Birthday Spending. What’s Normal?
So this Saturday SM has been invited to attend a birthday party for one of his friends from school (he’s in Kindergarten). This is the first time that he’s been invited to a party where the parent of the child does not also happen to be one of my gal pals.
While I am excited about him going to the party, I am not sure about the gift etiquette. What is the appropriate spending amount for a 6 year old child who you don’t really know?
As I mentioned before, we’ve always gone to the parties of children we are friends with. For them, going a little overboard on the gift is the norm because their like family. Usually it’s children I’ve known since they were born.
I went ahead and took the boys shopping this evening to pick up the gift and ended up spending about $25, not including the gift bag, tissue paper, b-day card, etc.
SM really likes the gifts we picked out (and I do too) and I feel like the amount I spent is appropriate, but I just want to make sure the spending level/gift is on par with the norm.
Any advice/insight you guys have would be greatly appreciated. It’s really not about the money, I’d just love to know what you think is appropriate. Should I spend more? Less?
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Excellent question! I’m checking back to see what others say, because this has long stumped me.
I think that amount is totally appropriate. That’s about the norm for a decent toy/book/gift, especially for a kid you don’t know super-personally.
But… I’ve been accused of being too conservative when it comes to birthday parties. I think they have a tendency to get out of hand so I always err on the side of too little rather than too much!
Have a great time at the party!
I’ve had two birthday parties from my kids classes this year (and a couple we skipped), and I spent $5 on one, and $10 on the other (only because Barbies are cheaper than Transformers). The way I see it, if your kid get invited to all the other parties, and assume that only 2/3 of the kids have birthdays during the school year, you’re still looking at around 10-12 parties. If you spend $25 a kid, that’s WAY TOO MUCH! lol!
And I have two that are that birthday paty-going age. I don’t have $500-$600 in my yearly budget to buy gifts for kids who aren’t mine…
Just my opinion, I let the boys pick ut the presents, but I either tell them which toys they can pick from, or if they pick something outrageous, I tell them “that’s too expensive”.
I normally spend about $15-$20 on gifts. Thing 2 picks out the gift himself but I gage the cost.
With the ever-increasing number of birthday party invites, I try to keep gifts in the $10 range. And I save more money by reusing or creating wrapping paper and making our own cards.
For family members we have a $25-$30 limit. For school friends, etc. we have a $10-$15 limit. We also re-use gifts bags and tissue paper when possible. Sometimes tissue paper makes a great wrapping paper as well.
i try to never really go above$20.00……but my sons are invited to it seems a million classmates’ parties a year….
I usually spend $10-20 per child.
And I only buy one thing, usually, unless it’s a family friend etc.
Usually $15.00 to $20.00.
The kids at my daughter’s school do gift exchanges at all their parties. For instance, everyone buys a Webkinz, then they exchange them so all the kids get a gift. We’ve done socks, beach towels, High School Musical stuff…it’s fun! We also went to a party where the child requested everyone bring dog toys to donate to a local shelter.
I usually spend about $25. I normally have the tissue paper and bags laying around the house (get them at the $1 store in the beginning of the year so I am not always looking for a gift bag).
It is crazy though, with how many birthday parties are popping up.
Wow, great question. I was spending about $15, but then realized my gifts were not on par with others. Now I spend between $20-25. I do try to get things on sale, so if there’s a great board game on sale, I’ll get 2 or 3 and keep it on hand. Saves time running errands, too.
I’m el-cheap-o.
I refuse to spend more than $10 unless it’s a close friend.
First off, kids don’t really need lots of toys (mine don’t anyway). Secondly, there are a lot of really great toys in the $10 range.