What did you buy your DD for her 18th??

[Tiuriwiththewhiteshield]

Dd turns 18 next month and I’m looking for inspiration what to buy her. She has some smallish presents on her wishlist, which I’ll get her (to do with her hobby), but I’d like to give her something a bit more special. Not too expensive though as we’ve also paid a chunk towards an expensive school trip so funds are running a bit low…love to hear what you bought if it was well received 😊

Snap!

A parachute jump

I did a surprise breakfast party 18 days before her 18th revealing 18 gifts for 18 years and she picked a number out the hat each day leading up to her birthday, and opened one a day. The presents weren't too expensive, just thoughtful and useful. Then on her birthday I had arranged a cameo from the chap that plays Michelle in Gilmore Girls ( my daughter and I are Gilmore girls addicts) so she played the message from him which was amazing!

kitchen type stuff for university and a pair of pearl earrings plus my pearls, specific reason, the other got a new violin bow

We had a gold necklace made with some diamonds from a ring of my late dm’s that dd never got to meet inlaid in.
I consulted her and she loved the idea and decided on what design she liked.

I got mine concert tickets (requested), new phone and we did a photobook for her which she loved. She also had a house party with her friends and we had a family weekend away

I have a magpie who loves shiny things so we bought her more "proper" jewellery than the simple £30 ones she buys herself.

She also got a bracelet from her grandma, handed down to me but I told my mum that I don't wear it so I asked to skip me and it should go straight to DD.

A couple of bits for uni room decoration.

A leather handbag that we got on holiday in Italy. A classic design that should last. She loves it and uses it all the time.

Also did a photobook of all her pics and a little video montage (took me ages and I cried buckets but I think she appreciated it)

Some cold hard cash for her savings account.

Hair extensions and a Fitbit watch.

A pretty ring with her birthstone in and had a champagne breakfast delivered- I was working that day so didn’t want the day to feel flat at the beginning. She still remembers it fondly 20 years later.

A coach handbag and a Danish desined silver necklace made in the year that she was born.

An expensive bicycle (cycle-touring family).

3 nights all expenses paid in the city of her choice for her and a friend.

Pandora charm and an impact gun ( she's a mechanic)

There are so many lovely thoughtful gifts on this thread.

I don’t have a DD but I got a necklace for my 18th that I still wear most days at 48 despite not being much of a jewellery wearer. I go through phases of wearing it less often but always come back to it.

We went to Germany to see our favourite band, so on the day just a couple of small gifts. DD's room at our house is small and she's not really into stuff so have been doing trips/gigs/festivals as gifts for a while...........

Money and a gorgeous pair of Thomas Sabo earrings.

A rotating spice rack that came filled with 24 different herbs and spices, as DD had just started university and was a keen experimental cook (in the Letitia Cropley mode, alas!).

...It was going to be our present to DD, but her elderly great-great-aunt really wanted to give her something significant that would be useful throughout her life and would always remind DD of her, so instead we tagged it "With Love from Aunty Gloria".

Fifteen years later, Aunty Gloria's spice rack still has pride of place in DD's kitchen, and every birthday we give her a couple of gift-wrapped jars of swanky herbs or spices to top it up.

I got my DD a car, we live in the arse end of nowhere and a car is essential for DD to get about. She loves it anyway and I don't have to be Mums taxi anymore

A car and a tattoo.