Reasonable spend for a kid's birthday

Smiley_Mum

What does everyone consider a reasonable spend for kid's birthday, under 10 years of age. Say presents, day out somewhere and a nice lunch somewhere. What do you consider a reasonable budget. I used to splurge terribly when it came to birthdays but trying my best to be canny just now, what with Christmas etc coming up too so any tips would be appreciated. Cake/party food etc is out, McDonald's etc as he has so many allergies. Any tips/ideas re presents, day out etc would be appreciated, or just what you would consider a reasonable spend for a birthday. Thanks everyone.

Edinburghlass_2

As my daughter has always loved animals mainly her favourite day out would be a farm/zoo type place which we did even in December when her birthday is. Wrapped the kids up warm and as long as it was dry they had a ball

As she is an only child with no extended family, I have always probably spent more than others might

NAR

Agree with presents amount.
Party in the house with at least 6 present should be possible @ £5 per head - use your imagination.
One birthday I had for my daughter involved over 20 sleeping over. Absolutely brilliant night had by all, we kept a very low profile, and it only cost a few £'s per head. The street cred she got out of it was excellent. They made their own entertainment.

Smiley_Mum

Thanks for your quick replies. I'm making up a small list of presents for him. I know he'd be over the moon with a little digital camera. It just makes me soooooo happy to see him happy, to see them both happy. He has a leap pad also, so thought of maybe upgrading to something else electronic and letting his younger brother have the leap pad. He'd be happy with a trip to Borders and the cinema but would like to do something different for him. He likes animal parks too just the only reasonable one around here is a bit too far and really need a car to get to it and around it.

Any websites that you could recommend with electronic gadgets for kids?

Thanks for your replies, appreciate it. :-)

Edinburghlass_2

Digital camera you can get for free in Comet if you go in and sign up to some telephone company, can't remember which but there is a thread about it somewhere. You can then cancel before you are connected and keep the camera

I did that with the Link, signed for some telephone company instore and was given a cordless phone then cancelled before the transfer was done!

Alternatively, if you have a largish Tesco near you they have a very neat little digital camera for just short of £40. Digital camera are great for kids as you then don't need to pay for the developing of some really bad pictures.

Can't think of anywhere particularly for boys, not having had to organise a boys birthday but will give it a bit of thought

Smiley_Mum

I did see the thread about the camera etc from Comet, unfortunately, I'm already signed up with Onetel so would be unable to take advantage of the offer. Thanks for the tip though about the Tesco one, I'll check them out next time I visit. Appreciate the info. Cheers. My son actually is quite good with taking pictures with digicams, took a lot of good pictures of me on holiday which is great for me as I usually come back with loads of the kids and none of me, he's pretty good. So I think getting him a digicam he would be thrilled with one. Thanks for the info E'lass.

Becles

I always say they can either have a party, or they can pick a special day out where we all do what the birthday child wants to do (within reason!).

Last year my eldest was 8 and wanted to Eden Camp in Yorkshire as he was learning about WWII at school. We took a picnic to eat in the museum, then went to my brothers house (he lived in York then) for an evening meal.

He initially picked Paris, but I said that was too expensive :rolleyes:

This year my OH has started a new mobile disco business, so my son would like a disco!

Edinburghlass_2

Been thinking a bit more about this, how about a trip on the train somewhere just for the day, or a bus. Bit of an adventure for us as we use the car all the time but as you don't it might not be much of an adventure

From memory I think you live a bit North of me but are there any tourist spots that you haven't visited just because they are on your door step? When Glad, Pink, Fran and Aliasojo were visiting a couple of weeks ago we did the tourist thing by doing an open-topped bus tour, ticket lasted 24 hours so you can get off and on. When we did the same tour back in January, we were wrapped up well and took a picnic onboard with us, daughter loved it.

As for meal out, how about a "grown-up" chinese buffet, where you can pick and choose what the kids eat which should help with allergies.

Bowling? one tip, let the boys beat you and that will keep them happy

Glad

Maplins have some great gadget type gifts, especially for boys,
'build your own robot/radio' etc

Gingham_Ribbon

Al_Mac wrote:

Presents £25 - £50

Party £5 - £10 a head (2/3 friends only)

Was different when we could stay in and play party games and have party food:o Cheaper.

That could mean a total of £90?! :eek: I'm suddenly very frightened of my son becoming school age!

I like the idea of staying in and playing party games but I guess that's not cool when you're 14! :rotfl:

I want to start as I mean to go on with mine. He'll be 2 in Dec and I was hoping to spend around £10 on gifts and then a bit more on an exciting day out with some friends. (Or have a couple little ones round to do painting together.) Am I being tight or does the money spent increase with their age?

This may sound mean but last year he got so many lovely toys from everyone else for his birthday and was so overwhelmed by it, that we gave the book we were going to give him to Santa Claus for his Christmas!

gizmoleeds

Glad wrote:

Maplins have some great gadget type gifts, especially for boys,
'build your own robot/radio' etc

This is true - Maplins are one of the best and least known toyshops around. I (18) have been in their shop in Leeds a few times with one of my friends for boring computer bits and we have always ended up spending more time wondering round the toys section looking at all the cool stuff!

https://www.maplin.co.uk

NB You can get 2.5% cashback too via https://www.greasypalm.co.uk, also I once haggled the checkout guy down 5% (which he appeared to be able to do from the till without authorization :cool:)