Go on then.... how much do you spend on the kids at Xmas?

[compo]

We've got one 18 month ds and I doubt we'll spend more than £30 as he'll get so much from grandparents.

Well every year i say that I am going to limit it to £50-£75 each especially as they all have their birthdays weeks before xmas, but yet again I've lost the plot and Dd1's list totals £80 so far, Dd2's is nearly £100 , and that doesn't include stocking fillers.

Ds's is a more reasonable £55

Kama - do you mean rocking horse?!! My sil has got my 3 year old niece hers - £55 elc kitchen. I think that's a really good pressie - it's big and she'll love it but it's not a ridiculous price

Message withdrawn

LAst year I was really stupid and ds was only 14mths..we spent around £150. This year I have spent £60 on a wooden pirate ship and a keyboard with stool and then some little cheap stocking fillers.

Am going to try really hard this year not to check the piles before hand to check that they all look the same size LOL.

I think sticking to £50 is a good idea. Then you can get one big thing and a few little things. 'Specially if there is a sale on!!

Probably about £80 each.

This year I want to stick to £50 each but it might creep to £75 depending on what I get - trying not to though.

Last yr the eldest two got well over £100 worth and it was too much so this year I'm trying to select a few good presents and then just have a stocking of bits.

Ds3 will get very little because he'll only be 16 months and he's the 3rd boy so we have everything I might otherwise buy for him. Plus he has no expectations anyway!

glad you said that gdg about your ds3 as I was starting to think my £30 was abit stingy!!

between £300 - £400 although it often creeps up alittle more

Fd is lying, it's at least £1000000

fairydust - what do you buy that comes to that amount? Or are your kids older (I can imagine electronic stuff can really add up)? If I spent £300 on each boy at Xmas the playroom would be like a toyshop and it's already ridiculously overflowing after only 4 Xmas's in this house!!!

Fairydust - is that on one child or more? How do you have room for all the stuff!!

snap Gobbledispook!!

Probably about 300 for all 3 of them. Hopefully less.

Like others I'm going to shop for the really perfect present for eacjh DS this year as we already have half a ton of tatt that they never play with.

have one dd who's three yrs old.

this year she's having a bubble console and games that comes £120

A cd boom box thing and cd's £80

dvd's £80

happyland stuff £50

dress up box £100

then stocking fillers so in that respect only a few items but they are expensive items.

When I was earning plenty of money we would spend about £300 or so on each of them.

Now though, things are a bit tighter and I have become fed up over the years of spending huge amounts on them only for the things to get broken or discarded a few weeks after the tree comes down.

Now we aim for about £100 tops usually £60 - £70.

It's starting to scare me how much it will cost when he's older. At least now he doesn't know anything about it. But later on I guess we'll be buying Play stations etc.

For me it's not about whether I can afford it or not - I could spend a lot more if I wanted to but on past experience it just isn't worth it as they just can't play with all the stuff they get (anyone seen that YBF clip of a boy in the US opening all his presents on Xmas morning and in the end just screaming 'I've got a headache!!!'?!)

Plus, with 3 children of the same sex with small age gaps you very soon have most things that are relevant to them.

I suppose it might also depend how much stuff you buy throughout the year and how much stuff they are getting from other people. Certainly if I spent £300 on each of my 3 it would just be totally ridiculous and they could not possibly take all that in.

When my ds was a baby I rarely spent more than £50, but each year it's been mounting, and now he's 5 it looks like it'll be about £200, but he's my only child otherwise I couldn't afford it. Just a couple of playstation games costs £50.

I agree Gobbledispook. We've got so much clutter already that we just wouldn't have room to buy £80 worth of dvds every Christmas as well as loads of other stuff.

i dont know yet. i have a white board up in the living room at the moment with a target figure of £80 each.

for every detention they get they loose £5 for every week without a detention they gain £2

wow good idea Custy. I take it they are too old for FC then!