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

I'm also intrigued what you can get for £50 that isn't the 'tat' that higher spenders get accused of buying, That seems incredibly low to me, but perhaps those kind of spenders rely heavily on family gifting and stuff instead.

I always find these threads interesting and wonder if spending is a regional thing. I am from Scotland and I everyone I know are big Christmas spenders. I won't even mention what I spend on my daughter as I can imagine the reaction.
But I would love to know people with a £50 budget what do you buy and does that include new pjs, stockings etc. I do a couple of gift bags for underprivileged kids and by time I add pjs, socks, stocking fillers, some toys, sweets and outfit, some colouring books and pens etc I spend over £100 on each of them and I shop about.

£150 is lower budget?????

I have four and have always spent £80 ish on stockings and £100 on a main present - could not afford any more on them 😵😵 but then I know other people get mountains of stuff and iPads etc.

Anyway:

Teen boy:
(Stocking)
Dickies socks
Art (anime) book
Gold coins
Massive tube of pot noodles
Favourite lip balms
Fluffy socks
Bath bombs

That kind of thing

I've had a look at what I've bought for DD1 who is 5, and if I had a £50 budget we would be able to get her a couple of craft kits and fill her stocking with some low value stuff. That feels quite miserable to be opening on Christmas morning!

DD2's £50 budget would have been wiped out
by her one Happyland farm set I've got for her, so she would have one thing to open and no stocking.

I've really never thought of myself as a competitive underspender. It's just my kids have been really little so they've not wanted much.

One year I genuinely spent about £20 in total! DS wanted a scaletrix and I found one in a charity shop for £8. DD wanted a dolly and I actually gave her mine from when I was small. She loves it so much and it's lush to see her with it. Then a friend gave me a buggy her boys didn't use so she was essentially free except for a few little stocking bits. Last year DS asked FC for sweets and chocolates, so he got stuff like a pez. Didn't exactly break the bank.

I feel like the budget will grow with them as they ask for more and get more wordly wise.

I think people underestimate their spends a lot too. I did until I started really budgeting and tracking. I would have said I was spending around £100 but I was spending more than double that when I actually added it all together.

Toddler:
Scooter of their own
Duplo set
Frozen fancy dress
Book
Socks
Bubble bath
Satsuma

Preschooler:
Yoto player
Duplo set
Frozen fancy dress
Book
Socks
Shampoo/Conditioner
Satsuma

Yes in comparison to 'higher budget' eg £250-£800 per child. HTH.

I assume lots of the £50 spenders have under 5s in which case it is very doable.
eg. Argos are doing a 3 for £20 offer on loads of preschool toys, easy to pick up second hand duplo on facebook, a character onesie from Primark.

@StupidDeaths air up bottles are so unbelievably crap! They just leak all the time. Complete rip off!

£150 got me loads when my kids were little, far less now they are teens

To me that sounds like an absolutely huge budget, I’m not badly off but I’ve never spent that much money on anyone’s present on any occasion?!

Having said that, my hairdresser spends £2,000+ on her 3 kids combined, a smartphone being a staple present. So…?! Sounds crazy to me to spend a months’ wages and go broke at Christmas or even go into debt but hey..

We spend about this on teenagers, but that doesn't include their stockings, which tbh have a lot of things that they need anyway, toiletries, underwear etc with a couple of little surprises.

£150 is enough to get something pretty substantial. They get lots of smaller tree presents from aunts and uncles too.

We also have a £150 budget per child, that probably won't include stockings but I only buy small bits for stockings (chocolate coins etc). I usually do a mix of new and second hand as that really helps stretch things further, our children are 4 and 16 months.

I haven't done very much shopping yet at all, so am pleased to get some ideas on here.

So far we have -

DS 4

• Outdoor furniture for the dolls house and I am planning to crochet a lawn/ pond area for it to go on (£6 Vinted and I already have the wool)
• Set of 5 Elmer books (£2 Vinted)
• Busy book (£1 Vinted)
• room on the broom puzzle (£2.50 charity shop)
• giant farm puzzle (£2 charity shop)
• spider book (£1 charity shop)
• Wind up plane book with tracks (£3 charity shop)

DS 16 months

-Animal heads and tails matching game (£4 Asda)
-Set of 3 first words board books (£9 Smyths)

Still got loads to do, have not been on the ball at all this year, everything I have so far has just been random bits I've picked up as and when but I actually need to write down some ideas!

Yep I think I spent almost £20 on some replacement PE trainers (adult size of course!) in Primark recently.

We have a lower budget this year due to going on holiday. My teen ds is having £100 money plus about £40 worth of stocking fillers. He will get another £100 in total from family, so will put it all together to get a graphics card for his computer. DD10 is having his old Xbox and £50 worth of stocking fillers. They are both happy with that. Most years the budget is about £200ish per child, not the £500 plus you sometimes see on here.

1 new book, 2 seconds hand books, some glittery pens, some second hand playmobile toys, and a tangerine (actually this will probably only come to about £30). I will also make her a new Yoto card, but that's free because I already have the card so it's just putting the tracks she wants on it.
It's true my child is young. I can see that this stuff wouldn't satisfy a teen. And also, anyone can buy their kid what they like! I was mainly reacting to the fact that £150 was referred to as low budget which seemed really surprising and rather tone deaf to me in these days of the cost of living crisis.
(My child also gets presents from many family members so even with this relatively sparse amount she will be totally overwhelmed by the end of Christmas. It really feels like too much!).

A mixture, but yes there are usually some second hand (but like new) things in there.

£150 for Xmas is putting aside £12.50 a month over the course of a year, which isn't really much at all. Of course some people can't afford it but I confess I do find it weird when there's high earners saying they only spend £50 a year on Christmas presents for their child. But I suspect that they have the benefit of a lot of family gifting so their child doesn't only have three small value gifts to open on Christmas morning. Easy to spend £50 when you've got family members spending the rest perhaps!

For my DS (it's his second Christmas and will turn one 10 days before):

• Ride on bumper car £60

(3 £ for £20 at argos)
*megablocks

• JCB digger set

• in the night garden train

• fisher price farm £24 (in the sale)

• crayola colouring books/my first marker/ crayons £10 (used my staff discount get cheaper)

• minitini red smart outfit from vinted new with tags £10

• disney books

• musical instrument set from amazon £15

I still need to get some stocking fillers if anyone has any good ideas for a 1 year old.

And a Xmas eve box with PJs, soft toy

Birthday:

• little tikes sports centre £40
• Rocking caterpillar from Smyths £50
• Making a homemade Mickey Mouse cake/balloon display

I know he's too young to understand it all really but I like looking back at pictures of myself at that age on Christmas morning surrounded by my presents.

He will also get spoilt off relatives I know. We never got much throughout the year as kids but always spoilt on Christmas and it made it more special I think.

I am spending £25 on my 2.5 DD. She is getting a Crayola Drawing mat.

There is an interesting cultural difference between where I am from (Poland) and the UK. I don't remember me or my friends getting so many gifts (stocking fillers), we usually got 1-2 gifts which were quite expensive.

I think it all depends on what your level of normal is too right? We're cherishing being in the narrow window before potentially people start comparing their Christmas loot with school friends. Up until now each kid has had a gift from FC, a gift from us, a gift from my mum, dad, nephew, DH's parents, my sister, my grandmother, DH's brother and their godparents..so that's already more than 10 each. Plus a stocking! It feels like loads to us (oldest is 5) but it's certainly not been a lot financially. Checked my spreadsheet and last year I spent £40 per kid (so that's the gift from us, FC and the stocking), the year before as I mentioned it was more like £20 in total between the 2. We have been known to open things a few days before and after the big day so it's not all too much on the one morning. But that's us. Other people are welcome to do more, and as wishlists develop the budget will likely move up as the years go on. But think being called a scrooge is a bit harsh. The pile of presents under the tree certainly doesn't look like it belongs in a Dickens novel in my opinion.

About the same, give or take.

Looking at 8y.o. birthday:
GPS watch, second hand £30 (this model is £100 new)
Taylor Swift hoody, second hand but like new £5
Activity book x 2 £6
Fancy notebook, scented pencil under £5
Stitch PJs £4 (on sale from £8)

Previous birthdays included bigger items like a bike (second hand) or scooter (cheap one). Sometimes it's just one big item for about the £50 mark and accessories for it are bought by other family members.

For the youngest, it's so easy, I don't need to spend anywhere near £50 unless I really really wanted to. They obviously have plenty toys from eldest already so it's just supplementing that with the odd thing or a new book, or some clothes they would need anyway. Under 5s just get overwhelmed with too much stuff anyway in my experience, so there's no point spending loads.

Yes, and it's each family will make their own normal (and they need to get that in place before the peer pressure starts building too much!). I do remember growing up and having some friends who always got way more at Christmas than me. I suppose I was a bit jealous at the time, but actually not much because we had our own family traditions which didn't revolve so much around presents so it didn't feel like there was a huge lack. I suppose I can't have been too scarred since I seem to be replicating that with my own DC by the looks of it!
Some of the lists of presents on here just look insanely large to me. I would be totally overwhelmed to receive that much as an adult, so I can't imagine it as a child (or even teen).

If you only have a 2 year old though, £50 is plenty. You could spend £10 on stocking fillers and then get a play doh set, bag of megablocks, a puzzle, doctors kit and a dolly and buggy from Argos for £40.
A toddler would be as happy with that as they would be with £150 spent on them.