What would you spend this £1000 on?

I am making 8% + on my PBs.

effalump

Callistemon21 Don't buy Premium Bonds. Waste of money now that they keep cutting down on the amount of prizes. Precious metals is the way to go.

The number of prizes increases or decreases with interest rates.
They increased in January.

The gold price is high at the moment, could soar, could go down 🤔

It's all a gamble, finding a form of savings which keeps pace with inflation is difficult enough.

Shares in a company mining lithium, perhaps?

I spent a huge amount of time making a hand-sewn illustrated alphabet book for my grandson which I hope will become a family heirloom eventually if it survives. I recently received a video clip of him looking at the page for J which was a picture of a juggler. He's 2 at present and his dad asked him what it was. He said it was 'Granny juggling balls!' I'm guessing he knows I made the book but hope he's not expecting me to have juggling skills!

I need to come up with another idea for the next GC - hopefully one which will take a few less months to sew!

I opened a children's regular saver bank account for my grandson and save a small amount each month. I don't really notice it going out by standing order but hopefully it will amount to a reasonable sum by the time he gets it. My mum did the same for all her grandchildren and they received it as young adults. My daughter used hers to buy her first car and my son kept his until he got married. If I succeed in downsizing and have a bit more available I hope to increase the monthly amount in time. When my next grandchild arrives later this year I'll open an account for him or her and match the amount already saved to open it so they both have the same amount. When mum died the grandchildren had varying amounts in their accounts so we had to even things up when sorting out the will to make things fair. I want to avoid that being an issue if I don't last as long as I hope!

Katiekrunch buy a 1kg bar of silver. Because silver is not as abundant as gold, it's price will rocket in the future to overtake gold.

Callistemon21 Don't buy Premium Bonds. Waste of money now that they keep cutting down on the amount of prizes. Precious metals is the way to go.

When DGS was born we put money each month into a fund. When his sister came along we split the amount into two funds and continued to pay money in until we retired. DGS was able to dip into this money to help pay for his first car and GD will probably do the same this year. If I'd had £1,000 I would have started a fund for them. They see that the investment can go up and down and hopefully they choose to use it wisely and not blow the lot on a dream trip to watch Harry Styles

National Trust lifetime membership is a great idea, but would cost nearly £2000.

How about a vintage watch?

A lesson on how to be an entrepreneur.
All those I know, left school early and started selling. Think Lord Sugar, Richard Branson etc.

An item - a lifetime membership to something like The National Trust

If you want something to grow start a pension fund for your grandchild. Even if you only pay in for a relatively short period of time it will grow and grow for such a long time it will be very worthwhile when they reach retirement. But you’ll never get to see them spend it 🤣

Single malt - a bottle each.

A painting or an antique .

I would buy an item, gold is a universal currency so it's never just a UK / European market so it's never going to do a lot worse than ISAs when you take inflation into account, But a first edition is a brilliant idea if its a good one & you can get hold of one (they are precious cos they're rare) .A work of art is a gamble at £1k, but such a lovely one.

I’m glad I don’t have this dilemma, as I have enough trouble buying the usual presents for my lot (all boys). Maybe a watch each for them, but who knows whether they’d want them, or even whether we’ll still be using watches in the future?

I wonder if a good classic handbag would be an idea for some girls, though I know several who like charm bracelets, so I like Callistemon’s suggestion.

Art and first edition books would be great if you picked the right artist or author - I’m pretty certain I wouldn’t. The lovely man who bought and moved into our first house, a modest two bed terrace, had to instal a complex security system because he brought with him tens of wonderful paintings, many by well-established artists, that he’d collected over many years, and displayed them all round the house. He had several Hockneys - he’d recognised his talent while he was still at art college in Bradford. I’ve as much chance of spotting the next big thing as I have of flying to the moon.

If I had to spend £1000 a family day out

Not quite the same but I save monthly into a kids ISA for my two. When it gets to 10K I am going to (probably stop), well I'll stop the older one's and make up the younger ones. I intesed them to have 10K when they are 18 plus so that they could buy a car and pay the insurance, by then it might just buy a bike!

I would buy a work of art.

I would put it into a savings account for them.

I think I would put it into an ISA or maybe premium bonds.
From a recent experience I would avoid the Royal Mint with their fancy gold sovereigns as you pay a huge mark up to cover their retail price. So if you do decide on gold go for bullion over certificates and posh boxes.
£12k spent, probate value £5k but could only find buyers willing to pay scrap value of around £3k we then decided to just keep them.

I bought my both GD’s first editions of books when they were born.

Since the original post “rules” have changed, I’m reading the majority of comments seem to lean away from an item. I agree with that as 10-12 yrs from now an item’s worth may have devalued - and that’s including gold, etc. (of course, we never know the futuref those variables.)

My first instinct- if you really want value - is, open or contribute towards an education, college fund for the children.
Cheers!
USA Gundy

A really fine set of McCallum African Blackwood and silver mounted ‘Heritage’ bagpipes, they would cost £1000 and, even if not played, in 20 years time when the Blackwood has completely all been used up, (it is in very short supply today) they will have doubled or quadrupled in price and there will always be a Rich Gullible American who will covet them and pay way over the odds for antique (as they then will be) pipes.

I pay £20 a month into a pension fund for each of my grandchildren. It was recommended on Moneybox a few years ago.