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 agree, and I’ve always kept DD’s presents reasonable because of this - despite her cousins getting huge piles of VR headsets and Disney items and Nintendos and so on. In fact one year her most favourite present was a mini multicoloured biro I picked up for 20p in the Tesco sale. But I also think that £100-150 used to be a comfortable amount of money ten years ago and it isn’t quite so much now. We’ve probably had around 30-40% inflation during the last ten years, especially after Brexit; and that’s where the cost of living crisis is coming from and it means that many posters assume £150 is ten-years-ago £150, whereas the reality is that £150 probably buys you more like the equivalent of £90 in 2014. And probably what you could get for £150 ten years ago you’d pay the equivalent of around £230 now. So it’s not quite as much of the lavish sum that posters seem to be assuming.

Just think about the cost of your weekly shop in 2016 as opposed to today. I bet you find that what you could buy for £100-ish then, costs you around £160 now - or even more.

For example, this is what I've got for DD1(5) so far. We don't get much family gifting as grandparents are all dead bar one and we get money for their savings from the living one in lieu of gifts. It's about £160 I think and I will prob get a couple more bits.

2 x Lego sets - £30
Pokemon plush - £15
3 or 4 craft kits - £40
Junior scrabble - £12
Four or so books - £20
Slime kit (Santa gift) - £26
Stocking containing stuff like lip balm, pens, sweets and chocs, notebook, hair chalk, Pokemon cards, etc. £20

DD2 (2) has a micro scooter and helmet as her main gift which is £140 or so, but we would buy that during the year if we didn't for Xmas so I don't really count it in her Xmas budget as such. But she has one Happyland set which was £40, a Cocomelon squishmallow, some books, a tub of sticklebricks, a stocking filled with bath toys, toothbrush, cuddly toy, etc. So around £100 probably all in.

That feels like a pretty normal amount of stuff to me, but maybe not (insert the 'Am I out of touch? No it's the children who are wrong!' gif)

I guess the answer is for me to buy second hand stuff or buy charity shop stuff, but I have specific things in mind usually that I want to get whereas I think if I was charity shopping I would just be buying based on what was there rather than what I actually wanted to get them.

You're not wrong. Weekly shop is a sad state of affairs these days. Though does mean DH does all the shopping as he will religiously stick to the list rather than straying into the home section in Tesco and coming out with candles that we absolutely do not need!

I honestly don’t understand how people are saying it’s not a low budget? It’s high for babies and toddlers but It’s definitely a low budget for school age children considering it’s pretty normal for Christmas lists to include something tech, new phone, iPad, ps5, even one ps5 game is £60

@Juliagreeneyes love the biro story ♥️

As others have said it certainly depends on the age of the children .

Ds is 14 and I was looking to spend £300 but think we'll go over.
So far he has

• a new 5 iron golf club £200
• A stussy T shirt £45

So that's £245 on 2 presents. His stocking will easily be £50 so he needs some more main presents to open. I can't just give him 2 presents on Christmas day.

£150 is a lot of money, but if you have a teen who asks for either a computer, Apple Watch, phone, Hollister clothes, perfume etc, it doesn’t go as far as you’d like, or even some Lego sets & theatre tickets.

I tend to be one of those parents, who from September onwards says wait until Christmas, if they need anything-, toothbrushes or new school jumper! Mine can only dream of Apple Watches!

When my dc were tiny I could get a huge pile of stuff for £100. It was a struggle though because income was tight - but it looked impressive to the kids because you could get 3 for 2 at Argos and Early Learning Centre (remember them?) and big toys didn't always equal expensive.
As they got a bit older it got a lot more expensive - PlayStation games (although totally worth the money) came in small boxes for £40 - £50 each! And now you don't even get a disc, it's just a download for ££!
I've really tried to reel it in, in recent years because it's madness to just spend so much unnecessarily every year.

Seems like high budget to me! I will spend about £80-100 per child (and we are comfortable), and even then some of those things will be things I would have probably bought them anyway (eg some clothes) - just maybe slightly nicer versions.

I am the same. Down to the underprivileged children bit. We buy for children living in hostel accommodation temporarily. This year we ended up with 3 rather than 2 because twins were stuck together on a card. I picked them as I hated that. I want them to be the two wee people they are, opening separate gifts.

However, I easily spend more than £150 on each of them, and like yourself, I am buying stationary essentials like drawing paper, colouring pencils, felt tips, pyjamas, socks, some nice wee bath things, other toiletries, couple of gift vouchers so they get to go shopping, sweets, and the wee thing they ask for, but this year, from the 3 children, that is just pokemon cards, a barbie and nike socks. So I am more than happy to supply those and my budget there edges up as it just breaks my heart.

I keep buying things for my children, then those three come into my head and I feel so bad for them, I buy a wee something to add. I just cannot stand the idea of any child not getting a wee something from Santa

What will you get? And what did they ask for?

Just to showcase my own Scrooge tendencies, DD (12), who has just started secondary school, is getting (so far):

Echo dot speaker I bought for £18 last Black Friday and forgot in a cupboard 🤣

A little glitter lamp for her bedside table that was £12 in the sale last January in Lisa Angel;

Some books, probably about 4-5 paperbacks that cost around £6-8 each, so I probably spent about £30 on them;

A small cat necklace from Lisa Angel that cost £16;

A selection of cheap but cute floral design stationery bits from Flying Tiger for school, eg. erasers/ruler/sticky notes/pen pot/pencil case/notepad/mini highlighters etc. which I think cost me about £24 in total;

That’s already about £100 and none of those items or shops are what I’d consider lavish or ridiculously expensive. And there’s no “big present” in there.

I already have lots of stocking items as I buy little things in the sales year round when I see them. But when DD was 4 or 6, the items were 50p, £1, £2 each tops. Now they’re £3, £4, £5 just even for little bits that 12-year-olds like. Examples - I’ve got her a glitter zip coin purse; a tippex mouse (she loves these); a silk hair bow from H&M; glitter nail varnish from H&M; little chocolate bits like a Cadbury’s Pud and so on; hair bobbles; a wooden stamp for craft designs; a Lottie Brooks book; two bead friendship bracelets; mini soap and mini lip balm. (The stocking a few years ago used to be bubble tubes and paper lasers and that kind of thing, but can easily come in these days at £30-40 😭 —and that’s even with sale items and bargains!)

DD would really like what her friends are into — perfume, “skincare”, Jellycat items and an Apple Watch (ha!) Those are not cheap! A Jellycat toy costs around £35 these days! (And the “skincare” tween girls want is high end, not a bottle of Simple!) I may also buy her some perfume and maybe a Jellycat toy, but that will add a fair amount to the total. And it’s still not some kind of lavish pile of items from super-expensive shops. It’s stationery for school, and a cheap bedside lamp, and a speaker, and couple of bits of cheap costume jewellery and things like that for £100+. The idea that that amount is super lavish for a 12-year-old just doesn’t reflect the reality of what things actually cost these days.

I will probably end up spending £250-£300 per child and whilst it sounds like a lot it actually doesn’t go very far. Those spending £50… how?

The £50 ones were young children, lots of second hand and lots of presents coming from other family.

And you genuinely can get some lovely things second-hand for younger kids. I used to buy the most gorgeous clothes and wooden toys for DD for 99p+ postage on eBay 😭

For tweens and teens, not so much —(secondhand nail varnish, perfume, or trainers, anyone?)

DC are tweens, I’ve set them a budget of £50 each to choose their own Christmas presents, with the option to combine birthday and Christmas presents if they want something more expensive. When they were younger I used to buy them random bits which did cost more than £50 but for the past couple of years, they’ve asked me to put the money into their bank account so they can save and earn interest. All very deeply unsentimental I know, but they absolutely don’t want me to “waste” their allowance by buying them stuff! 🤷🏻‍♀️

Tween wants LED lights to decorate her room, skincare stuff from Sol de Janeiro, Sunday or Bubble or those types of brand/ Sephora vouchers and I will get her some books and a cable knit jumper she wants (if I can find one) - bearing in mind she does actually need a jumper.

Teen is thornier as what he really wants is a North Face puffer jacket which everyone here seems to have but I personally don’t think it’s reasonable to spend £250 on a jacket for a 14 year old. So we are at a bit of a deadlock there. I don’t know how anyone else pays for this! Otherwise he will get a sports bag, some books, and new jeans and maybe some starter aftershave.

Anyone else coming back in a few years to see how the extreme low spend on toddlers/children gang are coping in the teenage years? Fair enough if you only have a very low budget and are doing your best, but you might find you cannot get away with second hand toys and clothes and a few sweeties for your teen!

£50 quid tips per child x 2.
Don't forget others will buy them prezzies as well.
Nephews & Niece's £30 each max.
We decided some years ago to stop buying adult siblings and partners gifts, as we were just exchanging crappy vouchers in the end and half the clan put fxuk all effort into actually buying something with consideration. So we buy for 8 nephews/nieces.
We still buy for parents obviously

My 8yo will be about £150, football rebounder thing and lego.

My 13 blew the budget to bits with an Xbox, in fact he successfully put a list together 4 things £700+

But it very much depends what kids what, what they need, and who else is buying for them.
For some kids parents are the only people buying, other kids get big ticket things from DGPs, some parents will buy an Xbox to be shared, others don't, some kids get big ticket things for birthdays, others get bikes when they outgrow them.
Some kids get a constant drip of toys and stuff others if restricted to birthdays and Christmas.
Then there's teen clothes and trainers, some kids get fancy trainers when they want them others fancy trainers are strictly gifts.
Same with sports / music lessons for some a block of lessons is part of Christmas budget others it's a direct debit never really though about

It's actually impossible to compare budgets. The important thing is kids are happy.

I spend more than £50 on things for my friends' kids just when they're coming to visit for the day, I can't believe you can do actual Christmas for less as a parent.

I spent £30 just on 2 Squishmallow bags from B&M.

Hardly - for other people’s kids I would spend about £20-£25 max per child, less if they were primary school age. A board game, some books, or medium nice skincare or perfume. (Davidoff, CK1, Sol de Janeiro type thing). It’s only one present among many!

This year, I've spent more than other years. My ds 13 wants a gaming PC that was over €700 I've also got him a new desk for his room, which he needs, it was €115. I just buy some sweets for his stocking. Got him a wash set, a new wallet, and a mat for his keyboard. I also do christmas Eve box with new PJs, toothbrush and a selection box and of course an advent calendar for Dec 1st. I told my Ds he won't be getting anything else as the PC is very expensive
He is such a good kid who does really well in school and never causes trouble and never asks for much. His Dad and I felt he deserved a few extra bits for christmas.

My dd is 9, and it will be her last year believing. I've spent more on her this year. She's asked for five nights of freddys playset, which is €30 but got 3 playsets and 5 extra figures for €70 second hand. The figures on their own cost between €12/€15 each! I was very happy with that. She loves drawing. I bought her a drawing tablet second hand for €120 instead of €230 new. I got her deadpool figures they were €8 each in smyths lidl had them 2 for €7. I also got her a deadpool controller holder in Tkmaxx for €20 it was €25/€30 in other shops. I save all year for christmas.

I have three kids - the 4 yo has no idea what things cost so that works well and she just gets lots of stocking filler type bits.
Then there's the 14 and 17 yo boys; different level altogether! They're great kids though and know we don't have much money so don't ask for much. One wants a band tee, the other I've bought a theatre ticket for so far to a show he fancies going to see.
Clothes are a nightmare at thst age because they both like the sports labels etc.

They'll give their teenagers a satsuma and a knitted nose warmer and the teenagers will be grateful for it.