Just curious what other moms are spending for their kids birthdays? We used to have big parties and lots of gifts but it seems we cut back a little each year. What about for teenagers- how much do you spend? Do you keep the $ amount the same regardless of age? Thanks for the input!
We don't have a monetary amount..kids don't know how much gifts cost, they just see gifts and enjoy them.
I like to buy some practical gifts and them some other little things I know will make them happy.
Wow! After reading the responses I am a little embarrassed to answer...but...oh well, here it goes...
We don't go by a dollar amount for B-days OR Christmas...we do usually make sure everyone has an equal amount of gifts tho. I have 5 kids...4 boys and a girl...all the boys have October B-days within 2 weeks of each other, so we usually have a joint family party only for all of them at the same time. We take each kid out all by themselves, to the restaurant of their choosing on their actual B-day, just them and dad and myself. On B-days we usually do about 6 gifts each, usually all "fun" type stuff...on Christmas its more like 6-8 gifts each + PJ's for X-mas eve, usually 1 comfy cozy winter outfit and then all the rest "fun" type gifts....and then their is the "santa" gift, usually something BIG...we got the 2 older boys joint Santa gifts a couple of years in a row...like when they got the Wii...and then the year they got the XBOX...then the year they got the computer....you get the idea.
Now that the older boys are older we did a big "friend" party for their 16th and 18th B-days...oldest turned 18 last year and got a car and a cell phone and that was it from us!
Kids are 18,15,6,4 and 2...almost 19,16,7,5 and 2 :)
~ I must admit that the baby is the only girl and was born in February...so she has her own party!
for us (my kids are 3 and 5), we don't usually get them a gift. We give them a party. It's usually at a park and we get balloons, a cake, costco pizza and invite all friends and family. Total about 40-50 people there. They get plenty of toys from their friends and family. Christmas though, they get 1 big unwrapped present and 2 little ones that are wrapped, plus family gives them a TON of stuff.
Our gift is the party- we usually spend roughly $250 on the party and they seem very happy so far. They are 4 & 6 though, we'll see if things change as they get older.
For presents we usually do one big present and one small present. no set dollar amount cause we usually get stuff on sale or clearance.
I think we may be spoiling our son :) We get him whatever he wants. Last year it was a $30 Ben10 toy the year before it was $15 bakugans and the year before it was a $300 drum set. We only get him 1 gift for his B-day so he picks what he wants the most and the dollar value does not concern him, it's what he really really wants and most of the time we get off easy. The reason for the 1 gift is because he get so many other presents from everyone else. We do a big family party with 30 or people and kids that are all close friends or family. We do it as much for an excuse for everyone to get together as for his B-day. We also allow him to pick a few friends from school to have another get together like bowling. So he gets 2 parties. The big family party is not expensive because everyone usually brings something and we do pizza or BBQ or something easy. The school friend party is usually a little more pricey because it involves going somewhere.
My mom always did $50 for birthdays and $100 for Christmas. I personally can't afford that, but I do try for $50 for both birthday and Christmas. I generally redeem my credit rewards for a giftcard or check and use that for birthdays and Christmas.
My son will be 10 in a few weeks and is asking for a DS Lite and a game. My mom and aunt (and sometimes my sister) give me cash and tell me to purchase what I want my kids to have for Birthdays and Christmas. This year I am applying all cash from them and my $50 toward his request. I made very clear to him that he would only get 1 game and the rest will be purchased for Christmas. He will not be getting anything else for his Birthday or anything other than DS games for Christmas.
As a teen, I always liked when my mom put cash in my hand rather than buying me something. My sister always liked to play a birthday shopping trip with mom and pick out what she wanted and mom would hold it hostage till her birthday. She still does that at 27. My mom now tells me to order what I want and tell her the cost. I know how much she general would give me and stick to it. I caught a end of season sale on blouses and ordered about 6 new blouses averaging about 8 apiece back in July for my birthday.
This info might be outdated, but when I was growing up we did it on a year-by-year basis. My mother would cook whatever we wanted to eat, and she and my father would determine which of my gift choices I would get. For milestone birthdays we'd do extra stuff--10th was skating party, 16th was backyard party with girls and boys at night (ooh!). I grew up appreciating the tradition of time with my family for my birthday. It's not for everyone, but I really enjoy(ed) it and plan to do the same with mine. Also, I am so against people spending money that they cannot afford on birthday parties. I have friends who do it, and I just stay out of these conversations.
These days, my teen stepson's parents just get a feel for what he wants and host him and a couple of friends in some affordable venture.
We usually budget about $300. How that gets spent every year changes a great deal (what and how many presents, where it's held, who's invited, etc.), but that's the dollar amount. Also typically, about $60 of that is the cake.
I'm probably cheap. We're not big into birthday celebrations. We give my teen girls usually get a gift around $20. Then there's the cost of the party, which is dinner at the neighboorhood pizza place for a group of their friends and the junk food and breakfast for the sleepover.
we buy a cake and some snacks, then spend about 10-30 dollars on presents depending on what we find that we like.
Less than $60, including the gift (usually only one or two). Every few years we will do something bigger.
My daughter is only turning 2 this year. Me and my dad (her grandpa) are building her a playground this year. But I think I blow out on that stuff because my dad didn't do birthdays hardly at all or christmas lol. I'm sure when she gets older it will be less than a playground but will probably range $25-200, depending on how much I make and what I want to get her. As long as she likes it who cares if it costs $25 or whatever
