To ask what you’d spend for a kid’s birthday present

[lovelostlovegained]

Hi! What’s acceptable budget for a 3 year old’s birthday present? I’m new to the nursery rooster of birthdays. Most class parents are moderately to very wealthy. I’m on a budget this year and I’d like to keep the balance between offering nice gifts and minding what I spend. Equally, what’s a good gift for these children who often have a bunch of luxuries? Any intel welcome.

I don’t pay any more than £10 unless it’s a very close friend.

I'm guessing it's your child's nursery friend? If so I would generally do a token gift £10-15. My 4 year old has just had two parties. One we got one of those mini Lego kits for £9, the other some stamps, note book and stickers.

If you don't know the child we'll it's better to relatively generic. I usually do craft stuff as that will suit most children and at least the parents will appreciate something practical rather then tat. DD told me that x 'likes lego' and y 'likes crafts' so see if your child can help.

I'd say £10 max. Orchard Toys do some really nice games for under that.

Have a look at Black Friday deals, go for something that is half price for £10

I like finding quirky craft stuff. Blow pens, metallic gel pens, unicorn themed stuff, things they might not have. Or consumables like stickers.

I have a £15 budget

£10 max unless it's very close friend then it's £20

£10 but I would never judge someone for spending less or even not at all. When volunteering for a charity they asked me to raise money for some cheap toys - not for the kids being supported, but so the kids they were supporting were able to go to birthday parties. That broke my heart.

My budget for kids we don't know well is £15.

I gave my 9 year old classmate old a pot plant once at the insistence of my mum. She wasn't a good present buyer and bought something SHE would like to receive.

£10-15, I tend to buy from shops locally with a gift receipt so they can get swapped easily (places like Waterstones are generally quite good as they have books, toys and games!) I had 3 4th birthday parties today, we have 3 more in the next 2 weeks, it would just be so expensive to spend more than that per child!

Edit- as for what to buy, I usually get an Orchard game, or a book, Lego set, or colouring stuff/stickers/activity book. Fairly generic if I don’t know the child.

I spend £10 but if you look around in the sales you can get £10 toys discounted to much less. If you find something suitable at a good price buy multiple and use for the next few parties.

You can often pick up 2 toys for £15 in Argos which is handy as nursery and when you start school there may be a lot of parties.

Between 5 and 10. I mostly pick up age appropriate gifts for boys and girls when I see them on offer so 2 lego sets for 10 then leave on e in the draw for the next birthday. Or some puzzles or books. I think it's easier at the lreschool age but I have been informed this won't work as they go up through primary and interests get more specific 🤣

For class parties I used to only pay £5 when DD was that age about 8 years ago but these days it's more like £7-£10. I do tend to bulk buy things on offer that are a higher RRP.

Tenner. More for a bestie. You can get multi buy deals from Argos

Around £15 to £20

Don't spend more than you can afford!

My friends children used to be very absorbed by gifts of cheap sticker books - not birthdays, any time I visited so they'd be busy with stickers and I could have a conversation with my friend.

Blimey I usually budget £5 for general parties and £10 for close friend or for expensive experience type parties. I always keep a look out for things on offer for the present draw too....

I do £10-15 unless I know the child well enough to pick something they love, and then if it's a bit more I'm happy to spend it.

Something I did when DS was that age (I still do it but the gifts are different now) is establish a birthday box.
So my box had multipacks of birthday cards (normally 10 for £1), birthday wrapping paper squares (I cut them out all at once), any gift bags that still look new after being gifted to us, sticker packs, books from the 10 for £10 at The Works, duplicate gifts/things DS doesn't like we've been given new, Kinder Eggs, and toys I buy on sale (literally any time I see a good deal on Amazon/in a Tesco). So it's easy to whip up a decent gift, normally with a few 'parts' without it becoming an errand every time we had a party to attend! Worked out much cheaper too and they always went down well!

£5-10, more towards the £5 end at that age, although I shop well so often get things worth more.

£5-10.

You can get a decent present for that. It only needs to be a token gift at that age, they'll be getting plenty from other guests and family etc.

I try to buy generic things in sales and keep them as party gifts. I try to spend less than £10 but by buying things on offer it usually seems more expensive than it is. I have 2 kids so if the other is allowed to tag along then I double the present value to reflect this. For under 5s we've had success with Orchard Toys games, Melissa&Doug reusable stickers, large colouring pads from Amazon in various themes (Frozen/Spiderman etc), craft sets, play doh, kinetic sand, playmobil, stomp rockets.

£5 to £20. Rocket launcher, remote control car, walkie talkie set, brio or starter lego kit, hot wheels cars all work for 3yo. Specific character stuff only works if you know the child likes it. My advice would be to get your child to review suggestions, we were doing that from age 2 and by 4 he was confidently saying which present to buy based on the particular kid.
We had a few parties where parents were invited to contribute to bigger gifts, allowing for a theme park trip, zoo membership, larger lego set etc. That worked really well, and is worth suggesting if you all stay together from reception.

Agreed and we are well off(ish)
i tend to buy on offer so get something decent for that price