Money Stuff

No kids of my own, but I have 2 nieces (6yr and a 4mth) plus a nephew (3).
I spend between $20-$50 on each child. Xmas to me is for and about the kids. Been rather grinch like and havent decorated at home or work but luckily we are going to visit family and they aren’t coming over to our small townhouse.
Merry Christmas to you and family Justine… Can’t wait to read your thoughts and opinions in the new Year.

I will be dismayed at myself for spending up big again this year though I promised myself I wouldn’t. Like I do every year....
I say ‘will’ because I have just been buying things without adding it up in my head or taking account of things I have bought.
Sooner or later I have to face facts and tell my husband ‘we’ have gone overboard again.
I’d say with 5 kids I have spent about $500 per child on various items. We buy them a main gift of about $150-200 plus a stocking with things they need for work/school and some treats.

Now my husband...I am stuck for ideas so If anyone wants to put what to get a man of ALMOST 50????

The tone of this seems really patronising. Who cares if other parents spend more than you?

I don’t think that buying a child one toy or ten at christmas automatically equates to being “spoilt” or not. It’s all relative to the way you parent, and how you raise your child to view material goods/finances.

My son and girlfriend are both 19.  I’m giving them $100 each this year to spend as they wish.  I’ve been giving my son money since he was 14.  I would save all year and then we’d split the money and go crazy on the post-xmas sales.  We both enjoyed doing that because he spent “his” money not mine.  It’s amazing how thrifty and value conscious kids become when they are spending their own cash.

My partners 3 kids are 12, 14 and 16.  As it’s only a new relationship (3 months or so), I wanted to get them something wonderful as our first Christmas together.  But my partner admits they are spoiled and have too much stuff so he recommended that I give them each $30 JB Hi Fi gift vouchers.  As they are getting other vouchers from various relatives, including grandparents, he says it’s a good way to spend only a little but it all adds up for them.

I agreed because after a rebudgeting of my money I discovered I might be short this year.  I’ve only just moved house as well and have to buy everything from scratch as I had nothing to furnish a new place, so his suggestion is a good one (he was mindful of the fact that I moved as well).

Next year I’ll be better prepared because I’ll restart my Xmas Club banking account.  But it can be hard to buy for teenagers so gift vouchers are a good thing.  The hardest thing now for me is trying to figure out what would be a good gift for my partner.

We spend about $80 each on gifts for our two kids (9 and 11). We mainly go for books and some other small things.

We make a bit more of a fuss for birthdays but keep Xmas simple with more emphasis on the people we’ll see (such as cousins from interstate) rather than the “stuff” we’ll get. We’ve always done this, so theyre not complaining - thats the xmas they know.

I doubt I’d ever spend $600 on a phone or iPad for my kids. Just because they want it doesn’t mean that they should have it. I don’t really care what all the other kids are getting. It just seems like a ridiculous amount of money to spend on a toy for a child.

We also have a household income of over $200k annually so we don’t NEED to minimise our spending, we just choose to.

The kids also make us proud by carefully managing their pocket money during Oct and Nov to combine to buy us a gift from them, something small like a DVD or book they have heard us mention that we’d like. The fact that they have considered us and saved up for us can make that $15 DVD worth its weight in gold.

In my family (including extended) we only do presents for children. The monetary value of the gifts depends on what the kid wants, my son wanted a Ben Ten skateboard, a Jessie and Bullseye set (to go with the Woody and Buzz he already has) and a Rhinocerous. We forego the Rhino as Werribee Zoo weren’t selling any; so all up his presents cost under $45.
We also make him choose a present for a needy child every year that we donate to a charity.
I just don’t think that kids need a massive pile of gifts every year, the more they have, the less they value each thing.  I think (or hope) that when he is older, he will appreciate that we spent money on his savings account and his education.

My work colleague spends approximately $1500 per child each Christmas. She has 3 kids, so it’s around $4500 every year.

Well I just moved a few presents from under the tree to the cupboard for birthday presents after reassessing the gift tally. My daughter didnt want much so I got her the bits and bobs she wanted. I had also lay-byed a wii for myself, which I decided to wrap up for her with some extra games (dance etc) which in reality seems like she got sooo much, but I would more likely say its a family gift (but I can make it out she got a huuuge amount for Christmas!)

oh and a Big Merry Christmas to you too!
ps my daughter is getting the same sewing machine! great minds think alike!

I had aimed at spending about $200 on my son, but I ended up going over by at least double that.

But only because I saw an awesome secondhand wooden cubby house, a decent sized one, that will last until he’s maybe 10 or so years old (he’s nearly 2 now).

I figure it was worth the investment.

Think some parents go way overboard,

like buying their 8 year old kid a mac book or an ipad, WTH? they don’t need it.

I’m 22 and my youngest sibling is 16, and I’d say our parents don’t even spend $100 on our Christmas presents. Which doesn’t bother me in the slightest. I got (we had an early family Christmas before they went away) a set of photography books that I know to be about $30, plus a CD and a christmas table runner. So I’d guess that all up might have cost around $60. The most I spent on my siblings’ presents was the 16yo whose present all up cost about $35. (One of the items generally costs between $40 and $50 new, I got it for $20 on eBay).

My parents do santa stockings too (my 21yo sister even gets one, and I did too til I got married and moved out), but I’d say there’s no more than $15 worth of stuff in each person’s stocking. It’s generally stuff like lollipops, a roll-on/can of deodorant, some random little toy (one year I got one of those gooey sticky-hands that you fling at the wall, I was about 18 but thought it was pretty awesome) a book (just a small one - to fit in a stocking), chocolates, maybe pens or other miscellaneous school stationery stuff, etc.

Our parents never bought us ‘gadgets’, I got my first phone at 18 and it was a hand-me-down from my boyfriend. My brother just got his first phone at 18 too, and it was a birthday present from his girlfriend and a few other friends pitched in. Our parents said that if we wanted phones/computers/cars that was fine but we had to buy them ourselves. I’m still gobsmacked whenever I hear of parents buying their kids computers, let alone cars. (I don’t mean, like, a computer to share in the family, I mean a child-specific computer, like “this is Billy’s computer and that is Sally’s computer").

Also our parents spend more on our birthday presents than our christmas presents, though even then I’d say the birthday presents rarely hit $100 or more.

My husband and myself dont have any kids currently.

But we have 15 neices and nephews between us. (For his side, we buy for one child for $50 for my side we buy for all the kids, where we only spend between $20 to $25.

Then we have gifts for our parents, secret santas for immediate and extended families, and we buy each other a little something

All up I think we spend between $900 and $1200 per year on presents, but I try to shop throughout the year so it doesnt seem as much.

Im not complaining thou, I love Christmas and love shopping for other

I went from having hardly any relatives (especially younger ones) to having to think about 7 gifts for my boyfirend’s nephews and nieces!

They are great children and have virtually everything a child could want so it’s always difficult finding them birthday/xmas gifts.

As most of them are quite young, we find that giving them clothes is usually appreciated as it can get a little expensive for their parents when they grow out of them so fast. This year it was gorgeous little Peter Alexander pjs for the boys and swimmers for the girls (price range $49 - $60 each).

I am spending $100 on each of my 2 children.  I used to go overboard each year and realized that my children started expecting huge amounts of gifts.  1 or 2 gifts ended up with tears.  I realized that as much as I want to give my children everything they want, it is not good for them.  They don’t appreciate what they get.

I am now scaling down birthdays and Christmas and keep to my $100 budget.

I’m the youngest of six grown-up children, so we have a very large immediate family with partners and children included.

My family is lovely and harmonious, but every year, around November, we have an almost argument about what form Christmas will take this year. We’ve tried Kris Kringle, and second-hand Christmas, but the one I’ve been pushing for, and have finally convinced my family to go with, is to donate money instead of giving presents. The reality is that all the ‘kids’ (my brothers and sisters) already have what they need, and if they don’t, they buy it for themselves. Plus, it’s incredibly hard buying for my brother-in-laws! Also, there are seven grandchildren in the family, and with so many adults buying presents for them, they used to go crazy on Christmas day opening one present after another. They got to the stage where they would ask “more?” after they finished opening a present. So we found that the children were the worst at appreciating presents.

So this year, as a family, we are sponsoring a boy in Swaziland for an entire year. Given the number of brothers and sisters that went in on this gift, it’s costing us each around $90. We had initially ruled out presents for the kids, but have since reconsidered and are doing kris kringle for the kids. We set a budget of $20, but I bought an outfit for my niece for twice that limit - when I’ve only got one gift to buy, it doesn’t bother me going over the limit. And I’m actually tempted to go out and buy her a few more things.

I also tried to get out of swapping Christmas presents with my boyfriend. We have a holiday booked in for a week after Christmas, and I tried to ration that this could just be our gift to one another. He didn’t go for it, so I’ve now dropped the Christmas Grinch act, and have bought his Christmas present - an adventure experience (I really rate giving experiences as gifts as opposed to material things). I also bought him a few other gifts, and I guess it would total over $200.

While I was probably spoiled rotten as a child with toys, as I got older I usually got one main present that was reasonable and affordable plus a handful of small things. Anything that was more expensive (like a game console) I had to save up for and buy myself, or my mum would contribute some money as my ‘present’ and I’d have to provide the rest myself, usually by pooling together money received from other relatives and whatever pocket money I had kept.

I think that’s what taught me to manage money sensibly, if I ever have kids I’d hope to do the same for them. None of this buying them ipads for xmas, I’d set a limit of no more than $100.

I have 2 boys - 9 & 11. My ex and I get on well and went halves in a wii for them. I collect stuff through the year so there’s never a big spend at Christmas or birthdays. Overall, I spent about $150 per child.

I’m finding it harder to buy for them as they get older but the one thing they’ve had every year of their lives is a book voucher which they go and spend the second the shops are open. At least now they’re starting to understand ‘value’ (it took the 11 year old nearly a year’s worth of pocketmoney and lawnmowing to buy himself an ipod touch) so they appreciate getting a coupe of quality presents rather than just adding up volume.

(What do you get 9 & 11 year old boys anyway?? Especially, if you cut electronic stuff out… Sometimes I think girls would be so much easier!)

Cheers,

I’ve nudged a little over the average for my two boys (aged 9 and 13).

The 13 year old starts high school next year and has been accepted into a music program, playing electric guitar… So, guitar plus amp, plus cord, plus bag…

The 9 year old is desperate for an ipod touch and a crazy catch.

Other than that, it’s clothes, shoes, pjs and a few stocking fillers.

I don’t think its excessive.  They each get something special that they really want and a few little necessities.

We spent a total of $120 on our 9 month old baby and around $60 of that was clothing she ‘needed’ including bathers, sunhat, shorty pyjamas for summer.

I think $390 worth of gifts per child is obscene. Having so many toys that children’s rooms are regularly cleared out (ebay, mothers markets and charities) to make way for more toys hardly teaches them to value their posessions or to appreciate what they have.