How Much Do You Spend on Your Kid's Birthdays?

this is what i do.... i put away $30 each month for each child's birthday(we have 3). so, when their bdays roll around(ALL right at Christmas no less!), i've felt the financial pain all year, rather than all at once! but, i do almost all of my expenses like that. we don't have family locally, so i can't really answer that. but i know a lot of ppl that have large local families do a quarterly potluck gathering and celebrate ALL birthdays that fell within that quarter - one big sheet cake from costco or something like that with all the names on it.

anyhow, back to the money aspect... my older kids(5 & 8) know that they have $360 allocated to their bday. they can have a party, or a small gathering with just the 5 of us and a nice gift, or we can go "do" something... they've had parties and a smaller gift all but 2 years - those years we did 2 consecutive nights at a local indoor water resort(1 for each bday) with a bday cake. by the time we add up 2 nights, food, dog sitter, cake - we were prob a little over $720, but it's a mini-vacation for ALL of us, so i don't mind.

No time to write a long response, but at ages 2 and 4, I don't think a party is a present. They're too young to understand that. So I think you still might want to get them a present, even if it's an inexpensive one.

At an older age, I think a party could be a present.

For my sons first birthday I spent about $500. We held it at a park so I wouldn't have the house trashed, so I had to pay for a pavilion. I had the cake specialty made which cost a lot, and we did a cookout style since it was late summer - hamburgers, hotdogs, drinks, etc. I spent way too much but we could afford it and it was my first babys first birthday.... I accept no blame! (although I will have to tone it down in coming years so my husband doesn't leave me ;)

We have a large amount of family in the area that all want to come. I used to do a friends and family party, but that was just insane! I ended up with close to 50 people in my house. So now I do two parties. One for friends and one for family. I tried to skip the family party last year, but they half of them called to say they were stopping by around dinner time on my son's birthday to celebrate his day, so we ended up ordering 6 pizzas! Only one side came, and when the other found out they were upset. 'We would've come if we'd known!'

I too do the whole snacks, desserts, pizza, food blowout. All told I end up spending around $300 just to host. I tried having a party with just hotdogs, mac-n-cheese, and cake once. It was a disaster, because that's not what I'm known for. Everyone kept commenting on 'where's this, or where's that'. I felt aweful.

Last year I did get away with a friends party for my 4y that only cost me $20 for cupcakes and juice boxes, but that's cuz I staged it in the front yard of the daycare as the afternoon snack as the friends got off the p.m. bus!!

We do buy our kids presents. They range in price. We give it to them at the family party, not the friends. One year it was an ATV for my son that the family all chipped in for. The next year was a better used ATV cuz the first one was junk and he kept breaking it! Other than that, its usually a DS game that he's been wanting, new shoes or clothes. My daughter got her first bike that was around $60 that year.

I'm resigned to the fact that I will host big parties. My kids birthdays are 6m apart. One in April, right after Easter this year, and one around Halloween. For the April one I use money from the tax refund. I plan to set aside $50 a month if I can, yeah right!, so that when one comes up, I'm ready.

I am a pretty good shopper so on gifts I usually spend around $100-125 on gifts which will include clothes, usually a DS game or maybe Wii if I find something used at Game Stop, a couple of books, etc. We don't do big parties so that's never an issue. A couple of years my daughter had some girlfriends spend the night, my son has taken buddies to the movies with us. This past year was my daughter's 10th birthday, so in honor of the big one-oh (lol) my mother & sister came down to our house for the day, we live about 2 1/2 hours away from them, and just the girls went to have High Tea which was $28/person I believe. It was a lot of fun & a kind of grown up thing for us to take her to. I don't take parties into consideration when buying gifts though. To me they're not related.

My daughters are 3 and 4. I do their kid parties at my house, with about 10 or so kids there and their parents usually and I make all the food and dessert. Between decorations and food and etc I spend about $150 on each party. I also have family nearby, usually we have a family dinner at my house or go to an inexpensive restaurant with them, and split the check or my parents pay (they don't have alot of money either so I don't like to burden them). But as part of their celebration, we let the girls choose their restaurant. Being little kids, the places they choose are inexpensive ie pizza, or chinese food etc.
I have friends who spend minimum $500 and usually closer to $1000 on their kids parties....I cannot do that. And don't think I should. If I DID have the spare money it would be better spent in a college fund!

Our kids are 16,14 and 9 and I set money aside all year long so it isn't a huge expense. Our 14 year old daughters birthday is early March, 9 year old's was this past weekend and 16 year olds is end of June.... so between March and April is also easter and end of June is also end of school year here ( in fact, many years his birthday was the last day of school). I budget for $300 per child, including food, cake, any activities and gifts. It is up to the child whether they want a bigger party or a gift they would prefer that happens to be expensive. I have never done a huge party that is overly pricey, thankfully where we live, parties are affordable. I realize $300 may sound like a lot, but we can afford it and our kids don't get a lot of things outside of birthdays, Christmas and Easter, so these tend to be bigger occassions.

We threw somewhat big parties at our home for my sons 1st and 2nd birthday. When all was said and done I would say we spent $300-$500. We spent maybe $80 of that on his presents last year, but the year before that we didn't get him anything since he was only a year old. We ordered a lot of the food so that was more expensive then making it all. Then theres decorations, plates, cups, napkins, plastic utensils, beverages, the birthday cake. It all adds up really quick. This year we are having a small party of grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins which is a total of 7 people besides us. The big party thing is too stressful and expensive and I know my son is too young to care either way. I think we will keep his parties small until he starts school.

I figure its going to cost a lot of money either way, so why not have the party somewhere and save myself the headache. We book our childs party at an activity center (chuck e cheese, bounce house, etc). It might cost $200 with the food included, but hey, they do the set up and clean up. On top of that, we buy a present. I can't imagine not giving my child a present from us. We only have one child, so we go a little overboard. We spend another $100-$200 on some nice gifts. So all total, we spend about $300-$500 on our child for her birthday. But hey, she's my one and only! And it's her birthday, so I can spoil her a little lol.

We stopped doing bday parties this year (will pick up again when kids get to more school aged and have more friends) and decided to spend the money we would have on a party and use for the kids day. They get to choose what they do for the entire day - including what they eat and where we go. Our budget is $100 and that includes their gift.

Updatede - they are 4 and 5 and they had a blast this past year. One picked Chuck E Cheese and the other Bowling and then went for a good dinner with dessert.

Christmas is 2 weeks prior to our twins' birthday and then their birthday is 2 weeks prior to our older daughter's birthday. We spend $100 max on each child--including the party. The more you spend now, the more they'll expect you to spend in the future. If the current situation is any indication of what the future holds, our $100 is going to have to go to a whole $20.

I hear ya! I really do! We grew up far from family (300+ miles), so birthdays were just the family. We could have a small party with friends, but that was it. My husband's family is large, my parents live here, my brother and family are close ... needless to say we have very big parties. We do not buy our kids presents. They are 2 and 4 1/2 and right now they don't know the difference. When they get older they will, but right now they get so many presents they don't remember who they are from.

We are going to start doing family separate from friends. In part because I think it's unfair to our kids' friends to be bombarded by our family. Also because it allows us to do a simply meal and favor/treats for the friends and do a bigger meal for the family members that travel. So far we've done both for all, so I'm hoping this will cut down on the cost a bit.

No easy answers hear, but I really do understand.

In the future you will need to decide if it is THEM that want the large party or is it you? Do you feel the obligation to invite the whole immediate family? Is that what is 'done' in your family so you kind of feel obligated? If the answer is yes then the party should not be their present. I can only see the party being their present when they are older and have a friend party-esp at a fun place like Chuck e Cheese.
We have only ever invited the family to big birthdays-like one yo. Since they were about 3 I started having a friend party every year for them-either at a place or our house. That has been their big celebration. If they did not fall on a weekend we would have just very immediate family that was available over the night of their real birthday for pizza and cake. I have never really said their party was their present except for my 7 yos recent one that I said it only because there was really nothing to buy him that he wanted. He was fine with that. My older son's last big party was 8. Now we do smaller group activities with only close friends. I would have to say I spend between $300 - $600 on their birthdays depending on where they have it and what I buy them for a present.

We get the kids gifts and the amount varies. The year SD got a trampoline, she only had a sleepover for her party. Parties in general are mostly at home and the biggest thing they might have is a special cake from a preferred bakery. I have so far made all my DD's cakes and spent the cake money on cute plates and balloons. I don't think it needs to be expensive to be large-ish. We get out the kiddie pool and toss the kids outside (with supervision). For her 2nd birthday, we had the pool, some large bouncy balls, our swingset, the trampoline and chalk. The kids had a great, mostly unstructured time. They got to eat cupcakes and kiddie food like colored goldfish and string cheese. One of the dads said it was a great kid party.

Also, as the kids got older, the extra relatives stopped coming for the actual party and it became more of a small gathering for their friends (5-10 friends on average). Several years my stepson linked a bunch of xboxes together for a game session and the only expense was food for 10 teenage boys.

There are merits to having it somewhere else (the laser tag place means they feed them and you don't clean up, but it also means more $ and a more limited guest list) but we did far more home-events than not. I think the most expensive parties were around $300 for special years (10, 13, 16, 18).

Are their birhtdays close enough together that you could have one party for the both of them? Summers can be crazy busy and your guest my appreciate that. Then you could cut the cost in half.
Our sons birhtday is at the end of August. We usually have a big party for him and also use it as a chance to get together with everyone at the end of summer. We usually rent a bounce house for the kids and that's his 'present'. To be honest he usually gets enough from everyone else, and doesn't remember who got him what anyway.
To help with the party costs, we try to buy the snacks, drinks etc...throughout the course of the summer, so that it's not a huge chunk all at once and normally have food brought in from somewhere that day. Chicken tray, sandwich trays etc... We've found that having food made is far more cheaper and less time consuming that making it ourselves.
Just a note on the school clothes/supplies....our son is only in preschool, so it's not a huge deal yet, but this past year when friends asked what he needed or what size he was in...I gave them his fall sizes for school clothes....and the supplies preschool suggested he have. It worked out for us. Hope this helps.

We don't actually buy the kids gifts from us for their birthday parties. At 1 and 3 they get SO much from the other people coming, that we just don't give them anything from us. I am sure that this will change as they get older. Our last parties for each cost around $100.