How do you budget/plan for your child's birthday presents

[ItsAllBlahBlahBlah]

Just curious and I can't ask anyone irl. I have two very little ones (3 and 1) who thanks to covid haven't had a brithday party or anything yet (so no need to budget for one) neither have been to nursery either so I'm not sure what the 'norm' to spend/number of presents to buy is. My eldest will be four later this year and I would like to buy him his first bike. I also have a playmobil boat I brought for a steal for £10 I know he will LOVE (from £35!) and I wanted to get him a small lego set as he has none. I aim to spend

I think around £100 if you can afford it is reasonable you can't get a lot for £100 nowadays so would struggle to spend much less. However, at four he is not likely to talk about his birthday presents in that much detail he will notice he has had less brought for him. To bulk it out, does he need some new autumn PJs, etc that you would be buying anyway but he gets to open more gifts? I tend to put £20 away per child each payday into a bank account to at least go towards gifts/party or event.

I'd get a balance bike as a first bike. I completely missed the boat with that and got one with pedals. It's taken years ages to get DS to use a bike with pedals.

I don't think what you've got is too much but it's very easy to go mad and end up with too much at that age. Mine gets a lot off other people too and when he was very little it used to take days to unwrap everything because he'd be overwhelmed. Seems ridiculous thinking about it now.

Thanks for responding. I have a dinosaur onesie thing put away so I was thinking of wrapping that up 🙂 I think im just trying to find the balance! To me a bike is a big present, so I wondered if by buying lego, playmobil etc on top was too much. I really have no idea! Christmas is only two months later and I aim for 8 presents (plus stocking and a Christmas eve box) it's a lot to get in a short time

I spend about £100 on my young DC at birthdays; in theory we’d do a party or birthday outing on top but with covid that’s not been possible. I do about £100-£150 for Christmas. As they get older I guess that will increase as they want more expensive presents

Thanks @BlueCarPinkShoes he has a balance bike now so I guess I meant his first one with pedals!
For context he also has two sets of grandparents, three aunties (who will spend perhaps £20 or so on one gift each) and two friends (small presents)

Would I be mad to go for 8ish gifts for bday too? But obviously if one is near the £100 mark in itself it may be less or the others will be small (like the £5 lego set)

For Christmas and birthday I just buy what I think they would like. Some years it will be more, others a lot less.

Ps 8-10 presents would be about usual for birthdays in our house.

We spend about £30-£50 for a 5 year old. We can easily afford more but that’s not a reason to spend it in my opinion. She gets presents from uncles, grandparents, friends, neighbors, cousins, so no need to add more stuff. I’d rather use the money to pay for swimming, ballet, trips etc.

Thanks @Findahouse21 that's good to know. I think at christmas people go abit mental, but it's such a lovely time I totally get why. It's hard to restrain yourself

Thanks @AdriannaP. I think he needs the bike tbh and I can accept that. The rest of his gifts will come to about £30-40.

You were clearly much more aware of the types of kids bikes available than I was then! I still don't know how I managed to miss the entire balance bike section!

I buy the same number of gifts for birthday and Christmas. I think the amount as you look at it is more important than the cost at that age because they don't really grasp the monetary value anyway. I don't think 8 gifts is mad. I always get pens and books which don't cost much but mean more to unwrap.

I'm one of those amazon/argos scourers so buy in advance where I can (like the playmobil boat) so it may seem I spend more than I do iyswim. I wonder if I just save the money as opposed to still spending the budget 🤷‍♀️

Thanks @BlueCarPinkShoes. There will defo be books. Stockings tend to be pound shop bits and bobs. I aim for 10-12 items. Nothing more than a couple to quid each , but same may be worth more if I can get a bargain, like a thomas train or soemthing

I don’t think it’s unreasonable at all. Some will get more some will get less. Just spend what you’re comfortable spending on things you know he will like. I personally wouldn’t think £100 is too much at all, that’s really good for a DC birthday i think.
I hope he has a great day!

I bought my little ones one present at that age. They got at least one from each set of grandparents, aunts, uncles, Godparents etc as well and it was too much really but I couldn’t really not buy my own child a birthday present! Your plan sounds fine, although I’d be including gifts from others in my 8ish total.

I wouldn’t worry about comparing at nursery/school at that sort of age - they’ll all decide to be insanely jealous of the completely random party blower or something. They don’t understand the value of anything, they don’t keep count of the number of presents and they really don’t compare notes on how many presents they got. Unless he replies “nothing” or “a real Ferrari and a castle with a butler” when asked what he got, no eyebrows will be raised!

We've always bought our children what they want/need, so some years, they have had more spent on them than others. I think the key is getting what they want and then they are happy.

Thanks @CadburyCake that's good advice

Thank you @Checkingout811

We tend to just buy what they want/need within reason. There will be years where a big item is needed, like a bike, so budget might be more, whereas other years there's nothing they need and they just want smaller, cheaper things.

I don't think a bike, helmet, a couple of small toys and books is excessive at four. But if they have loads of other people buying it can add up. Sometimes we end up buying just a small thing as grandparents have bought two big things for example (and with the price of bikes as they approach double figures, I'm happy for Grandparents to pay if that's what they want?)

This will vary massively.
Not only because of massively different budgets, but also different sized families and also different ways of thinking.

Also, IME, people who post on "how much do you spend on your dcs' presents at Christmas / Birthday?" threads seemed massively skewed towards people who spend a lot.

Seriously, my 3 have got to adulthood and we've only ever spent anywhere near £100 when it has been a sort of 'one off, something they needed anyway' type present, like a laptop when theirs broke in 6th form, or a musical instrument that was still between birthday and Christmas.

If your dc has Grandparents / Aunts / Uncles / Godparents buying for them, then (in my opinion) you'd be as well letting them get the presents and you putting some money away for them. There is no need to spend £££ because you feel you ought to

Of course, if you are loaded, then you can spend whatever you wants, but you really, really, really, do not have to worry about this :

He's off to nursery in September so would like to gauge what the 'norm' is as inevitably he will chat about it.

a) he won't remember b) no-one will ask c) no 3 yr old has any concept of cost of an item and is as likely to be more excited about a sparkly notebook from poundland than anything expensive even if their birthday were that morning.

Spend what you can afford. We got our 3 Yr old a pedal bike 2nd hand, well got it just before her birthday, not as a birthday gift as she's adamant she wants pedals and no stabilisers.
She's nearly mastered it so then it opens up an idea for Xmas once her current one has been battered by falling off haha

Admitted I spend far too much on birthdays. They have about 200 each on bits they choose and I pick up bits in sales. BUT if I didn't or couldn't have that much spare then they wouldn't.

Our 1 Yr old we got a big water table thing for the garden. That was 80 but he didn't need indoor toys as was directly after Xmas.
3 Yr old had a trampoline and swing again didn't need indoor toys.

We had all pre owned garden bits when we got the house last Yr but they had seen better days so I wanted to renew for birthdays etc.

Teen just wants clothes and don't get much for your money at that age :/

Also they tend to have a fair few but some may be coloring books from pound shop etc

Family all give money to buy annual passes for local theme park, zoo and farm. As we have a huge family and don't want tonnes of toys they'll never use.
Then they get weekly fun with their passes to at least 2 of the places a week.

My DS's birthday is 2 weeks before Christmas but I always made a point of keeping it separate. I've always got him a big gift for his birthday, a big gift for christmas and other gifts for Christmas.

Part of the birthday used to be a party, a cake to kindergarten or school and a meal out with the family with an outing somewhere so experiences as well as gifts.

My DD1 has just turned 5 and we are trying to reduce the number of toys we buy because we are drowning in them. I spent £110 on a large Disney doll collection and also go her a £1.75 Disney princess mug and a three pack of kinder eggs. £20 on party bags. She got a new scooter from one set of Gradparents. Disney plus from the other, bath bombs, dressing up outfits, books, jewellery making set, body board and various gifts from friends. It all quickly adds up to a lot of stuff.