A question for all parents....

[mrs_overall]

Reading a certain other post where £100 to £150 is deemed NOT to be a large amount to spend on a birthday pressie, what do you spend on your offspring? (Excluding 18th & 21st birthdays)
I must be a real cheapskate - I spend around £30 on mine.

[jackthehat]

We used to spend about £30 - £40 on JtH,jnr............and it's still about the same now.

[boxtops]

It used to be £25 max - these days we stop buying presents when the youngsters get to 18 so we can carry on buying gifts for the little ones, apart from a cheque for £21 when you reach that birthday. We can't afford to do it any more.

[mrs_overall]

Phew - I'm glad I'm not alone on this one.
There ARE some sane people on here lol

[wendilla]

When my kids were young it was nicer things for xmas and birthdays but nowadays it seems to be the done thing to get pc games ect ect at any time beliieve me I ask my grandchildren what they want for xmas and they have to think as they don't know as they have most things.

[annie0000]

I agree wendilla - I am struggling this year to think of what to get - they'd like tvs in their bedrooms but I wont allow it and my youngest is desperate for an xbox but I know which games he wants to play and he is too young so that's another no. He'd like a netbook like my older son, but he saved most of the money for that and we bought the rest for his birthday so it wouldn't be fair to hand the younger one one for Christmas. They are getting past the toy stage but still believe in Santa so I can't just give them the cash and get them to pick something. They have Dsi's and a Wii so they don't need another console. I am tempted to get them a new stair carpet but somehow I don't think they'd appreciate that!

[champipple]

About £20

[NoMercy]

I don't have kids, but spend the most on my mother. I have spent, variously, anything between £20 and £500 on her Xmas/Birthday pressies.

The biggest present I gave her was a holiday to the Bahamas on her 41st birthday (Oct '99). We didn't actually take the holiday 'til the following May, but I gave her the confirmation on her birthday.

[cazzz1975]

it depends, I tend to spend around 0-40 quid on birthdays, similar at christmas, my daughters friend has a lot of stuff bought for her but to be honest I saw her open a present from her mom last christmas that cost nearly 100 pounds on its own and she barely acknowledged it. In fact she has a cupboard full of stuff that she never bothers with.

too much of a good thing can be detrimental in my opinion. I am stingy as well. my kids are not unhappy though

[jno]

depends exactly what you're giving - jno jnr got driving lessons rather than a car (one reason Mollykins is unlikely to get a car, though she may not realise it, is the humungous expense of insuring it). But we never set cash limits, it was more 'Maybe he'd like that'. I should think there were years in his late teens when it hit £100, and that was a while back.

[jno]

annie, couldn't you give them a nice lawnmower?

[ummmm]

About £200 each for birthday and xmas.

[MrIncredible]

Birthdays £100
Christmas £80

we spend more on Birthdays because we can afford to spend more at that time because thats our ownly expenditure wheras at Christmas we have to buy for our Four children plus mums and Dads and a few other gifts it starts getting very expensive.

I don't think £80-£100 is that much nowadays, not when you see the cost of toys etc!
We know some people who wouldnt think twice at spending £400+ on there childrens birthday presents. Buy them a wii plus a few games thats over £200!
Our son wants a nintendo ds for his birthday but weve already told him that he wont get much else on top! as they cost about nearly all of his budget!!

[annie0000]

Hmmm jno - don't think they'd believe santa left them a lawnmower - hubby already has a nice petrol one. They are keen to try mountain biking, so if they like that, they will need new bikes as the ones they have wont withstand that kind of punishment for long. Just have to keep my fingers crossed.

[sara3]

so long as it's within your budget, anything goes.

I don't understand how people get into so much financial trouble spending for Christmas.. it's generally the same time every year! if you can't afford it, don't buy it.

[yelenots]

Its my son's 22nd birthday and I have just given him £60 - I usually spend about £100 on each of them for xmas, I've got 3 - but as he's turned 21 last year I've decided he'll be getting less this year!!

[karenmac60]

Probably about £200 for both - £100 on clothes and the other £100 on toys/gadgets or whatever. I only have the one child and her birthday's in June so most of her clothes for the year are bought as presents. Also, when she was little I had practically no money so I feel I'm kind of making up for when I couldn't get her anything.

[society]

In my entire life my parents have never thrown a birthday party for me or my siblings, neither did they ever give us presents for birthdays or Christmas. They bought us whatever we needed whenever we needed ...