DH and I took the kids to town last night to run some errands, which included a trip to Costco. DS immediately went for the $2,000 video game machine right up front and wants that for Christmas. Ain't gonna happen. DD went a little cheaper and headed straight for Butterscotch the animated pony, which isn't going to happen either. I flipped the mane on that pony and let me tell you something; there's no way that animated pony is going to withstand constant hopping on and off by an 80 lb. child. It was such poor construction for $210.00.

Is it just me or are toys getting more expensive? I would never buy these items for my children, but apparently somebody must or they wouldn't be on the market. We're possibly planning to move, so we've told the kids to keep in mind that space is an issue when writing their list for Santa.

Would any of you buy these kinds of things for your kids and I'm curious, too, what kind of limits, if any, do you set for gifts?

We saw Butterscotch the other night at Target, and his neck was broke. I wouldn't spend that on a toy like that anyway.....I'd rather take my child for an actual pony ride.

I wouldn't say we really have a "limit",but, we don't go hog wild, either. We don't go into debt over Christmas.

I have no clue what we're buying this year, either. LOL,I'm of no help today, am I???

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Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

One of our neighbors bought Butterscotch for her daughter last year when it first came out and it was 299. It was not working right by Christmas. It still works, but doesn't do everything it did when it was new.

Such a waste.

It seems like the cost of toys has gone up over the years...

We basically set a dollar limit of around $150 each and stick to that as well as we can. If money is tight one year, we'd have to drop the budgeted amount.

My boys mainly want new bikes and Legos. Then we'll hit up the Dollar Tree for stocking stuffers and call it good.

i agree about the price of toys going up, but they are more high tech than when i was a kid. i loved getting board games and stuffed animals when i was a kid. now, it seems everything is electronic or takes batteries.

my son also loves legos but has every set he wants except the older "retired" ones. i thought about diving into the world of video game systems but am overwhelmed by the choices and also the prices of the actual games for the system. santa is going to have a tough time this year!

If my oldest wants expensive things & I dont mean 2k I mean like $60 shoes for xmas or $100 phone that maybe all she gets & she knows it as for the little kids I dont get them much because they could care less about any toys they have now. What I do is try to get as much as I can for free also so not much money wasted.

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mom of 3 greats girls

What game system was $2000. I am way behind the times. I thought the IT game way still a Wii. My kids get a lot of small stuff for Christmas. I usually spend about $100 per kid. This year we will probably get them a Nintindo DS each since they can play those on the plane. I never thought of getting them board games. I think we should get a bunch of those too.

Just curious, what are others' spending limit per child? We could never go that high per child in our household.

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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!

I don't really have a limit on what I spend on each child but I buy throughout the year to make it easier. And I would not be buying a $2K game or anything like that. My girls both want a Nintendo DS this year. They both got a Game Boy Advance last year and LOVE it but want some of the games that you can only get with a DS. So, I told them that they can have those but that's the majority of what they're getting. They seem to have no problem with that. I have, of course, hit up Target at 75% off toys and picked up a few other items. I have no problem buying one item that's more expensive and fewer small items, especially if I know they'll use it. Many times I've bought too many things that end up on the floor and broken because they're not taken care of. I've also found that if they get too many gifts, they're overwhelmed. So for us personally, less is more!

I should have said that we only have two children... We all have to do what we can and there have definitely been years when we have spent much less.

We don't have a set dollar amount for gifts for our children. I try to buy things I think they will enjoy and play with a lot. I would rather buy one large item that they will play with a lot rather than a whole bunch of lesser priced items which they will get tired of quickly. Also, I don't necessarily spend the same amount on each child or get them the same amount of gifts. They are still fairly young (7 & 4) and like a lot of the same things, so a lot of toys they share anyway.

Sarah......mom to Jason & Devin

That stupid Butterscotch scared the crap out of me a week ago. I rarely go to the toy section of the store, but I went back after closing to put away some stray toys, and that thing started to make noise. I thought someone was in the store! My kids had to have Teddy Ruxpin some years ago. At that time $75 was a big amount to spend on a kids toy. What a waste of money, they played with him on Christmas day and that was it. For the next 2 years he sat and collected dust on a shelf. I suspect that scary pony would wind up the same way

We normally do around $150 per kid like I said I try to get stuff free usually that small free stuff ends up being stocking stuffers

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mom of 3 greats girls

It was a stand alone video arcade game. I would never spend that kind of money and we'll probably limit each child's gifts to a maximum of $150. We live differently than our next door neighbors who just bought their 10 year old son a brand spanking new full size ATV. My kids probably wish they lived over there! HA!

You could get your kids a REAL pony for less than $250(the upkeep will kill ya though!)

I don't have kids but I agree with those who have the "Less is More" attitude.

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Jesus SAVES by shopping smartly and using double coupons!

LOL! I'm laughing about all the comments on Butterscotch the Pony. I saw that thing too & busted up laughing. Who in their right mind is going to pay that much, and it's huge! Where would you put it?

As for $$ amount for kids, I try to stick to $150-$200 per kid (or 4-5 gifts). But, I now have a teenager, and he wants expensive stuff - like $150 Basketball Shoes, or an Ipod Video, or Guitar Hero 111, and the list goes on. So, I will probably get him 1 big thing, and than some smaller stuff like socks, and boxers. LOL!

My other kiddo's are happy with Nintendo DS games, Dvd's, Dolls, Coloring things, Pokemon cards, Barbies, etc. I forgot about the Polly coupon - that will be great this year! :O)

We spend around 150 per child, have 6 kids, sometimes we spend a little more or less on one depending on what they want.....Sometimes their "it" item is more expensive, or really cheap compared to everyone elses and we spread the difference around. I also try to make sure they have the same amount of items to unwrap, and if one got a big gift, then I wrap little things for them to unwrap.

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"You can never really pay back. You can only pay forward."

Wayne Woodrow “Woody” Hayes

O-H-I-O

I try to spend around 150 per child as well. Some years I spend 200.xx because things are so very expensive. I have two children and have already purchased the DS for each of them. Target had them a month or so ago for 119.xx. My family gives them $$ and we put it in their bank accounts. My DD has already saved nearly 2000.00 toward a car (she is almost 12).

I get frustrated at X-mas when my DS wants everything. He doesn't realize how good he has it and I try to adopt a family so that he will understand that some people actually want and need socks and underwear for X-Mas.

I try to stay around $200 for each kid sometimes a little more sometimes less. I have 3 boys and they are all about video games and electronic toys One darn video game is $50 A few of those and a couple of small 75% off target toys and the money is spent This year the big santa gift is the nintendo wii which alone with an extra controller was $300!!! The older they get the more expensive the items they want. I do shop all year around and I try to never pay full price.

My boys are 3 and 4.We hit up the 75% off sale at target as well. we spent 300.00. I will add that christmas and bday s are the only time my kids get brand new items.. we do everything used. It's part of that dave ramesy thing that were wrapped up in. I will also add that this 300.00 also included toys for 3 kids that I babysit and nieces and nephews. I also had a few items from a 90% off cvs sale from last xmas. We do everything as cheaply as we can right now. paying off debt bites!

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Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like. - Will Rogers

It just depends on the year for us. We might spend $100 on each kid this year-we have four. The thing is that none of them NEED anything. I wish the two younger kids were a bit older, and that we had a few more dolllars-I would just pack them all up with just a small gift for each, and head to Hawaii for Christmas. Now, doesn't that sound nice????