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

[notjustme]

Just that really!

I have 3 teens with birthdays before Christmas including a 16th and an 18th. Didn't plan that well, did I? No-one's asked for anything yet... If we think it's a good idea and that they'll look after it, we'll buy it. Would never ever consider going into debt or doing without things we need to keep them happy though. I will just say no if I think it's a rubbish idea though.

I am stressing a bit about this. Dh works in sales and due to some accounting error it may look like he is not getting his bonus (or as much). We also no longer have credit cards, overdrafts or loans, so what we have is what we have. I have a 16, 12 and 5 year old, but it is dd's birthday mid december.

She has had a crappy phone for ages and never asks for anything. She has also been really poorly lately and said she would like an iphone 4. Sigh. This is a bit out of my reach. I would normally do about £250 on each child for their birthday but this is making me wince.

I am already looking at stuff to eBay to raise the money to get her what she wants. Some of you seem very strict on the present front and I wonder how come nearly everyone I know gives their children so much stuff at christmas/birthdays.

my sons bestfriend is an only child and they have a reasonable income, but he gets what he what he wants when he wants and my son is always coming home saying his friend has this T shirt or this pair of shoes or this gadget...

It's hard isnt it?

I saw someone on a thread the other day with two teens with birthdays on 24th and 26th December.

Ragged - we never have done before now but we have given it to her as an option - i.e. she says she wants a laptop, which we can just about stretch to if she has it as a joint xmas and birthday present and not a lot else this year, but not if she isn't willing to combine them. But she didn't like that idea and is now 'thinking' about what she wants to do. Needless to say there is no chance at all of her getting the party idea she wanted and I almost laughed when she had the guts to ask for it not more than 4 hrs after we had told her it was tight this year.

She has always been one of those 'my pile of presents isn't as big as DD1s pile' teens which has been encouraged by DD1 as she is considerably older so when DD2 was young DD1 was a spiteful teen who would specifically count, and make sure that she held back on opening her presents so she'd have some left when DD2 was finished. Now it's DD2's turn to be that teen...oh the joy.

Dh and I spend on our children what our parents spent on us when we were children.
Christmas - one week of dh's wages.
Birthday's - one week of my wages.
Easter - when the were small, something for the garden, now something which is activity based, ie this year dd who is 17 and whose feet have stopped growing got a good pair of wellies.

I have 2 dds - 16 and 14. We normally spend about 100 pounds each on them for Christmas, unless buying them a 'bigger' gift to sahre, as we did they year they had a Wii for example (although that was a present to the whole family really).

This year dd1 has said she'd rather have one more expensive gift than lots of smaller ones, although what she wants is an i-pod and I just can't see how 150 quid can be justified on something that just plays music (she's already got a Shuffle) so tbh, she will probably not get it.

DD2 wants a new guitar but I haven't even dared look how much they cost!

Birthdays - around 40 each, usually. But they may get new shoes or a new coat too, if needed at that time.

Apologies for typo-filled post.

Remus - I think an Ipad touch is a brilliant idea, it plays music, but also can connect to the internet with wifi. DD loves hers, she used to have a classic, and then sold it and bought an itouch, which she is a lot happier with. You can also use it as a camera and watch videos on it, and record vidoes and go on face time.

Guitars will cost in the region of £100 - £150 new, but you can get a far better quakity second hand one for that as well, well worth looking in a local music shop.

I didn't mean to type ipad - meant itouch.

Thanks Getorf. I just can't get my head around the cost of I-Pod-type things!

Mine generally get 20 pounds birthday.. and 100 pounds at xmas until they turn 18 then they are down to 50 pounds, they are all over 16 so they dont ask for anything apart from the money so they can do the jan sales .. its not nice having to sit and watch them open an envelope with money in, so i do the stocking fillers too.. socks, undies, smellys etc

My DDs get up to £40 each spent on them for birthdays, £60 for Christmas, they are 9 and 10.

Usually £50 birthday (+ party) and £200 Xmas (+stocking filler). Quite happy to bump up birthday if party forgone - they know maximum budget and that's it. We have often pooled parents/grandparents/uncles etc money together for 1 big present.

Dd has just had her 15th birthday, which I felt was a slightly bigger one than usual; the next biggie will be her 18th. Her presents were:

voucher for a return ticket to London and cheap on-the-day-theatre ticket/fringe theatre ticket (prepared to spend up to £30 on this)=total of c. £45

2 DVDS- total of c. £ 10

3 books- total of c. £40

1 CD- c. £10

total sum of c. £105

For Christmas she will get a slightly cheaper mix of books and DVDs, probably to a sum of c. £ 50-75.

But this is not a deliberate exercise in economy; it is a pragmatic balance of what she actually wants/needs and what the family budget can take at any one moment in time. If there was something big she really needed and we could afford it I would buy it, but not if we can't afford it or just for the sake of spending enough money.

We'll probably spend around £50-£70 on main present, plus £30 on stocking fillers, and bits and pieces. My eldest son wants an Ipod touch, so as his birthday is in December, may do a combined present (first time ever).

one thing I have always been anxious to drum into dcs is that you can put anything you like on your wishlist and needn't feel guilty about it, but nobody else should feel guilty either if it doesn't materialise

my dn always used to put a pony on hers, even years after she had really stopped wanting one- it became a family joke in the end

but sometimes it has been possible to manage something slightly out of the ordinary by getting relatives to club together or combining presents or giving money towards something rather than the whole thing

so nobody should feel resentful just from looking at somebody else's wishlist

fortunately, dd's friends come from very mixed economic circumstances (from nearly on breadline to very comfortably off indeed) so there is a tacit agreement that nobody gets criticised over the choice or outlay of their birthday celebrations: you can have anything from buying your friends a hamburger at McDonalds and walking round the shops together to a full blown party

they seem very nice friends

£50 each for each. They generally ask for it in cash and take it traight to the computer games shop.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.