How much do you spend per child?

[It's A Happy Day]

We spend about $2000 on our kids (2 of them) for the holidays and try to keep it pretty even on both amount & gift count. That being said I cut that back by picking up alot on sale too! There are "filler" gifts that could go to either one and are used by both so it's not that difficult to do - board games, DS games, and the like. Is it overboard - yeah but it is the one time of year we really splurge so why the heck not.

Generally speaking there is a large $$$ gift in there like this year it will be a PSP3 for the new flat screen tv we finally bought this fall (DH has wanted one for about 5 years and got it this year) and he wants the blue ray so we agreed on the PSP3 because it has that feature plus the gaming system. That is $400 plus he wants a modest (about $250) surround sound. So that is 1/2 the budget right there. One year it was the Wii and that was $250 so it adds up quickly and isn't necessarily dozens of packages under the tree.

 

[MaryAnnDVC]

I keep a list and try to keep the dollar amount and the number of gifts about the same, but without being too neurotic about it. I've gotten some great bargains in the past, so I do a rough look at value rather than actual dollar amount. When the girls were little, it was so much easier...they're two years apart, so I got them close to the same things. And then DS, being a boy, got different stuff from them, so it was harder for them to compare.

We have two DDs in college now...ka-ching! So this year, they're getting A) tuition/housing/textbooks and B) new windows in our house! OK...a few other things too.

 

[disney1990]

When I bought for my children, the most important thing was the number of gifts. With girls that were 7 years apart, that seemed to be more important. Now that they are older and with the economy as it is, each will get $100.