To ask how much you and your spouse would spend on each other for a present for a big milestone birthday?

[deliverdaniel]

Just that really? What would you/ did you spend for a milestone birthday present? Would you consider yourselves to be on a tight budget or relatively comfortable?

Thank you!

We don't really set financial limits, we just buy things for one another that we might like/want/need.

I think it depends more on the meaning and how much they would like it. I spent about £200 on DH (then dps) 30th for something I knew he would really like and it was a keepsake (something personalised, sport related and framed on our wall). My 30th is this year and I am hoping for a Kitchen aid as I reallllly want one and it's not the sort of thing we would just buy or get for Xmas etc. We usually spend about £50 on each other for Christmas and birthday combined as both our birthdays are within weeks of Christmas.

We spent about £500 on each other's 30th. We got big items related to each other's hobbies that we probably wouldn't have splashed out on otherwise. I also got a couple of nights away in a 5* b&b, and a spa day. (No kids at that point).

I'm slightly horrified that I can't remember what I got DH for his 21st. I remember where I took him for dinner... we were students at the time, so it wasn't very expensive. We'd graduated by the time I turned 21, and went to Paris for the weekend (though he didn't pay the full lot).

I spent about £200 on a watch for DHs 40th, for his 50th I am going to get him a telescope.

Unfortunately he lost the watch in a park, so it wasn't quite the keepsake I had hoped for.

We normally spend £50-100 on each other at Christmas and birthday, depending if it's a particularly tight year. Milestones don't make a difference. But if I had a blinding idea for something I either wanted for my own birthday or wanted to give my DH for his, I'd try to find a way of affording it, IYSWIM.

Probably about 500 each, prob 200 on presents and rest on meal / night away. we also had a holiday as our birthdays are v close together. 30 a definite milestone to me, had a brilliant time with it all!

I got my OH a set of coasters (for cups) for his 40th - they were funny to us and useful so appreciated.

Not a refelction of our financial situation, but I guess we are lucky in that we can normally just get something if we want/need it so wouldn't wait for our bdays.

£70?
Megrim

We had only just met when we were both 30, so not much then, I don't really think of milestone birthdays any differently to other birthdays to be honest. 40th we were relatively skint (both DCs in full time childcare), he bought me a silver ring for abut £40, I bought him a water feature for the garden about £70.

We haven't reached 50th yet, but are a lot more comfortably off now. I would say we just buy whatever we think the other might want at the time, still usually somewhere between £30 and £100 each for Christmas and birthdays. DH pushed the boat out with some jewellery worth about £500 for my CHristmas this year but that is unusual. We don't go off for weekends away anywhere to mark birthdays or anniversaries, just do it as a family when we want to.

Varies so much I can't really answer.

We certainly don't have a 'budget' for presents and 'big' birthdays don't have to mean bigger presents.
Having said that for my 50th we did go to Rome for a few days, so that was pretty pricey. Otherwise, a very rough estimate would be between £50 - £150 most years.

It varies hugely.

My 30th DH spent a fortune, maybe £3k in total? The following year he spent about £50 on a really nice bottle of wine and a lovely cookery book from an area we had been to on honeymoon - and cooked me a meal from it!
Last year he bought me a watch, it cost over £1k. It wasn't a big birthday. It doesn't mean that he will expect that spent on him next birthday though.

We went on holiday for his 40th and I bought him a present costing £200ish, can't say what it will out me

It is his birthday next month and I have no idea what to get him. His present might cost £20, or it might cost £500. Depends what I see, or whether he mentions anything between now and then.

You can't compare actual amounts though, it is more about percentage of disposable income.

For my 21 he took me to New York my 30 was a meal as we were in the middle of moving home and setting up a business. My 40 he took me and my parents home to vegas. So a lot really. His 21 he was given a baby. Literally. His 30 we spent at reading festival which cost me a fortune. And his 40 we also went to vegas. He's coming up to 50 in four years and I'm thinking about taking him back to Barbados as we got engaged there.

Posted too soon. Non milestone birthdays we don't do a lot. Maybe a nice meal. We don't do gifts as such as we travel a lot so put the money in the travel pot.

We wouldn't spend a set figure, but maybe get something we wanted/needed. It's all family money. We are going away for my 40th, and will do so for his too. I'm more interested in the child-free than 'stuff'.

What we can afford. If we don't have much, about 10. If we can afford it, up to 500. I spent 500 on DH's 30th. I was earning good money at the time, no children, and bought him a DSLR (he'd been wanting one for ages).

For my 21st DH spent around £700 - night away in a nice hotel and some earrings.

For his 30th, we'd had to move into a caravan as our house had rented out and we hadn't finished renovating our new house. We were skint. I scraped together £150 to buy some global knives. We went to the local pub for dinner and drinks.

I still feel shit over not being in a position to do something nice for his 30th. I think it would have been easier had we not been in a pokey caravan at the time.

I took DH to Venice as a surprise for his 50th, from memory about 500 in total.

For mine, he took me to a naice French restaurant. The thinking was - we were planning on getting married shortly after it, and so I'd have a big family party for the wedding, so I wouldn't need one for my birthday. Except then he became ill - the wedding went ahead (small do, just us and witnesses), but the party was postponed. If I'm honest, I feel a wee bit short changed, but there are bigger problems in the world.

I've always spent far too much on OH's presents, but for a big milestone bday I would easily spend 400-500 pounds to get us on a longweekend somewhere! Last year I was at uni, but still saved up money to take us on a weekend to austria, as anniversary/christmas/birthday present all in one :P Was not any special birthday or anything. This year we're so broke that his present was about 30 pounds though!

For my 30th DH took me to the Maldives. For my 40th I had a party with private dining and champagne bar for 30 people and a week in St Lucia.

My 40th probably cost almost £10,000. It was a few years ago and we don't have the same disposable income anymore.

The most I have spent on DH was about £1800 on a Cartier watch.

I don't think it would occur to me to spend more on a "milestone" birthday. I am almost certain it wouldn't enter dh's head either.

The only real milestone birthdays we have had together have been 30th - can't remember what I got him, or he got me.

I would normally spend £20-30 on a birthday present from me, and £10-£20 on presents from each of the children.

For my 21st DH took me for a long weekend in Paris...no idea of the cost though.

For dh's 30th last year I booked a week in Disneyland Paris as a surprise...total cost was about £2k including spending money. It took me a year to save it without df knowing as generally all money is shared. I also had to get the dc passports without DH knowing...very fun trying to get passport photos done of a 2 and a 5 year old without them blabbing!

Surely just what people can afford?

Right now, we can't afford anything. Big birthday for me due very soon, and tbh, I'm expecting nothing. We struggle to pay the food bill, why on earth would we shell out for a present?

I got some lovely diamond stud earrings for my 40th last year (I know they were about £250 from a high street jeweller) and I wear them every day. DH hasn't had his milestone yet.

Our last big milestones were our 40th birthdays.

Me: We planned afternoon shopping/window shopping in Bath followed by a meal. I could get anything I fancied whilst out. I bought one item for £60 I think. He may have bought me flowers but I can't remember now.

DH: We went out of a meal, I bought him some favourite chocs. he may have bought some electrical gadget and said it was for his 40th but, again, I cannot remember.

I think we just both got to the point where we realised that if there isn't something we particularly want then we are not interested in spending money/cluttering up/going on a trip just for the sake of it. We treat ourselves to things (by mutual agreement as we have completely joint accounts) when we want them.

Life over the last few years has been dominated by work, bring up young children, doing up the house and paying off the mortgage asap. Under those circumstances having to make a big effort for birthdays would have been a chore tbh and we would much rather give token gifts and mark the day quietly - I think that is more about energy than money though.

I can see this changing within the next couple of years though as, hopefully, we will have more time, energy and money to jazz life up a bit (which has become quite habitually dull on the whole). Financially, we are very secure now but in our drive to achieve that I think we have lost a little of life's sparkle and we both are starting to appreciate that it is going to take some effort to get it back.

When DH turned 50 a few years ago I bought him a saxophone which was in the region of 1000. He had always said he wished he had learned, so a few months beforehand I persuaded him to hire a cheap instrument and get lessons to see how he got on. When he liked it we asked his teacher for recommendations and then took it from there.

My 50th the year before last he bought me a summer house and paid for the company to put in a base and put it up. I think it was nearly 1500 altogether. My pride and joy!

I should add we do not spend such large sums on normal birthdays.