How much do you spend on your child’s birthday?

I have a rough budget of £400 but that’s for everything. Last year dd6 wanted a party which cost around £290 for the venue and food, £25 or so for the party bags and similar for the cake. I did get her 2 large foil balloons for another £12-15. Because the party was expensive she just got a couple of smaller gifts for £50 or so. This year she wants to go to Harry Potter world so we will pay for the tickets and hotel instead of a party. Dd3 hasn’t had a party yet but probably will when she is in Reception. She’s had days out instead.

My daughter will be 6 in September and we have a £400 budget for the presents and £300 for the birthday party

Presents about £50.

We tend to buy toys second hand as it's better for the environment and they can get a lot more for their money.

I buy a small supermarket cake or make a themed one (about £10).

The meal is just a normal meal but birthday boy/girl chooses.

They can then have some sort of party/activity which will be about £100 to £200 When younger this is every other year as all 3 kids have birthdays within a month of each other and right before Christmas.

The secondary school aged one gets one each year as it's just him and a couple of mates so generally cheaper.

I'm quite proud to have raised kids who are not materialistic and value having fun with people over "stuff".

My DS had a birthday recently. He is high school age.

I bought one gift - Lego (£229.99 for the set he wanted).
Cake: £10.
Escape room: £96.
Food treats & a card: around £30

My mum kindly paid for a meal out on his birthday.

Nothing really they buy their own stuff and always tell me not to bother as its just another day.

The jumper will fit me when he has grown out of it, so it will get plenty of wear!

It’s just an over priced baggy sweatshirt but I will wear it so it isn’t money wasted (my ds is extremely tall for his age and wears his clothes baggy like a 90’s skater so we can now share T-shirts, jumpers, coats and shoes if we wanted to!)

No party, no cake (he doesn't eat) but two expensive gifts that hopefully, will enhance his life. He is soon to be 4, hasn't yet figured out how to use his hands to play, has significant sight loss, can't sit, stand or talk, there is next to nothing I can buy from a high street store that would be of any use at all but there are a couple of things I know he would love from a specialist stockist. These gifts will last him for years, one will give him enjoyment and the other could open up the world of communication. I am far from rich so I save the big purchases for birthdays and Christmas.

DD is an only and turned 5 not long after Christmas
she had a party which was about £180 (including balloons)
we were on holiday for her actual birthday, I think her presents came to about £75 which included some preloved sports equipment. This was quite low mainly because she didn’t want/need anything so soon after Christmas, if there had been something more expensive she wanted we would have got it (depending on what it was obviously!) I’d originally planned to get her a new bike but couldn’t find the one we wanted, so she got it a couple of months later.
cake at party was made by me, think it cost about £20 in ingredients, it was between that and a £15 Costco cake.

Depends to be honest. We only buy one birthday present (large extended family so DC definitely get plenty) and how much it is varies massively. Vtech camera was a lot cheaper than the bike. I make the cake, which is never as cheap as I feel it should be. Whole class parties have been the kicker in terms of cost here, even when we had a joint one when DS1 turned five it was crazy money.

Based on DS1's current obsession we'll be getting him star wars Lego when he turns 6, and I'd anticipate spending about £70.

I do think it massively depends on family circumstances though. DC have about 10 people who will buy them a present at their birthday or give money. If we were the only ones giving gifts we'd buy more I expect.

@Bogtrollsdaughter
I can't get my head round spending £165 on a jumper when they're still growing but the suit of armour has me intrigued! That sounds like an amazing gift and well worth it!

Sorry just realised you said not the party cost (clearly I am still asleep)

We went for dinner on day of the birthday - £60
Plus a soft play with her friend on the day- £30
Presents - £200 (fancy new doll pram, books, jellycats, instrument)

Too much tbh.

Room hire, bouncy castle, face painter - £450
Food - £60
Cake and topper etc - £50
Decorations, plates, balloons etc - £40
Party Bags for 25 - £50

First year at school, whole class party so we went all out. Hoping to keep it to £300 next year.

I always spend more on a party because then she gets a day with her friends (5-10 max). She gets one or two presents, nothing over £100. I think for her 6th we went to a local outdoor pool with a slide and I gave them water guns as their party bag present. I think she was into Shopkins back then so prob a Shopkins set for about £20/30 and a dressing up outfit or similar as presents.

I don’t think it’s to do with wealth, as a few people have said that now. I think it’s priorities.

I am single parent working part time. I put away £100pm for Xmas starting in Feb.

Birthdays I start saving a few months before, or for a larger item I might use an interest free argos card for example and pay back over 6 months.

I don’t necessarily think anyone spending a few hundred on a birthday is wealthy. Everybody I know does that and none are wealthy.

in fact on MN it seems the wealth people are the ones that seem to spend £50 on a present which I just can’t imagine doing.

This year (10th birthday)

jumper £165

2x switch games £80 ish

2x Pokemon sets £130 ish

chocolate and sweets £10 ish

cuddly toy £30 ish

books (at least 6 or so, sometimes whole sets).

rubix cubes

a previous year (7th or 8th birthday) had a replica suit of armour as his main present which was expensive.

When he was little it would be something like a rocking horse and big duplo and train sets.

don’t aim to spend a lot and I don’t go into debt, I just aim to get what he has asked for plus a few things I think he will enjoy.

We have cats... so £50 per cat?

We don't have a set budget for gifts it depends what they want or need but we only tend to buy one gift maybe two.
At three mine would have been given the ride on car or some of the smaller things.

I'd be interested to see what various budgets have bought at various ages. I'm finding it hard to think what I could spend £500 on for mine tbh!

We cannot afford hundreds to spend for birthdays. We don’t have that to spend and I don’t want to go into debt for birthdays.

we usually buy one big present, or two or three smaller ones. The dc will also get smaller presents from family/ friends.

I try and do parties at home myself with party games etc to make it cheaper as we cannot afford soft play or ball hire etc.

make cake and do food based.

so including decorations, presents, party, etc, £100 would be my absolute limit and even then I can’t really afford that. Actually for my DD we spent less than £50. And for DS’s last birthday, it was about £70.

the dc are 5 and 1 so don’t have the expectations For anything else yet.

Just giving an alternative response to some of the wealthier people on here.

That’s not to add the cost of a party which is her first one - probably looking at £300

I agree £50 is tight even for a young child. This year my three year old will have:

• Ride on car £50
• Duplo £15
• dinosaur toy £7
• new book or two £8
• magnatiles £10

When DS was 6 I had a while class party and booked the soft play at the local leisure centre and DH and I did all the food and entertainment at the room in the centre after. Just pass the parcel and musical bumps. That was the most expensive probably.

He always got one gift, I made the cake. When he was older he would have 5 friends for paintball, bowling or something like that. We also had a Halloween party for up to 20 kids each year at home for around 3 years, they were much smaller after that but that was just basic food and lots of games and me reading scary stories.

We are about the same.

In past years we have had a weekend in London instead of a party-so that’s a lot for train/accommodation/theatre tickets/exhibitions etc.

This year he had a party at home so probably £200-£250 ish (lots of adults so ‘proper’ food not just party rings and sausage rolls).

Present wise he basically gets whatever he asks for- but he generally only asks for 1 or 2 things (this year was a Viv Westwood sweatshirt which I got for £165 in the sale and boxes of Pokemon cards)- then we get a pile of books, a switch game or 2 and little things like rubix cubes, board games and makeup. Always piles of sweets and chocolates.

Cake is £30 ish, and decorations and balloons around £50.

We need er spent much at all-£50-100 gifts, plus cost of party (various) . Although one Christmas when they were teenagers we gave them expensive laptops for college. We supported them well at uni also. As a family we don't believe in giving kids endless'stuff'.