"I budget £100 for my kids' Christmas gifts – trolls say it’s not enough"
Samantha Mary, 35, decided to set a budget for main presents and stocking gifts for this Christmas for her one-year-old son, Jack, and nine-year-old step-daughter, Isabella.
Transcript
00:00 I set myself a £100 budget so I thought I would just go through everything that I've got.
00:04 This is like stocking presents from us, presents from Santa a lot so let me show you.
00:09 Okay so first up this is Jack's stocking so I've got some just some little biscuits. I picked this
00:17 up from Primark. I picked this up in a sale it's one of the bottles that he has but it's like the
00:22 more grown-up version. From Primark I got like a little bouncy ball and some outdoor chalks.
00:28 I picked up some socks which I always put in. I've got a little book to pop in there they were
00:34 from Tesco's. I think that was two for seven pounds so I got that quite cheaply. And then I've got this
00:39 little vehicle set. I'm gonna empty that and wrap those separately again so it looks like a little
00:43 bit more. And again same for this, this is actually a three piece puzzle but I'm gonna wrap those up
00:49 separately again just so it looks like a little bit more. So that is his stocking and that was
00:54 20 pounds. Okay and then this is what we've got kind of for main presents. I've got to figure out
01:00 what's going to be from us and what's going to be from Santa but I've got this cute little railway
01:05 set and some extra vehicles to go onto it. We've got lots of bits for his kitchen so we've got the
01:11 fruit and veg set, I've got a little tea set and a toaster set which is very exciting. I've got the
01:17 other one of the books, I've got some more of those animal puzzles. I'm going to save those
01:23 for his birthday to be honest. These bouncing bunnies which he will love. The play-doh set,
01:29 again I was umming and ahhing about whether to split that and kind of give him half for Christmas
01:34 and half for his birthday. And then these blocks here but that is Jack all within 100 pounds for
01:41 Christmas. To be honest I'm thinking this from Santa and then the rest of these bits here from
01:48 us. The one thing I would say is I've been really super savvy with what I've bought and when I've
01:54 bought it. A lot of the wooden things I've got from wooden toy events I've got them like at
01:58 really reasonable prices. I tried to start early so that I could get just little bits here and
02:02 there so that I wasn't spending loads just before Christmas and kind of spread the cost but for me
02:08 like I want Jack to appreciate like the fun of Christmas day and not necessarily getting loads
02:13 of gifts. I feel like he's really lucky and I feel like he's got a lot there but I think
02:17 for me 100 pounds is a fair budget and I think we've just about stuck to that.
02:21 Okay so first up this is her stocking. So we've just got some little biscuits, a little shower
02:27 gel, a little Christmas cup that I picked up from Primark, crazy soap because kids love that,
02:33 just some little stampers, we've got some sweets, a couple of sweet things, some little hair clips
02:39 from Primark, a little Lilo and Stitch brush and some scrunchies and some little bed socks.
02:46 So again like nothing crazy expensive here I think that's roughly 20 pounds.
02:50 Now from Santa we've got her an art set, my husband's hidden that away somewhere I've got
02:55 absolutely no idea where it is but that was 30 pounds from Amazon. Okay she's been after one of
03:01 these like body warmers for absolutely ages so we've got her one of those, I did get 25% off of
03:06 that. I also got her just some Lilo and Stitch pants and some little vests, this cute little
03:13 Disney bag which is from Primark, just a little pair of those really fluffy fleecy on the inside
03:20 leggings and then a cute little hat. Now to add to that I am going to get her from Amazon, I've seen
03:27 like a little sewing kit that I think was about eight pounds that we'll add into that as well
03:32 and maybe one more thing that's like 10 pound or under but that is what we've got her for Christmas.
03:37 For us Christmas isn't about spending significant amounts of money, it's about
03:42 spending a sensible amount of money, having bits to unwrap and it's just like extra bits to unwrap
03:47 that's literally it. Second of all I had loads of comments about the fact that there are no toys,
03:53 like Christmas is not all about toys and if we put this into context here my stepdaughter has a lot
04:01 of family, she has her mum's family, her dad's family, my husband, my family, her stepdad's
04:07 family, she gets a lot of gifts at Christmas, she's incredibly lucky, within that she will get
04:13 some toys like we're aware of kind of things that different relatives and stuff are getting
04:18 so there's no point overloading with children at toys at Christmas so we've got her other
04:23 bits that she's kind of requested and no those happen not to be toys.