should dcs savings be equal?

[familyfun]

when dd1 born we used cb and ctc to buy clothes/car seats/pushchairs needed, any money left was put in her savings. bday and xmas money (off other people) was spent on her on toys/nice dress/outdoor larger toys and rarely a small amount put in savings.

when dd2 born we use cb and ctc to buy them both what they need but dd2 needs les clothes as she has handmedowns and has reused carseats/pushchairs. money left is split between them.

dd1 has a hobby paid for from cb, dd2 doesnt yet.

dd2 has had less toys/outdoor toys as she has had dd1s old ones.

dd2 has far more bday/xmas money as people know she already has so much of dd1s old stuff.

is it fair to split all money left over between them, as although dd2 has less spent on her, she benefits from all the stuff originally bought for dd1. not sure about splitting dd2s xmas money as it was given to her?

eg. dd1 was bought a baby swing when little. dd2 got given the baby swing and was given the cash instead (by a relative) so should dd2 keep all the cash despite the fact she got the swing too?

i want to be fair to them both.

With our DC1 we put a chunk of money into savings for her but weren't in the same financial position to do so with DC2 and then 3, so we've evened out the savings so that DC1 has a bit more than DC2, who in turn has a bit more than DC3. Hopefully it'll even itself out by the time they get round to using it.

FWIW I have no idea how much savings my siblings had when I was a teenager. I assume it's roughly the same as I had, but I never thought about it.

What we did was set up 4 savings accounts as they were born, and put all the money in there. I have taken a chunk out and evened it up (the chunk is 4k and in a bond). I feel like that is their savings, and will be equal and now they have differing amounts in the accounts depending on what they do with their money from xmas and birthdays.

if they both had xmas money but dd1 spent hers and dd2 decided to save that would be fine, i accept they wont be equal when older, its just now while dd2 costs less im trying to be fair.

But I think it's also important to keep it fair while it's you deciding what to spend her money on. You've chosen to spend some of DD1's money on things for her (and therefore, by default, for her sister too) but you haven't needed to for DD2.

With the example of the baby swing, I would simply halve the money given.