Do you have a Christmas budget per child?

Having four kids, I know I need to set a budget per child and stick to it in order to not go broke at Christmas. That and the kids really don't need a thing and get gifts from other relatives.

I am just curious what your limit is per kid.
Also, do you split any gifts for the twins? IE- a play kitchen set or something big?

 

Mine get so many gifts from family that we will only get them a few small things, like a book, pajamas, etc. When they are older we will get them some gifts from Santa but right now I really don't see the point in spending alot of money on them. Instead we put money away monthly for their college and savings accounts.

 

We only have the twins. We don't have a formal budget (though we have talked about setting one), but we're definitely going to pay attention to how much we spend, more than we did last year. I checked $50-100 per child because I'm almost sure we'll spend more than $100 total, but I hope we won't spend more than $200! I know it's silly to spend so much when they have so much -- but OTOH, I hardly buy them anything the rest of the year (it's all hand-me-downs), so it's more for me than for them!

The bigger financial problem for us is not so much the twins, but the rest of the family -- 5 (soon to be 7) nieces and nephews, 3 siblings and their spouses, 4 grandparents. DH even still wants to buy gifts for his cousins -- they're in their 30s/40s and haven't seen each other for years! -- but last year I told him we're going to have to stop.

At this age, we definitely expect the twins to share toys. When they get a little older, we'll probably make a point of having separate presents, but we'll still expect them to share the big things -- we're not getting two train tables, two play kitchens, or whatever.

 

i have three in a year and my mom lives with me . our money is combined. so even if i set a budget i have to accept that grandmommy is going to get them some things.

ie she comes home with something new every week!!

so yes i do have a budget. i give them their christmas day outfit, christmas nighty, christmas story/movie

and grandmommy claus brings the rest.

i wouldnt be able to do it with out her.

 

I selected no budget, because last year it was a free for all. It was the girl's first Christmas and I went crazy. This year I think what we'll buy them one big gift (play kitchen) then spend about $100 per child after that. HTH

 

Everyone else tends to get them too much already so we generally get them small gifts they actually need. They're still at the age when anything new is cause for celebration so new shoes are just as exciting as a toy truck and perhaps more so since they have so many toys already.

 

We have the boys and my SD that lives with us, so three and we do set a budget. We set aside money after we get our taxes back and the money goes into savings. This year, each of the boys have $250 with $500 total between the two of them...they get some shared gifts (Kitchen this year) and some of their own. My SD has $500 she will be 10 in January so the things she wants (video games, etc) cost a little more a piece. Also, we have $500 set aside for family DH and I included.

 

Yes, around $50 for the little kids, but $100 to $150 for the teenagers, since you can barely buy a videogame for $50 these days.

 

This has been a huge topic of discussion lately in our home. I think we need to have one but I guess because they are the only children we have we haven't been strict about it. I thin that after this year we are going to set one. It seems to get harder and harder.

 

I usually spend about $900 all together for the kids. I usually buy each child one big gift from Santa and the rest are from Mom and Dad.

 

We do $300 shared between them, so I voted $150-$200 per child. This was just sort of an arbitrary amount that I set to keep me from going crazy, LOL.