Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

Original poster

How much will you spend on your DC's?

113 replies

d1156075795531b003508 · 13/10/2008 10:44

Completely nosy question, I know .
I tend to pick up bits in the sales and things which catch my eye throughout the year. I think of this is being 'sensible'. However, have just mentally totted it up and have spent £250 (including a bike) on DD. This seems ridiculous. Am going to probably hold some back until her birthday. However, she doesn't have presents / toys outside of birthdays and xmas. What does everyone else do / spend? How much is too much?

OP posts:
GooseyLoosey · 13/10/2008 13:15

About £60. 2 "big pressies" coming in at about £20 each, 3 little ones at about £3 each and around £10 on a stocking and a board game for the family.

lizziemun · 13/10/2008 13:21

We spend about £200 on each dd's, but we don't buy big things through the year.

Weegle · 13/10/2008 13:26

This year I'm getting away with under £40 - that's one big present and a stocking full of bits and bobs. However that is purely because I found the main present for only £15 at a massive reduction, so the rest is stocking fillers. I would normally be prepared to pay up to £50 for the main gift and a further £25 on stocking. He gets gifts from grandparents, aunties, friends etc and even with us limiting it we still took ten days to open things last year as he found it too overwhelming not getting a chance to play with each toy before moving on to the next.

MrsMattie · 13/10/2008 13:28

£100 on DS, probably. Nothing on DC2, as he/she will be a month old . I try to stick to spending less - I'd be happier with £60/70 - but it will add up, no doubt!

kerryk · 13/10/2008 16:00

for dd's first xmas we spent £800 on her (she was 6 weeks old )

i actually wrapped up every present then had to sit and unwrap all of them for her again on xmas moning because 1/ she was asleep and 2/ she was only a new born so how the hell would she be able to do it!!

since then i have really cut down, even though i am guilty of looking for expensive things as i dont want them to miss out on anything.

my two much prefer the whole "getting together" part rather than presents.

notsoteenagemum · 13/10/2008 16:18

Depends what they ask for, I don't spend the same on each child anyway more the same number of things. DD's older so generally wants more expensive stuff which DS will have when he's that age, at he moment he's happy with a big toy around £30.
This year we're getting a wii between them so they will just have a few stocking fillers.
I think birthdays are more for splashing out tbh, and Christmas is for having a nice time with the family. I remember lovely Christmas's as a child but can't really remember any presents and I want my dc to be the same.

pagwatch · 13/10/2008 16:20

it depends
I don't spend the same on each of them as they tend to want very differentthings. And i get the presents they want ratherthan spend a set amount iyswim.

mamadiva · 13/10/2008 16:29

My DS is 2 and I don't intend to spend anymore than £50 on him this year.

Soprana · 13/10/2008 16:33

DD is getting one present from us, and I doubt it will cost more than £30. She doesn't need much, and I don't want her getting used to having loads of stuff. It's her second Christmas.

bellavita · 13/10/2008 16:33

Around £550 for DS1 (laptop and i-pod and a few stocking fillers).

Around £350 for DS2 (bike, cheaper i-pod and DS Lite and stocking fillers).

DS1 was supposed to go away in Yr6 in the summer, but due to two arm injuries was not able to go although we had paid for it. We have since got most of our money back (we did take him away for a weekend and bought him a couple of things to compensate). So we are using this money to pay for a laptop. DH wanted him to have the laptop now and buy him something else for xmas, but I said no.

We usually spend around £70 on a joint present for my parents, I have a niece and nephew who will have £20 each spent on them (don't buy for db or sil and likewise).

My boys only get presents from us, my parents, db/sil and some money from my grandad.

MrsMattie · 13/10/2008 16:55

£800 on a 6 week old. Kerry, tell me you're joking?!

Tinkerisdead · 13/10/2008 17:05

kerry mine will be about 6 weeks at xmas, what did you buy for that amount? I can only assume you kitted out your nursery and wrapped it for xmas? fascinated now...

kerryk · 13/10/2008 17:18

er no not joking.

i can only put it down to being completly loopy after having my first baby and believe me pfb does not come close to this, as far as i was concerned no-one had ever loved a baby like i loved mine

i cant remember everything but i bought all the large sized pooh bears cuddly toys (all about £60 at that point) pooh, tigger, eyeore, piglet and rabbit all had red bows tied around there necks before being carefully wrapped in xmas paper.

i could not choose between 3 disney suitcases (all pull along sort) so i bought them all.

i binned her perfectly good bouncy chair and baby gym which were brand new gifts when she was born and upgraded to ones with music and lights.

about £200 went on clothes even though i had already bought everything she needed when she was born.

i bought a ysl baby bottle which cost £50.

burberry baby booties for £50.

the rest was disney tapes etc.

i cant believe how mad i must have been, worst part was i stuck it all on my credit card and spent most of the next year paying it all of.

MrsMattie · 13/10/2008 17:27

lol bless you! That's funny

bogie · 13/10/2008 19:04

Korma I didn't have small christmas' as a child I use to get really big gifts, but I just can't bring myself to spend huge amounts on presants that they just get bored of after a few weeks I think when they are older and want things like i pods or wii's it will be different and I might consider buying one big thing.
I get alot of second hand books and jigsaws for ds who will be 3, I went to a car boot sale last week and spent £10 I got a huge pile of books games and jigsaws for him most of them were about 20-50p each and they are like new you can't tell they have been used, I will wrap them all up sepratly and it will seem to him that he has had loads but we are not having to cut back on things just to buy lots of presants.

muggglewump · 13/10/2008 19:14

£150-ish
I've bought the DS second hand, I'm being given a bike and I've seen a Bratz Car(or bus maybe?) that I want to get too.
The rest will be bits and pieces, a lot of which will be Charity Shop finds

expatinscotland · 13/10/2008 19:23

on DD1 I spent about £150, but cheated and used some of her DLA money to buy her a DS Lite (she's not very good with books or handwriting, but she's very good with games consoles, so I got her that and a game to help her with her letters).

on DD2, about £50. her birthday is 10 December, though.

will probably spend about £25 or so on DS because he'll only be about a month and a half old.

Niecie · 13/10/2008 19:30

My impression is that people are spending more this year. Last year I would have been embarrassed to admit we spend about £125 each on our two as I would have been alone in spending so much but this year it seems to be a lot of us spending that much.

I think I will be getting them a DS Lite each, second hand from Game but apart from that I don't know yet. DS1 would probably be happy with loads of books and DS2 loads of Playmobil but we will see.

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 13/10/2008 19:32

£200 on a wii but I want it anyway so we are both happy.

Then a few stocking fillers.

Lmccrean · 13/10/2008 19:35

DD needs absolutely nothing cause house is coming down with toys, so thinking £15-20 spent in a craft shop will do her, plus £10 for random stocking fillers (most of which Ive already picked up throughout the year)

ChippyMinton · 13/10/2008 19:41

£15 each for something they have all asked for, plus some small stocking fillers.

They have birthdays near Xmas though. And several grandparents who ask me to buy gifts to give them, so not as tight as it sounds.

Mercy · 13/10/2008 19:47

We aim for about £20/£30 per child including stocking presents but it's often up to £20 odd on top of that. Depend on their ages tbh.

Tbh I can't see how we could spend anymore than £50 on presents (apart from restricted finances)

traceybath · 13/10/2008 19:52

Probably about £125 on DS1(4) and £50 on DS2(1).

However we have small families and don't do pressies with friends so vast majority of their pressies are from us.

Spent more last year on DS2 as he had a bike. I think it varies year to year depending on what they want or need.

I do love christmas though and could easily go very overboard.

aGalChangedHerName · 13/10/2008 19:52

My ds1 is 17 this year so we will from now on give him a cheque/voucher for £50 and do a nice stocking for about the same amount.

Ds2 got an x-box 360 and an NBA basketball thingy last year so have decided to only spend £100 on him too. He wants a years subscription to X-box live and an x-box game.

The dd's will be happy with a few Peppa Pig bits and a nice stocking.

My whole xmas budget is what i would normally spend on ds1.

I am not embarassed about what i used to/will now spend at xmas and neither should you be Korma!!!!

FiveGoMadInDorset · 13/10/2008 19:55

Not massive this year, we ar going for a big holiday in Nov/Dec, DD hasn't really got Christmas yet and DS only 6 months, DD's birthday is in January so will spend a bot more on her then.