents/Santa?
Or why parents and grandparents replicate what they experienced 30 or 40 years ago?
I guess the answer is just tradition.

Why is it the norm for multiple gifts?

Who knows but it's always been a thing, even although my GPs weren't exactly rich my mum recalls getting an expensive rubber doll between her Parents & Auntie after her porcelain dolls face broke along side some small items like an annual, selection box and her stocking which would have been an actual sock with tangerine 🍊 and other little things.

Relatively Toys have got cheaper over the years, plastic, and manufactured in the far east. Mean they are much cheaper in comparison to income than they would have been in the 50s, 60, and 70s

I am ASTONISHED that £150 is considered low budget!

Me too ! And that's PER child..!

For us Christmas is about spending time together rather than buying stuff.

It’s 2024 ….I doubt any child gets just one present …..even parents who are struggling financially will buy more than one present…..are you in the U.K.?

Wow! I'm shocked that some people expect that children 'need' so many gifts...!

You are definitely the best mummy on Mumsnet 😍

Wow I didn't realise 150 was low budget!
I'm not sure what we spend per child.. it's much less than that tho!
This year we've got my son a camera that was 77quid my middle daughter gabbys dollhouse that was 55quid, and the baby I got some baby toys from a charity shop.
Will probably get a few bits totalling around 30quid per child for the stockings. For the older two only.
Then they also get a few gifts from family members. Around 5 each.
And also we get a few tins/boxes of Christmas sweets.
We also take the kids to choose a decoration each for the tree.
That's it.

No, I'm certainly not the best mum, but I was brought up to value quality time together over buying stuff for each other. So yes, I am genuinely surprised that some parents are spending hundreds of pounds on buying Christmas presents for their children.

If I was spending £150 on my kids this particular year, I've seen some decent and big looking presents for all of them (ages 4 - 9, so it is easier at this age) for about £20 - £25. I'd get 2 of those type things, some craft sets or board games around £15 each, an oodie or cosy garment from Primark for about £20, a teddy for around £10, maybe £15 for a reduced price Squishmallow for my daughter, a nice book, a couple of annoying cheap toys that kids always love from the sensory/pocket money section, and then some sweets and a cheap bath bomb and bubble bath from Tesco.

I'd stick the book and pocket money toys in the stocking along with the sweets, bath bomb and bubble bath. That's 5 nice gifts under the tree and a really decent stocking. Sounds plenty to me!

I spend more because we have very little family, and in years past my mum has joined me on my overcompensating. I spend more and reassure her that a single present from her is fine. I save small bits of money all year that covers the vast majority of the gift budget, so I am still only spending the equivalent of £100 each from my Christmas wages.

It's hard when you include stockings, we do one main present and have family who buy other items at around £20. 15 year old electronics kit £50, 17 year old vintage swing coat £110, (over budget but I think I probably would have bought a coat anyway), 19 year old Bike Panniers £80. Stockings you can't go to pound land anymore so I've warned them it will be fewer items but they add up quickly

You know what, I’ve had four or five responses above that question whether I’m from “here”, if I really understand tradition and culture, so let’s just say it you think I’m foreign, right? Not properly British? Because there’s some Portuguese in my username is that right? Otherwise how could I possibly be disagreeing with you?
Well I’ll tell you what…
British as they come and I’m still (like others) totally unfamiliar with this amount of extravagance for kids at Christmas.

Stockings is another hole to compare. To some a stocking is an actual sock others is a massive sack full.

Something else worth remembering some parents are the only people buying others it parents, 4 grandparents, and a collection of aunts and Uncles.

So your children will never receive a bike? A games console? Even board games are expensive now. And they are all things you can do together as a family.

Exactly this. I think most of the posters on this thread who are aghast at spending £150 have children under 13/14 years of age.

I’d love to come back here in 5 or 6 years’ time and see what they’re spending then.

Yes.
Even a 20" wheeled bike for a 7-9 year old kid can set you back £180 or more.

Same with consoles £300 plus.

I know lots of people do things differently bikes are "birthday" presents because it's a better time of year.
So it's back to the looking at the bigger picture.

My daughter is getting a bike. No it didn’t cost £50 unfortunately. The helmet did though.

Mine are 20 and 18. I've never spent £150 on them.

I'm not aghast at people who do though.

Edited to add...

If they want things that are over budget I go halves with my mum/give them money towards it.

Did they never have bikes or consoles?