To ask what you’d spend for a kid’s birthday present

I usually spend £10-£15 but also my son had a birthday recently and his absolute favourite gift was a kinder surprise egg, so truly don’t worry about your budget! A token gift is more than fine at that age and no nice and reasonable parent would expect you to spend more than you’re absolutely comfortable with on a present for a three year old.

For a whole class party no more than £10.00, I try to get something in a box that can be wrapped in paper, avoiding the need to spend another £1.50 on a gift bag and I get a 28p, 58p or 75p card from Asda as I guess most people will just chuck them in the bin afterwards..

At nursery age for a child I don't know I'd get a book at the £5-6 mark. Most parents will thank you - very few people want more random bits of plastic in their homes.

I've just stocked up on party gifts in the works, they have Black Friday 3 for £12 with loads of things that would do boys or girls. I also buy 10 cards for £1 every few months in card factory and DD will choose which one to give.
I never go over £10 for school/nursery friends but I held a party for DD not that long ago and was shocked with the amount of £20+ gifts and gift cards that she received, that just isn't in our budget.

Agreed and we are well off(ish)
i tend to buy on offer so get something decent for that price

£5 to £20. Rocket launcher, remote control car, walkie talkie set, brio or starter lego kit, hot wheels cars all work for 3yo. Specific character stuff only works if you know the child likes it. My advice would be to get your child to review suggestions, we were doing that from age 2 and by 4 he was confidently saying which present to buy based on the particular kid.
We had a few parties where parents were invited to contribute to bigger gifts, allowing for a theme park trip, zoo membership, larger lego set etc. That worked really well, and is worth suggesting if you all stay together from reception.

I try to buy generic things in sales and keep them as party gifts. I try to spend less than £10 but by buying things on offer it usually seems more expensive than it is. I have 2 kids so if the other is allowed to tag along then I double the present value to reflect this. For under 5s we've had success with Orchard Toys games, Melissa&Doug reusable stickers, large colouring pads from Amazon in various themes (Frozen/Spiderman etc), craft sets, play doh, kinetic sand, playmobil, stomp rockets.

£5-10.

You can get a decent present for that. It only needs to be a token gift at that age, they'll be getting plenty from other guests and family etc.

£5-10, more towards the £5 end at that age, although I shop well so often get things worth more.

I do £10-15 unless I know the child well enough to pick something they love, and then if it's a bit more I'm happy to spend it.

Something I did when DS was that age (I still do it but the gifts are different now) is establish a birthday box.
So my box had multipacks of birthday cards (normally 10 for £1), birthday wrapping paper squares (I cut them out all at once), any gift bags that still look new after being gifted to us, sticker packs, books from the 10 for £10 at The Works, duplicate gifts/things DS doesn't like we've been given new, Kinder Eggs, and toys I buy on sale (literally any time I see a good deal on Amazon/in a Tesco). So it's easy to whip up a decent gift, normally with a few 'parts' without it becoming an errand every time we had a party to attend! Worked out much cheaper too and they always went down well!

Blimey I usually budget £5 for general parties and £10 for close friend or for expensive experience type parties. I always keep a look out for things on offer for the present draw too....

Don't spend more than you can afford!

My friends children used to be very absorbed by gifts of cheap sticker books - not birthdays, any time I visited so they'd be busy with stickers and I could have a conversation with my friend.

Around £15 to £20

Tenner. More for a bestie. You can get multi buy deals from Argos

For class parties I used to only pay £5 when DD was that age about 8 years ago but these days it's more like £7-£10. I do tend to bulk buy things on offer that are a higher RRP.

Between 5 and 10. I mostly pick up age appropriate gifts for boys and girls when I see them on offer so 2 lego sets for 10 then leave on e in the draw for the next birthday. Or some puzzles or books. I think it's easier at the lreschool age but I have been informed this won't work as they go up through primary and interests get more specific 🤣

You can often pick up 2 toys for £15 in Argos which is handy as nursery and when you start school there may be a lot of parties.

I spend £10 but if you look around in the sales you can get £10 toys discounted to much less. If you find something suitable at a good price buy multiple and use for the next few parties.

£10-15, I tend to buy from shops locally with a gift receipt so they can get swapped easily (places like Waterstones are generally quite good as they have books, toys and games!) I had 3 4th birthday parties today, we have 3 more in the next 2 weeks, it would just be so expensive to spend more than that per child!

Edit- as for what to buy, I usually get an Orchard game, or a book, Lego set, or colouring stuff/stickers/activity book. Fairly generic if I don’t know the child.

I gave my 9 year old classmate old a pot plant once at the insistence of my mum. She wasn't a good present buyer and bought something SHE would like to receive.

My budget for kids we don't know well is £15.

£10 but I would never judge someone for spending less or even not at all. When volunteering for a charity they asked me to raise money for some cheap toys - not for the kids being supported, but so the kids they were supporting were able to go to birthday parties. That broke my heart.

£10 max unless it's very close friend then it's £20

I have a £15 budget

I like finding quirky craft stuff. Blow pens, metallic gel pens, unicorn themed stuff, things they might not have. Or consumables like stickers.