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

@WickerMam I think we have the same sort of background. My mum used to pay weekly all year round for vouchers or pay off a bike weekly etc.

And for those asking where the presents/toys go. We do a clear out of old toys before Christmas and sell/charity shop/pass down to family any that they no longer play with or have outgrown. We also don't buy in excess all year round so its not like we're inundated, its just once a year. We're also fortunate to have quite a bit of storage in our house and some bigger things go in the loft for a few months then we toy rotate with other big toys (ball pit, teepee etc).

Two teens and an adult here (who I feel a bit guilty about budgeting less for however much he tells us he doesn't want much anyway because he'd working and buys for himself!) We budget 150 each for the younger two and 100 for DS1, usually works out to 3-5 things each.

DS2 (15):
GoCube, ticket to see Chris Hadfield next year, book about the history of games consoles.
Still got about £25 to go

DD (17):
Hair curler/waver, teddy fleece hoodie, positivity journal.
About £30 to go and NO idea what to use it for!

DS1 (22):
Coffee flavour rum, waterproof socks, and will probably finish up with vinyl and a book.

@cinders222 It's interesting what you say about people doing similar to what their parents did. We got one present from our parents, then a stocking from Santa. This is the same for both adults and kids. Adults from different households would contribute to everyone's stockings. We still do the same now. DH's family did piles of presents when the children were young, then stopped as they got older. I was mystified the first Christmas MIL arrived with MULTIPLE presents for each of her DGCs. I was like, why?? Then I learnt about DHs Christmas' as a child and I read these threads on MN so was enlightened!

Our £150 budget doesn't include stocking.

Eldest (nearly 12) has (with quite a few overlaps to OP).

• beyblade arena set (£35)
• theatre ticket & T-shirt (£65)
• geeky chef cookbook (£9)
• Warhmmer set (£32)
• Warhammer paints & unofficial brushes (£17)
• Beano annual (£4)

so a bit over!

Youngest (9) has:

• robot dog (£35)
• HP Owlery Lego (£27)
• HP Hagrid Hut Lego (£44)
• Charlie bone book set (£20)
• HP aquabeads set (£15)
• Minecraft annual (£3)

I'd never even heard of Beyblades before this month but that's what my tween wants too. They must have some good marketing!

Theatre tickets are so expensive - we were lucky to get a huge saving going with a group but full price the tickets would have been £75 each 😱

To also contribute to the discussion about whether this is a little or a lot to spend, I think we often overlook how we also gift throughout the year. My eldest has had a second-hand phone and new musical instrument this year, and will probably get a second-hand bike next summer, as gems not quite ready for the next size yet, but will be by then. He's also having a laptop for his birthday. We wouldn't normally spend that money, but he needs one. Interesting, a friend has questioned why that's a birthday present if he needs one.

We all gift so differently, and see different things as appropriate Christmas gift that it's so difficult to compare. Locally, I tend to see that many of DSs friend have very similar things, despite some parents being in the one gift camp and others giving piles. A lot of the time, it just all evens out.

An Alexa or echo dot is a good one if they love having music in their room. Keeps it out of your kitchen too 😅

I grew up in a pretty affluent home and we never had vast amounts of gifts and rarely anything super expensive. Our stockings were pretty basic - satsuma, gold chocolate coin, a book, maybe some stationary or smellies & a pair of socks We would have 2 or 3 gifts to open from our parents - a typical year might be a toy/game each (eg lego set, doll etc) an annual plus item of clothing or a dressing gown. We did have 2 lots of grandparents who would also buy for us so hardly did without, but I do remember being very shocked the first year I spent it with DH.

He grew up in a much poorer typical working class background and he remembers being pretty skint (certainly no holidays or school trips & clothes all second hand!) until Christmas when nothing was off limits! Vast quantities of food & drink and presents like you wouldn't believe for a family that didn't seem to have much. The kids (x 4) each had a pillowcase stuffed full of toys, games, books - you name it! He seemed to have all the latest toys including some of the bigger stuff (A soda foundation and his Raleigh Burner are the ones I'm most envious of 😁!)

We are now definitely nearer my family way but do splurge occasionally on a bike or gadgets but I do find it mindboggling when I see huge long lists of presents - I mean, do they just rip open one after another in a frenzy or do you spread it over the day? Surely some get forgotten about or lost? What the heck do you do with it all after christmas? Do you have a clear out beforehand?

Anyway, I've still not seen this magic list of things you can buy teens for under £50 so off to search or make my own post....😀

Sorry but this is a ridiculous budget. We have top band salaries but would never spend more than £60 per child. Absurd.

Sorry but this is a ridiculous budget. We have top band salaries but would never spend more than £60 per child. Absurd

You think it's 'absurd' for anyone to spend more than £60 on their child? How odd.

Have you never bought your child a bike? A phone? Or if you only have toddlers, can you seriously not imagine a time when you would use your 'top band' salary to buy such things?

@comoatoupeira so what exactly are you getting for your £60? Lots of tat of one average gift. How will this pan out for a teenager? Mine have really quite modest tastes compared to many of their friends but very little they want or need is under £50 so that's literally all they'd be getting! Things like aftershave & perfume, hair straighteners or curlers, adult size trainers & football boots - these things are often upwards of £50.

The days of spending £20/30 on some toys or picking up a nice lego set in the charity shop are long gone and I honestly don't think this is realistic for Christmas unless you are intentionally frugal or very hard up.

6YO girl: two lego sets, silky pyjamas, some books (mostly second hand), a second hand but looks new board game, a science set and stocking fillers. I think I am also going to give her my childhood dollshouse, made for me by my Grandad.

And Bah Humbug to you too! I suppose you iron last year's wrapping paper too.

Do they have a yoto box each? I thought they were around £100 each so surely when they received this they didn't get much else? I only have the one child so no joint presents but I would still get them other bits alongside a yoto box at Christmas. So that's around £150 for one main present and a few little bits.

What are you getting your DC for Christmas?

@Superworm24 the yoto mini was £48 on prime day :)

I agree with pp.

Some people seem to give everything for Christmas - phones, laptops, bikes, theatre tickets.

Others (me!) give these things during the year when needed and so spend much less on teens on Christmas Day itself.

it probably all works out over the year.

Thank you! I will keep my eye out, i didn't realise they went on sale that cheap.

I agree with that. When ours were younger it was easy to spend around £100 per child, but now mine are 18 and 11, it goes nowhere 🤦‍♀️

@Superworm24 Apparently that's the cheapest it's been (new plus 1 make your own card) but hopefully there will be good black friday deals too. Knowing my luck ds will also want one, both their birthdays are January though so that would be OK. You can save some real money using the make your own cards (10 for £20 at normal price) too - I have a mini phone printer (like instax) so I've printed photo stickers for the covers of make your own cards.

I think it was near site-wide 20% off on black friday last year at yoto? I'm waiting for that for some Julia Donaldson must haves and make your own cards - the second hand card market is essentially the same price as new, even for bundles, once postage is included. And yes, I have a lot of phone time going spare to research this stuff as dd is still heavily breastfeeding 🤣

Anything branded for my teen comes from Vinted.

@HousefulofIkea so you pick some of the examples. My 13 year old doesn't care about fashion and having many high cost items. He is saving up for a laptop because I can't afford to just buy one. And if people "feel poor" because they didn't get a huge amount of expensive gifts at Christmas they need to know that materialism isn't everything. I'm still here and for me a main present was a tape or a book because we had very little money. Always a good dinner and everyone together though.

Dd6 is getting...

Main:
Hatchimal surprise
Squishy kit
Child's keyboard

Stocking:
Funlocket diary
Kitten cuddly toy
Hair accessories
Polly pocket mini set
Animal Atlas
Reading book
Bath bomb
Chocolate

We don't give only at Xmas. We do things through the year as well..