I’ve been wondering since Christmas shopping this past weekend if I I might spend too much money on my daughter. Being a single mother up to her ears (okay maybe just my chin) in debt, I always automatically assumed that my daughter was getting way less than everyone else. Funny how I hate that stereotypical single mom theory-that we can’t take care of our kids- but yet I have accepted that I’m not ever doing enough for her.
Maybe I should back up a bit. While out shopping with my sister in law she mentioned that I’d bought my daughter quite a bit and she wasn’t planning on buying that much for my nephew. I think I spent about $80 on my daughter. I suddenly became so unsure of what I was doing that I asked her a series of panicked questions like “are you serious?”, “am I really spending too much?”, “what do you mean quite a bit?”
And I’ve been asking around and wondering ever since then. I did not ask my parents, simply because I don’t need to know what they spend on us right now. I also remember years where we decided all Christmas gifts would be hand made except for one or two really special gifts bought from the store. So I know they probably think my Christmas shopping is excessive. For the sake of privacy I won’t mention names of people I did ask though.
One person said she averages about a hundred per kid with half being clothes and the other half toys. This works for me because it means I still have about $20 to buy my daughter more stuff. But yet it still doesn’t seem like much. Most families have lots and lots of inlaws and extended family. We don’t, so I think that makes a difference too.
Another person I asked said she’s usually around $200 a kid but this year she’s thinking it’ll be more around $250 per kid. This at first seems high to me, but her children are all upper teens and I’m pretty sure you can’t get too much for teens anymore for less than $100.
Another variable in the Christmas budget seems to be the Christmas bonus. The amount of the Christmas bonus for most people directly affects how much is spent on Christmas. In my case, my bonus was used for everyone I had to buy gifts for, which was around 8 people, including my daughter. I will not post about anything about my bonus, although I’ve considered it because at the end of the day I’m lucky to get one. Plus, a friend of mine told me she got 2 loser scratch off tickets and a lawn chair with the name of the assisted living home on it. Can’t think of much worse than that.
Anyway, at this point I don’t feel like I spent too much. In the end it depends largely on individual budgets. I didn’t use a single credit card and I did not put myself any further in debt so I think I did okay. I think anything between one hundred and two hundred is reasonable for her age. I’d be interested in more opinions, although it is pretty personal. If you feel comfortable, how much do you spend on your kids? Or how much do the people you know spend on their kids?
One Comment
I budgeted $150 on dd (6) this year, but spent $200…. so $80 in my opinion is not too much (as long as it didn’t go on a credit card!) That was my problem, I kept buying b/c I would say “it didn’t go on a credit card so it is okay” need to change that way of thinking – thank goodness I am totally done shopping!