ADVICE- how much would u spend??

[skybie]

DF's mums side does this thing every yr where one of the uncles dresses up as santa and gives out gifts to the littlies.
the aunties and uncles buy for the kids aswell as the cousins who have kids. i think its a little excessive but my kids get bought for so i have to partake in the spoiling of children.

two of DF's cousins have only one child each, and one has three.
would u spend equal amounts on each child or would u spend a bit more on the kids with no siblings and a bit less on the each of the kids who do have siblings? ITMS?

we only see these ppl and children at christmas and tbh, it gets a bit expensive!

[Indadhanu]

Equal amounts on each child, not equal amounts for each family! Not the kids fault they have lots of siblings! (lol I come from a family of 4 kids so I'm sticking up for the little guys haha)

[Tinks]

Equal amount per child.

[skybie]

thanks girls, should have added by a bit more i ment around the $5 mark, nothing drastic, just seems unfair to spend 15 on one family and the $45 on another, especially when we dnt have much to do with them.
i did spend equal amounts this yr,they all got face washers with their names on them, nothing major but atleast they all got the same thing

[Indadhanu]

Not really that unfair if they're getting something individual, it's not a family present. My answer would be different if you were planning on buying on present per family, and then I'd just say spend the same on each family.

Sort of like if someone wanted to spend $10 a family, and the only child got a $10 present and your two (soon to be three) only got $5 presents, or $3 presents once your little man is born). I guess if they like what they got it doesn't matter if you spent $1 or $10 but, I'm a Libra so I like to give everyone equal! hahaha

[skybie]

i honestly wouldnt mind if ppl set an amount and divided it amongst each of my kids, christmas is an excessive time of yr money wise and i know alot of ppl (like us) cant afford to spend much

[Phteven]

Equal amounts on each child. It doesn't seem fair to penalise the kids for having more siblings.

If it seems too much to have to spend $45 on a family how about buying a bulk pack of something and splitting it up between all the kids. They have packs of 4 little tonka trucks so if you buy one of them you could just give one each for boys.
Sometimes you can buy activity books for $2 or $3 at QBD or the outlet bookshops. My kids love them and they're a bargain.

[Indadhanu]

If it's going to be hard financially maybe just set a lower amount per child?
Or just do what you want to do, and if anyone asks then just tell them your reasons?

[skybie]

last yr we did a disney hard cover book each and something else....eludes me right now.
i honestly think they should work it as a KK thing so the kids dont expect a mountain load of pressies each yr, but no that one doesnt go over well.
its just hard coming up with something of equal value when u have kids ranging for 1 mnth to 6 yrs old too. thanks for the replies ladies, was just interested to see what other ppl would do.
have just started a family price with my BFF, she only has one bub and wants no more kids and obviously we'll have three, seemed a bit unfair to me for her to be buying for DF and i plus our kids when i only had to buy for the 3 of them, she really didnt mind but i dunno, i get funny with things like that especially when i know theyre financially simlar to us

[Tinks]

How many kids are you buying for Skybie?

[skybie]

5 all up

[Just Me]

I agree with the others - for individual presents equal amounts per child. If you spent $15 on 3 of the kids and $45 on the other one, the presents would look a little uneven. I think $5 per child sounds sufficient when they get a tonne of presents from other places. I think it's hard to buy presents out of obligation for kids you barely know when you have your own kids that you want to buy for at Christmas time.

Don't stress too much about what other people do for your kids. You can't control that - just do what you feel comfortable doing for other people's. If they don't like what you spend or don't spend, that's their tough luck. They need to sort out their own Christmas budgets.

[misty]

GoLo is fabulous for these kind of pressie - waterpistols work for ALL ages and you can buy them for about $1 each. But I also agree with everyone about spending the same per child - unless you are buying family presents.

[HotI]

Although some families don't like toy guns or toy weapons of any sort so water pistols don't always work.