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Stay at Home Moms
EmmyS27
member
Birthday Party Gifts
EmmyS27
member
Those of you who are on a tight budget, do you have any good ideas for birthday gifts when your LO is invited to a party? I'm experiencing this for the first time with the playgroup we've joined for my one year old. There are 35 babies in the group and it seems like everyone is starting to have birthday playdates. I went to our first one about a month ago and was so embarrassed because everyone brought presents and I didn't. I don't want to be the only one to not bring something, but I can't imagine buying 30plus gifts a year!! I haven't gone to the last couple of birthday playdates for this reason, but I hate for my daughter to miss out because I'm on a budget. So.... any suggestions? What do you ladies do?
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Re: Birthday Party Gifts
I am not on such a tight budget- however I can give you a few suggestions-
Learn to stock up- Especially around sales-
Back to school sale- always pick up a TON of crayons. They go on sale around .25 in the month of Aug/Sept at Target/walmart/supplies stores. Great gift- coupled with a coloring book and/or reading book. End of summer is also a great time to stock up on bubbles and sidewalk chalk cheap. Also- look at stores that always offer coupons for % off- my art store always has 40% off coupons and I always pick up gifts there to throw in my 'gift closet' ~
After holiday sales- again stock up on little gifts as you see.
Personally- I am a very big fan of gifting books. So if you have a warehouse book center- you can pick up really inexpensive books for kids. A nice gift would be a handpicked reading book - and if it is a closer friend maybe you can add a small giftcard to a bookstore for the kid to pick out another gift.
Get crafty- a playdate mom friend of ours made Gisele (for a birthday) a sticker book/album and coupled it with a few things of stickers. (if you belong to a wholesale club like BJ's stickers/cards are always 50% off)
another good gift- is sand toys & sunglasses. you can pick these up relatively cheaply and make a cute gift.
I cute "gift basket" with cheper things bubbles and like pp saidb BOOKS! You can buy from half priced, I find ones that look new for great prices.
I'm also a big fan of handmade gifts, little girls hair bows ar great, cloth blocks, etc...
I usually like to do a themed gift so I'm like Stacy and stock up on things when I see them on good sale. Some themes I've done:
outdoors: stock up on bubbles, bouncy balls, sidewalk chalk, jump ropes, etc.
art: stock up on crayons, drawing paper, coloring books, water paint, construction paper, glue sticks, scissors, (back to school is a great time for these gifts)
bath time: stock up on bubble bath, bath toys, bath fizz/markers, sometimes I throw in a new bath towel
bed time: stock up on pajamas (shop clearance at the change of seasons and you can get great prices!), books (they don't always go on good sale, but I only buy the paperback books and I always use a coupon so I can get a book for like, $3), a lullaby CD
games: stock up on board games (these go on a pretty decent sale at Target at least twice a year), card games
movie night: buy kid DVDs when they're $5, a box of popcorn and a box of movie candy
Whenever I see something kid-friendly on really good sale I usually pick it up. You can make a nice gift out of just about anything. Also, for my nieces I never buy a gift anymore. They have so much stuff that it would just be a waste IMO. So, we give them a coupon for a date instead. Sometimes we let them pick what they want to do and sometimes we decide for them. Do stuff like take the birthday child to the zoo or a picnic at the park or the local children's museum or play place, etc. A lot of places like that have free/discounted admission. Mom can come with or not, but the date is the gift. Most kids would LOVE an activity with their friend.
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This is what I do for kids I don't know very well. I usually buy a cute basket or storage container and fill it with bubbles, coloring books, crayons, stickers, and sidewalk chalk. The dollar store even had board books sometimes that don't have the price on them.
Everyone here had some awesome gift ideas (some of which I am going to use myself!) but I'm going to be the cheapie here and point out there even if you only spent $10 on each child that is $340 a year on gifts for other people's kids. This doesn't include gifts for close friends and family that you normally buy for. No offense to all the other moms in your play group, but there is no way I would do that. We don't have an extra $340 in our annual budget to buy gifts for people we barely know.
My playgroup is only 8 people. Even at that, we basically have a rule that there is no obligation to give gifts for birthdays. In fact, we do not even necessarily celebrate every child's birthday, it is up to their mom if she wants to host playgroup on/near her child's birthday. And then if she does, often she will just bring cupcakes. The last time a mom did this, I did bring a small gift for her daughter and I was the only one. I guarantee that there are other moms that are in the same boat financially as you. I do not want to be a negative nancy, but perhaps you can find a way to gently propose to the group that birthday celebrations should focus on getting together and playing games, singing happy birthday, etc instead of 34 people buying their child a gift. Or maybe your group could do a monthly birthday celebration for all the kids that have birthdays that month. The moms could bring treats for the kids and each child would still get acknowledged, etc. And its not like most of these kids aren't getting a regular birthday party with their families, etc anyway....
So there's my 2 cents. It is commendable that you are trying to find a creative way to buy them all a small gift, I just think it is unnecessary personally. And pretty expensive even if the gift is $5 or $10.
I agree with laney. At first I thought all of the suggestions sounded great but then when she added up how much it would be over the course of a year, I think that sounds crazy!
Honestly, I wouldn't know what to do either and would probably be afraid to say something as well. I like the idea of stocking up when you have a coupon or something goes on sale. Beyond that though, I'm not sure what I'd do.
You could still miss some of the parties and your LO wouldn't totally be missing out. 31 birthday parties (or whatever it was) is a lot!!