How much do you spend on your teens christmas and birthday presents?

[notjustme]

Just that really!

[toffeelolly]

Love to spoil my 3 at christmas and birthday's, do not have a set amount just try and get them what I think they will like. Just love to see there little face's on christmas morning. Other than clothes, book's and £2.00 pocket money each every week, they do not get much else unless they need it. My 2 ds's are 8 ,5 and dd is7 years.

[Isthiscorrect]

Hmmm, we are very fortunate not to have to think about budget, I realise we are lucky so please don't flame me. Ds is at 6th form and where we live overseas it isn't possible for him to have a job. So we buy what he wants/needs and he knows he is lucky. However he does do volunteer work and has done for the last 5 years.
We have virtually no family so he gets cash 50gbp from his grandparents and nothing from anyone except us. He will be 18 next term and will get a new laptop. Dh and I disagree over this I would rather he had the new laptop for 19th birthday when he starts uni (September baby) as I think 4 years it will fairly out of date. I will also buy him a watch to keep, approx 150gbp. I would love to buy something like a Cartier tank but that is unreasonable in my mind, although we could - probably- afford it. Last Christmas he had a new iPod classic, his choice, his old one died after 5 years and a morph suit. He also has an iPhone 5 and a go pro camera. For last years birthday he had a miansi braclet leather and silver, about 50gbp. He writes a very popular blog (currently no money in it but soon) and he uses his phone for that. The go pro camera he uses again for his blog, when he is running, sailing, volunteering, etc.
He hasn't asked for anything else but to be honest if he NEEDED it I would probably buy it. So he doesn't have an iPad or tv in his room. I don't buy computer games for him and to be honest he has very little time to play. We are happy with how it works for us.

[eatyourveg]

ds2 turns 17 on Tuesday. We've spent £41 to get him CDs and blank tape cassettes. The 5 presents will be split between us all, one from ds1, one from ds3, one from me and one from dh - oh plus the price of the wrapping paper - no card tho, he hates them.

[redcrop]

Hi we bought my 7 year old a tablet for his birthday but he did not have a party which would have totalled approx £200.00 anyway.

We are living on a very tight budget now having spent over the years and I have been known to spend £500 on a paintballing party!

I think it depends on the child. My daughter's birthday was yesterday (14) and she got £105.00 worth of stuff and was over the moon with all her bits and pieces.

I quite like the fact that my children are no longer spoilt!!

Not sure ive helped at all just thought I would respond lol

Redcrop x

[musicposy]

I don't think the amount as such spoils them. If you have a grateful teen who really appreciates what you get for them then I don't think you need to worry.

The minute one of my teens starts to get at all demanding or entitled or moan that other people have x y z and theirs isn't enough....I know that's a sign to start giving them a little less

[Deanne100]

Hi. Newbie here. I simply searched Google asking for the average spend for a teenagers birthday? Anyway, now you're all stuck with me lol. I think I've gone over board BUT..... I've bought my daughter a Nexus 7 tablet and case plus a couple of books - £200. She is an avid reader and a habit that I encourage but books, especially the latest teenage ones are generally not available at car boots or eBay so I sort of see it as an investment. EBooks, many are free, are certainly cheaper to buy than from your typical book stores. THEN.... I'm taking her and 3 of her school friends to Camp Hill for the day which is costing me £165 plus picnic and petrol.

In my mind, she will have a birthday to remember for years to come and a piece of technology that will help her in her final years of study.

To add to the above, our extended family is dysfunctional to say the least, so what I do on the day, other than gift tokens from my aunt and my dads family, what makes her birthday special will be done by me. My bro is great. He may take on the expense of the tablet but he may not..... We do not live near family, so her birthday is really what I make it.

Your thoughts are? Bigggggggggg sigh!!!!!!!!!! I don't want to spoil her but worry that maybe I am. Have a gone over board. Am I spoiling her?

Ps. She gets £40 a month pocket money. She buys her own clothes except essentials. I buy underwear, school uniform etc. She buys the fashion stuff and usually from Primark. I also pay for her phone which I think is a necessity these days.

[Astelia]

I make sure my teens have a few surprises and quite a few parcels to open. I don't really want to add up the amount, there is no need. I don't have a budget but just try to get each of them a nice pile of pressies.

Neither of them want anything for Christmas or need anything in particular so that makes it harder, I have had to wrack my brains.

[bubby64]

I have twins who turned 12 last week, I spent approx £70 on them for the gifts, which was more than I have spent in last few years, but they both needed musical instruments, which, even 2nd hand, were expensive. I have also organised a party in the new year, which is £70 , but that's for hire of the local pool and they can have 15 guests each. They haven't had a party for 4 yrs, and I had promised to do something this year. For Christmas I have spent £120 total on each child, which again is more than usual, but they are getting reconditione laptops, which they need for school work. They both know money is a bit tight, and are both happy to have "recycled" gifts, ( they had iPods off eBay last year). I hope next year will be a little less expensive, but, again, if I need to, the gifts will be reconditioned or nearly new.

[alistron1]

Interesting thread. I have 4 kids - 3 of whom are teens. DD2 was 15 this week and DD1 is 16 just after Xmas. My ball park figure is £100 per child. And £50 for birthdays. However my 13 year old DS is going skiing in January, so his Xmas stuff will be a bit less.

[lljkk]

Heading towards thinking £0 would be about right.

[Jingleallthejay]

Birthdays are never more than 50 unless it is a special birthday 13/16 and 18 dd got a lot spent on her ,

[Jingleallthejay]

mine are getting laptops this year so about 500 each but dd1 was more expensive than dd2s they have a few smelly sets and sweets and thats it

[movamum]

Really interested in this thread, because some mums I know spend ridiculous amounts at Christmas and their children can't even enjoy all the stuff they are getting. We spend around £100 on the older ones, all in, and less on the younger ones. To keep things fair, we get a main present and then something to eat, something to wear and something to read for each child. The price of the last two can vary greatly but they don't seem to notice!

[thegirlwithnoname]

(I'm Saffron btw)
I suppose I thought people would critise what I spend on my children at christmas because it has happened at work. For example I now never discuss what I spend at christmas with my work collegues, but, I would with my next door neighbour (who I rarely speak too) because, I know that she will be spending the same amount on her children, as will 90% of the familys in our village.

[JennaTailor]

We make a massive fuss of Xmas (about £250 - £300 per kid) and Birthdays are a much lower key affair (£50) - not sure why we do it this way ... just what my parents did to me i guess.

[streakybacon]

We do splash out a bit at Christmas but then we don't spend a lot during the year. We have one cheap UK holiday and if there's anything that ds wants he has to earn it and pay for it himself.

Ds is home educated so we spend on educational stuff as and when needed and I have to draw that line so he doesn't feel he's getting work stuff as presents, iykwim.

This Christmas he's getting an xbox Kinect - ideally it would be a family present but as we've only got one kid he either gets it for himself or not at all. Tbh he's getting it for social reasons, for his mates to come round and play, rather than any need of ours to give him the latest kit. Other than that he's getting a few books and tat for his stocking. He's 13 (tomorrow ).

Birthdays are much more low key. He'll be getting a book and cd and I'm paying for him to take four friends bowling, then they're coming back here for pizzas. Not a big deal but he knows that if he's getting a 'party' he won't get much in gifts.

No tv in the bedroom here either, a basic phone (which he pays for himself), limited games etc. There are only so many hours in the day after all and I like to see him occasionally .

[TheOriginalNutcracker]

Too much tbh, but then we don't do holidays or anything really, so i don't mind spending a bit more.

Dd1 just had her 14th and she had an ipanda (£52), dvd's (£12), make up (£10) and I paid for her and some friends to have a meal out.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

DD2 goes to Drama classes every week; both girls get a small allowance each month; we pay for holidays and day trips etc - but we don't genrally buy into all the expensive gadgetry stuff. And I don't like Tvs in bedrooms - so they haven't got them.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Oh we could afford to spend more than we do - but we choose not to.

[cory]

Why would anyone want to diss you, Saffron? Haven't most of us said we are spending what fits in with our family budget? Does that imply any criticism of other people's budgets?

If we spent a week's income on each of our dcs, we couldn't afford the trip abroad in the summer to meet up with grandparents and cousins, which matters a lot more to our dcs than having a TV in their room. We are both spending on our children, it's just that some things don't wrap so easily.

My dcs both have a montly allowance (£10/month in Yr 7 rising to £15 in Yr 11) so yes, we do spend that on them during the year. And we pay dd's drama class. Don't buy a lot of things but that is because of saving for the holiday.

[alemci]

probably about £70 on christmas but may be more this year. Things like I pods are so expensive and then if i buy DS one. Have to spend equivalent on others.

then probably £100 to £120 but cannot really afford it as my dd's 18th is just before so v expensive time.

[Saffron]

So I worked out the average spends per child at Christmas from the posts, it came to £73.00 which shocked the socks of me and DH.
We spend a week of dh's wages on our children every christmas, because thats what our parents did for us (about £450.00 per child)
Both of us work, although we go on holiday's and have days out we don't spend for the sake of spending on our kids during the year.
So I want to know do you spend on your children during the year?

Diss me if you want, frankly I don't care, dh and I don't smoke, don't drink and rarely go out in the evenings, we are either at work or with our kids.

I can hear your brains working, how can you spend that much on a child every year
DD - 2010, a bracelet and cash. 2009, a good camera. 2008, a new laptop. 2007, Tv and Dvd combo.
DS - 2010, a PS3. 2009, a new bike. 2008, a new laptop. 2007, a Tv and Dvd Combo.

[mumblechum1]

I opt out of buying anything other than stocking fillers at Christmas, as dh loves choosing cool gadgets for ds. So last yr an ipad, yr before surround sound system for ds's room, yr before, big council house telly , yr before PS3.

I stress about the birthday present but leave dh to have fun buying and paying for the xmas present. I think the usual cost is about £500 or so.

[Saffron]

So out of 10 people that admited how much they spent.
It works out at about £73.00 per child