How much do you spend on your child’s birthday?

[Duskisthebesttime]

Not party/day out/meal etc

But…presents, cake, balloons..how much do you spend on average in total?

Trying to cut my DD’s amount down as better go save that money back a bit, but I just get carried away with birthdays & Christmas, what is the average amount you spend? I suppose it also depends on the age of your child..for context, my Dd will turn 6

Ds just turned 5.

Spent around 100 on presents and that bought around 6 little toys that he wanted.

I made his cake so just had to buy a few decorations for it.

Spent around 40 on balloons and decorations.

So outside of his party it was around 150.

I tend to include clothes and pj's as stocking fillers ar christmas but not for birthdays.

£300-400

I hardly think spending a few hundred pounds on birthday celebrations makes posters fall into the ‘rich’ category.

For us, the amount will vary based on the party cost but I would say in the region of £500-£600 all in.

@Nursingadvice How do people spend £50 on presents?

In my DS' case, last year he wanted a resistance band (£2.50), some weights (£9), a computer game (£14), two books (£16) and some new t-shirts.

He was perfectly happy with his 'haul'. He and a friend mooched around the village for the afternoon and ate vast amounts of pizza & chocolate cake while lying in the garden.

Sometimes that's all they want, especially when teenage.

This year he wants a Pool Lifeguard training course. I've just spent £250 on his prom and £1,000 for him to spend a week in the Algarve, having finished his GCSEs.

Be grateful for the less expensive years. They average out.

My son is 4, I would say about £100 on gifts and £100 on a family takeaway (we do this instead of a party - it works for us). Then factor in cake and a daily activity, so maybe another £50? Total of around £250.

I have always been the person who spends less on birthdays and splurge at Christmas

It depends what they're getting that year, generally about £150 but if they're getting a more expensive present (bike or something) we'll spend more.

When they were younger, we probably spent £300 ish on presents.

Once they hit their teens, more like £600/£700, sometimes more.

A friend of mine always made their cakes as part of her gift to them. No balloons as our pets are scared of them.

We need er spent much at all-£50-100 gifts, plus cost of party (various) . Although one Christmas when they were teenagers we gave them expensive laptops for college. We supported them well at uni also. As a family we don't believe in giving kids endless'stuff'.

We are about the same.

In past years we have had a weekend in London instead of a party-so that’s a lot for train/accommodation/theatre tickets/exhibitions etc.

This year he had a party at home so probably £200-£250 ish (lots of adults so ‘proper’ food not just party rings and sausage rolls).

Present wise he basically gets whatever he asks for- but he generally only asks for 1 or 2 things (this year was a Viv Westwood sweatshirt which I got for £165 in the sale and boxes of Pokemon cards)- then we get a pile of books, a switch game or 2 and little things like rubix cubes, board games and makeup. Always piles of sweets and chocolates.

Cake is £30 ish, and decorations and balloons around £50.

When DS was 6 I had a while class party and booked the soft play at the local leisure centre and DH and I did all the food and entertainment at the room in the centre after. Just pass the parcel and musical bumps. That was the most expensive probably.

He always got one gift, I made the cake. When he was older he would have 5 friends for paintball, bowling or something like that. We also had a Halloween party for up to 20 kids each year at home for around 3 years, they were much smaller after that but that was just basic food and lots of games and me reading scary stories.

I agree £50 is tight even for a young child. This year my three year old will have:

• Ride on car £50
• Duplo £15
• dinosaur toy £7
• new book or two £8
• magnatiles £10

Thats £90 as it is

That’s not to add the cost of a party which is her first one - probably looking at £300

We cannot afford hundreds to spend for birthdays. We don’t have that to spend and I don’t want to go into debt for birthdays.

we usually buy one big present, or two or three smaller ones. The dc will also get smaller presents from family/ friends.

I try and do parties at home myself with party games etc to make it cheaper as we cannot afford soft play or ball hire etc.

make cake and do food based.

so including decorations, presents, party, etc, £100 would be my absolute limit and even then I can’t really afford that. Actually for my DD we spent less than £50. And for DS’s last birthday, it was about £70.

the dc are 5 and 1 so don’t have the expectations For anything else yet.

Just giving an alternative response to some of the wealthier people on here.

I'd be interested to see what various budgets have bought at various ages. I'm finding it hard to think what I could spend £500 on for mine tbh!

We don't have a set budget for gifts it depends what they want or need but we only tend to buy one gift maybe two.
At three mine would have been given the ride on car or some of the smaller things.

@Hateliars34 She’s been off school a bit due to illness and will go in to a new class in September, in the more grown up class, the bag would be something she currently loves with pencil cases, pencils etc (currently don’t bring own pencil cases and a bag really) so it’s sort of a positive thing to add excitement to it all

We have cats... so £50 per cat?

This year (10th birthday)

jumper £165

2x switch games £80 ish

2x Pokemon sets £130 ish

chocolate and sweets £10 ish

cuddly toy £30 ish

books (at least 6 or so, sometimes whole sets).

rubix cubes

a previous year (7th or 8th birthday) had a replica suit of armour as his main present which was expensive.

When he was little it would be something like a rocking horse and big duplo and train sets.

don’t aim to spend a lot and I don’t go into debt, I just aim to get what he has asked for plus a few things I think he will enjoy.

I don’t think it’s to do with wealth, as a few people have said that now. I think it’s priorities.

I am single parent working part time. I put away £100pm for Xmas starting in Feb.

Birthdays I start saving a few months before, or for a larger item I might use an interest free argos card for example and pay back over 6 months.

I don’t necessarily think anyone spending a few hundred on a birthday is wealthy. Everybody I know does that and none are wealthy.

in fact on MN it seems the wealth people are the ones that seem to spend £50 on a present which I just can’t imagine doing.

I always spend more on a party because then she gets a day with her friends (5-10 max). She gets one or two presents, nothing over £100. I think for her 6th we went to a local outdoor pool with a slide and I gave them water guns as their party bag present. I think she was into Shopkins back then so prob a Shopkins set for about £20/30 and a dressing up outfit or similar as presents.

Too much tbh.

Room hire, bouncy castle, face painter - £450
Food - £60
Cake and topper etc - £50
Decorations, plates, balloons etc - £40
Party Bags for 25 - £50

First year at school, whole class party so we went all out. Hoping to keep it to £300 next year.

Sorry just realised you said not the party cost (clearly I am still asleep)

We went for dinner on day of the birthday - £60
Plus a soft play with her friend on the day- £30
Presents - £200 (fancy new doll pram, books, jellycats, instrument)

@Bogtrollsdaughter
I can't get my head round spending £165 on a jumper when they're still growing but the suit of armour has me intrigued! That sounds like an amazing gift and well worth it!

Depends to be honest. We only buy one birthday present (large extended family so DC definitely get plenty) and how much it is varies massively. Vtech camera was a lot cheaper than the bike. I make the cake, which is never as cheap as I feel it should be. Whole class parties have been the kicker in terms of cost here, even when we had a joint one when DS1 turned five it was crazy money.

Based on DS1's current obsession we'll be getting him star wars Lego when he turns 6, and I'd anticipate spending about £70.

I do think it massively depends on family circumstances though. DC have about 10 people who will buy them a present at their birthday or give money. If we were the only ones giving gifts we'd buy more I expect.