s/o Birthday Gifts

angelakh

How much do you spend on Birthday gifts for your LO's friends?

I budget $10 - $15 for friends and will spend a little more on close family/friends.  I am just wondering if I am cheap. 

franciscaz

I'm the same unless it is someone we are close with.  Than it is more like $25-40.

jessica1080

My DD hasn't been invited to many parties yet except for family and MY friends kids until recently.  I have spent about $20-25 per child on my gifts, but it seems like I have been on the higher end and other people were spending closer to your $10-15 range. 

I think you are fine based on the 3 birthday parties I have been to in the last month!

jlw2505

I am the same $10-$20 and it honestly depends who it is (school friend that we never see outside of school, DD doesn't talk a ton about vs close friend that we see a lot of type of thing).   Both of my girls were invited to a party for this weekend - WE met the boy and his mom years ago through an ECFE class and they have remained friends of ours, we see them a lot, have play dates, etc.  The kids do not go to school together and never will - are only friends still because I am friends with the mom.  We are not able to go to the party since we will be out of town but we are meeting them for dinner tonight.  We are paying for our own dinner and the other mom is bringing cupcakes (today is the actual b-day).  I spent $20 on the gift from both of my kids.  If we were going to the actual party, I would have spent closer to $35-40 since it is from both kids.  I spent less since we are also paying for dinner tonight and not going to the party. 

Pesky

You aren't cheap.  I think it varies by area and most certainly by your own finances.  I spend anywhere from $15-25, $25 being for very close friends of DD.  I usually try to spend no more than $20 though.  Let's face it -- at this age, you can get a fun present for not a lot of money so no real reason to go crazy.

ETA:  FWIW, judging from the birthday parties I have attended, $10-15 is well within the norm. 

brightning

I'm usually in the $10-$15 range. For the children of our close friends, we spend $40-$50. Like a PP said, you can get a totally decent kids toy or craft project for a relatively small amount, so there's no need to go overboard, I think. For my friends' children, I usually put together a craft kid and include a few books or other side items, so it does add up.

Mrs Manners

I usually spend $20-25 but may scale that back this year now that we are starting to get all the invites from his preschool class (which consists of 30 kids). I spend $30-50 on my close friend's kids and $100 or so on my two nephews.

HarrietNJMommy

The amount around here for school friends is $15-$20. If it's a close friend, around $25, and we spend a lot more for family.......

shellybird101

agree 10-20 max, I spent $10 at the dollar store and the mom thought it was a great basket of outside goodies(bubbles, jump rope, chalk, etc) and the kid didn't care that it was cheap.