Son’s 18th birthday but limited funds 😳

[Chocamochalatte]

If you only had a budget of £50/£60 what would you buy for your son on his 18th??

Look online for deals on a photobook and meal out/tickets ( Groupon etc)

Gig/festival tickets.

Do you mean for a gift or an evening/night out?

TV audience at Live Shows.

DH got tickets to The Last Leg when DS was 18yo

Well ideally I wanted something to ‘keep’ to look back on, but to be honest I had t thought of a gig or anything like that...

The issue I have with TV audience etc is that we live in a remote place so to get to the mainland it’s £50-£100 to start off with 😳

Does he listen to a lot of music? You would get a ‘cool’ set of headphones from amazon in that price range.

£10 on a photobook from birth to now and £40 to spend on doing something together?

For DS's 21st (but you could do it for an 18th) we put together a photo album of pictures of him over his life.
www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18th-Birthday-personalised-large-luxury-photo-album-photo-memory-book-200-x-6x4/281914425043?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20160323102634%26meid%3D205dcd31cd4f49b181bf60c93f6a8ab3%26pid%3D100623%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D272412034589%26itm%3D281914425043&_trksid=p2047675.c100623.m-1

We had quite a lot of spare photos hanging around the house already which we used but got some printed from the digital photos we had through snapfish. DS loved it - so did his girlfriend (although we were careful not to include any really embarrassing pictures. I was inspired to do it by my DBro who at the age of 58 advised me that he didn't have any pictures of him as a child as he hadn't taken any with him when he left home - although I appreciate that the digital age has changed that somewhat it was still lovely to have a collection of pictures all in one place.

Earphones is a good idea... I’m not sure he’d appreciate a photo book though... thanks these are some great ideas for me to think about :)

What about 3-4 vouchers, say an I tunes/google play voucher for £20, cinema voucher for £20 and the place he likes to eat another £20 voucher, he can go on own or with friends etc
My 18 year old at uni away from home now and I think this is what he’d like for his nights out.

Is there anything he would like to do that's a few months from now that you could give him a 'voucher ' for and spread the cost?

Engraved cuff links?

Engraved cuff links....I'm sure he'd be thrilled with those!

I would be strongly guided by him.

Nice bottle of alcohol and some aftershave 

A watch?

Sounds crazy but it's something he can keep forever and even wear as good luck to interviews, at his wedding etc. My DP got bought some for either his 18th or 21st from his parents.

Could you pay a monthly subscription to Audible or iTunes, Spotify, Netflix or similar. For example if you dont already have it Netflix is 5.99 a month for one screen, 7.49 for 2 screens. They have a free trial month to start so would meet your budget.

A keepsake present might be a bit harder. However, DS had a lovely pen set from an aunt for his 21st which he had offered as a suggestion. We bought him a watch of his choice. He never wears it, apparently it's too nice . There are some great watches around for your budget, try John Lewis reductions on at the moment online.

Hope you find the right thing and he has a great birthday.

Small house party? More of a gathering, buy some beer and let him have a couple of friends over. Or tell him it's limited funds and give him £50 for a night out?

I'm 21 and that's what I wanted

I was stumped on a keepsake for my DS, girls are easy to buy jewellery for, my DS doesn't wear any.

So I bought him a personalised pocket watch from eBay, you can get them from £5 onwards. It was really lovely when it arrived and he can keep it as a memento if his day.

Headphones, cinema tickets are great suggestions too.

Thank you for all the suggestions!

He doesn’t want a party 🙄 The only watch he’d wear would be a smart watch 🙄🙄
I’m going to look at earphones I think, I just didn’t really want to give him the money and it go to waste... is that daft?!

I bought mine a leather wrist strap with a silver clasp on it for his 18th. Like you I wanted something for him to keep. IIRC it cost about £40. He was really pleased with it.

Do you have the decorations and balloons etc already? If not, you could do a Facebook request to borrow banners, streamers etc. to make your home look special when he wakes up. I have a box I've reused and added to over the years, I would happily lend them out for one day to someone. Its mostly cheap supermarket stuff on-offer I've collected and looked after. You could make a special card, including inspirational quotes, inserts with positive school report comments, a couple of pics from his childhood, your words of love and wisdom for his path into adulthood etc etc etc. Bake a simple homemade cake, add candles and his favourite sweets as decoration to the table before he wakes in the morning. A few decorative paper plates and napkins out for breakfast - basically dress up the table. As for your budget, I'd give it all as cash and put it inside a homemade presentation card. If funds are limited he may like to choose for himself.