How much £ do you spend on your child's birthday?

[HT96]

DD will be 4 in September! And DS 1st birthday is Oct...

For DD is has been different every year and everyone tells me it gets more expensive every year! Don't I know it with the list she has.. started with a £180 LOL house 🥴

So how much do you spend on your DC?

About £150 to £200.

It depends. If my dcs were having a party then its less on gifts. In the current situation I would get the Lol house and a couple of other bits. In the past mine have had £100.00 on gifts and a party/meal out with friends. I probably spend about £250.00 altogether. My girls are 16 and 9. However ds has just turned 2 and I dont spend as much on him. ( cant face anymore toys downstairs).

We've just spent around £200 on DD2's 4th birthday (slightly under rather than over).

This was for one main present (toy kitchen), accessories for it, a couple of smaller toys I knew she'd like and some clothes.

We'd usually spend less but given that she LOVES dresses, and I knew she needed clothes, it seemed to make sense to wrap them up and let her open those too!

£200-£250

I have a budget of £150, but for DD2 she had lots of her sisters old toys and I only spent £75. The other went in her savings account.

DS is 6. We go to Center Parcs with friends each year. I pay about £400 in total. He gets probably £100 in presents on top of this?

£100
They are 43 and 38:

Anywhere from £100-300, depends on what we think she will like. She is 3 soon and I think we have spent around £250 so far and will probably get a few more bits, like clothes or shoes - she is getting enough toys.

I’m surprised how low these amounts are. Everyone round here seems to do much more. We usually have a big party (£300-400 approx), plus a cake (£75-£100). They have a new birthday outfit of their choice and usually one ‘special’ present too. The present could be a bike / dolls house/ scooter etc. It’s what everyone around here seems to do.

My son is turning 5 in a few weeks and I've spent just under £200 including a secondhand iPad mini, and a brand new bike.

Generally in the low to mid hundreds I would guess. I don't have a specific budget or particularly keep track of the cost as I buy some things in advance as and when I see them, then buy more nearer to the time. I don't think there is a right way to do it - whatever suits your family.

Yep depends on need really, last year (6th birthday) she needed a bigger scooter, so that was her main present plus some bits.

This year, she didn't need anything big and only asked for a scrapbook and a surprise so it was about £30 in total.

If there wasn't a "big-ticket item" that I wanted for them, then probably around £30 (mine are 3 and 2), but more on other things, such as a day out and a bunch of balloons which is something of a family tradition. Mine don't really play much with toys anyway.

A "big ticket item" I've bought for each of them is a scooter (they had these at Christmas though) and for the 2-year-old, a teepee.

When they were really young, £50-£100 tops. Mainly due to finances and the fact they were little. It’s true what they say, they get more expensive as they get older. Now 18 and will be buying a little run around car - a lot more than I would ever normally spend but it’s a big milestone birthday. It’s not the norm. A normal birthday wo uk d be around £300 at these late teen ages

£100 tops, unless it was a new bike or something that they actually need.

This year DS wanted was a £150 Lego set. At 10 I suggested that he asks for cash and gets the set he wants. Which in turn saved me trying to come up with 5 smaller ideas for GPs and Aunties, just after Christmas.

My other one is 3 tbh I can't remember what he got for birthday but it was probably £30ish. But he benefits from being 2nd child and tons of hand me downs.

In my previous post I was comparing with my eldest where I should really compare with my youngest. Gifts do get more expensive as they grow up.

September is a long way off esp for a 3/4 year old. So I'd hold off incase she changes her mind. And you have time to influence if you need to.

If DS2 age 3 asked for something so big I'd either go down the route of saying its really big and would need to wait for Santa or it would need to be from everyone if the GPs would buy that idea.

With my ds (6) I used to go overboard buying him things for the sake of it. He wouldn't use half of it.
For his 5th birthday I took him to the toy shop and told him to pick whatever he wanted. What he chose was about 10 presents that in total came to 60 pounds and he was so so happy and used all of them.
For his 6th birthday we spent around the same to get him a game he wanted. Didn't get any extra bits as he doesnt use them anyway.

Ds2 turns 1 in June and I've spent 45 pound on toys.

We always do food for my extended family (12 people) so around on birthdays (around 50 pounds) and get a cake made up for 40pounds

I wouldn't spend money for the sake of it, so if nothing needed then a smaller amount would be spent. Happy to source secondhand also.

I would be happy to spend a fair amount where 'needed' though. Such as in the current lockdown situation a pricey piece of garden equipment or laptop depending on ages would make sense.

Mine are older, it would be £50-60 back when they were younger (maybe £100 with inflation) once they got to teenagers it would be dependent on whether they were getting a needed gadget or not eg a phone

There is never anything DS wants or needs on his birthday as it's shortly after Christmas, so we tend to spend the money on "activities" instead.

This was parties when he was younger but now he's older he chooses something to do with his friends (cinema, trampoline park, go-karting etc) - budget usually around £100-150

We then only get him one token gift of around £40-50.

If his birthday wasn't so close to Christmas I guess we maybe would spend more as there would probably be things he needed at that point.

Depends. If it’s a year they need/want a new bike then it’s more than a year that they don’t ask for much (DD9 asked for a set of books this year that cost £20).

I wouldn’t buy a £180 LOL dolls house no matter what though but that’s personal choice 🤷‍♀️ We are not one of those wholesome families who only has wooden toys but I think something like that is quite limited in how it is played with, or it would be here.

The LOL house will have longevity - my 8 year old still plays with LOLs. And for other things yes eBay but the point of LOL is that there are so many surprises to unwrap within it so it’s one thing I would buy new.
We don’t really add up, I just buy what looks like a nice pile (fits in to a large gift bag that comes out each year unless there is a bike or scooter as part of it), but I buy the extras throughout the year in the sales (such as a notebook with her initial on reduced to £1). I only buy at birthdays at Christmas as a general rule.

And I agree that I thought LOLs were expensive tat but caved and got the camper van at Christmas - it is played with at least every other day.

Depends if they want or need something expensive (eg an iPad). Dd1 got air pods this year, plus a load of Adidas clothes. I consider myself an expert when it comes to bargain hunting , so I rarely pay full price for stuff (Apple products excluded). I would say we spend about £200, grandparents about £150 (unless they want an expensive item).

Thanks everyone! We don't really buy her much in terms of toys through the year and I think I am pretty backwards tbh because everyone seems to do christmas bigger than birthday but I am the other way round! She will probably get a bike for christmas...

She wants LOL house / car and LOL dolls! I can spread the dolls and other things with family as they always ask what she wants so that helps!

We have the money I just question whether we should be spending that on a 4 year old 😄 as people have said though its not about the money its about how much she will get from the gift!