How Much Should You Spend on a Kid’s Birthday Present
Need help figuring out how much you should spend on a birthday gift for your kid’s friend?
While your child might be excited about all those invitations to birthday parties that are stacking up, you may be worried about the costs involved.
This is a tricky subject as it’s about balancing getting something cool to hand over to your child’s friend, with the need to budget.
This is particularly the case if you are getting multiple party invitations a month – and it’s made harder if you have more than one child!
Invitations to parties have been steadily building up for us now that both children are at school.
They are very much at the age – 5 and 7 – where their friends are looking to hold big group parties.
It’s great for my kids, who get to enjoy bowling, trampolining and other fun activities with their friends.
I think it’s an important part of socialising and building those bonds with the classmates.
It helps to solidify those friendships beyond the classroom.
But the downside for parents sending their kids to parties is while the fun is free, you need to bring a gift with you.
Over the course of a year this can really add up. My kids are averaging two parties per month between them, sometimes it’s more.
So with that in mind, how much should you spend on a kid’s birthday present after your child has been invited to their party?
Let’s take a look.
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How much to spend on classmate birthday gifts
A good starting point for a budget for gifts to take along to a kid’s birthday party is £10. This will buy you a decent gift if you shop around offers on toys.
Retailers like Argos, Very and Amazon often have big discounts and bulk buying deals.
If the gift is for the child’s best friend and you would like to get something a little more special then a budget of £15 to £20 may be appropriate.
But I think at this age children aren’t looking at the value of what they’re given, they are just excited to have received gifts.
By sticking to the £10 rule for the gift you can allocate a budget of £20 a month – if you like me are seeing an average of two party invitations per month.
This adds up to £240 over the course of the year. There are a few ways you can make savings on this, and we’ll explore those next.
How to save money on birthday gifts for kid’s friends
You cannot predict how many birthday party invites your child may get in a year – you probably hope they will get at least one, hopefully more.
If you need to keep costs down when shopping for birthday gifts for your kid’s friends’ parties then try these tips for saving money.
Shop around and take your time
Buying last-minute is going to increase your likelihood of overspending on a gift.
You may be able to get it cheaper online for example, so need to leave time for it to arrive by post.
So when you receive the invitation, start to have a think about what sort of gift you could get and do a little research.
If you see something you think would work, check the price elsewhere to see if you can get a better deal.
Use Camel Camel Camel or PriceSpy to check the historic prices of items to ensure you are getting the best deal.
Shop the sales
There are offers on toys and kids gifts to be found all year. Keep your eyes open and purchase items in the sales and offers when you can.
I purchase toys that will suit the rough age group of my two children, and then set them aside ready for the next birthday party.
Argos often has 2 for £20 deals on a huge range of toys such as Lego.
And Tesco holds a regular toy sale – usually twice a year – with as much as 50% off toys. Remember to check online whether the saving is legit or if you can get it cheaper elsewhere.
Find the Tesco toy sale dates here.
Take advantage of cashback
Whenever you shop online you should be taking advantage of cashback!
All you need to do is sign up to a TopCashback account, and click through to the retailer you want to purchase from via TopCashback’s link.
Then you will receive a small amount of your purchase back. It may be as little as one per cent, but it can all add up over time.
Argos and Amazon are on TopCashback, along with hundreds of other big brands.
TopCashback also has regular deals where you can get a little extra cashback, so keep an eye out for those.
Sign up to Airtime Rewards
The Airtime Rewards app works in a similar way to a cashback site. But instead of paying your money back, the cash you earn is applied to your mobile phone bill.
Airtime Rewards partners include Argos and Waterstones, so whenever I shop with them I get money off my phone bill!
Read my full Airtime Rewards review here.
Make the gift
Another way of saving money on birthday gifts for kids is to make the present.
Consider baking some cookies or brownies and wrapping them up in a small card food box. Your child could decorate the box and make a pretty label for it.
If you have some pretty string and beads then your child could make a bracelet for their friend.
Your child can also make the card. They just need some card, pens, stickers, paint, glitter – whatever craft supplies you have – and a little imagination.
There are more ideas for DIY gifts here.
Regifting
Ever received the same gift twice? Instead of handing it back or donating it, keep it to one side.
Then you can gift it to another child – saving you from purchasing something new.
I have a box gifts that I have either purchased or set to one side because my child already had the same toy.
Save on wrapping and bags
I always remove the tags from gift bags and then set them aside in my wrapping box to be reused.
I can’t remember when I last had to purchase a new gift bag!
With wrapping paper look for bulk purchase deals in retailers – you will often see 3 for 2 deals.
And for birthday cards, buy these in bulk from cheaper retailers.
I often buy three to five birthday cards from Tesco at once so I have some set aside. Try to avoid getting ones with ages on, so you have more flexibility.
Have a birthdays fund
It can help to have a specific birthdays fund where you set money aside every month, even if you haven’t had birthday invitations for that month.
This way you can spread the cost over the course of the year.
This would be a good example of a sinking fund – which is a savings pot for expected costs, as opposed to emergency costs.
You can read more about sinking funds here.
You may also like: Frugal living tips
What if you cannot afford to buy gifts for kid’s friends?
Times are tough and it may be that you do not have any spare pennies to offer for your child’s friends birthday gifts.
If you cannot manage to afford a present and are considering turning down party invites for your child, please reconsider.
Let me explain why. The most important thing for a children’s party is that their friends turn up. It’s really that simple.
As a parent of two young children I know I would much rather they had all their close friends around them for their birthday parties than see any of them miss it due to concerns about gift costs.
Imagine if a child has no one at their party? Or their bestie isn’t there? They would be gutted about that – more so than not receiving a gift in the long run.
So while it may feel awkward, consider messaging the child’s parent and saying: “I would love my child to come to the party, they are so excited. But we just can’t afford a gift right now. I hope this is OK as my child would be really sad to miss out.”
Now look, I know this is not a message anyone wants to send, but I think most parents would much rather your child attended the party and will respond with grace and empathy. If they don’t, they’re not being very considerate of your individual situation.
I’ve always found when you actually arrive for a child’s party there is so much excitement as the kids greet each other that when the gifts are handed over it is hardly noticed.
The gift is not the biggest thing about a party, it’s about friendship and celebrating and fun.
