How Much To Spend On A Birthday Gift For A Friend

So if you actually want to know how much to spend on a birthday gift for a friend. There are no fixed rules regarding the cost of birthday gifts. This guide actually makes it easy to plan, budget, purchase birthday gifts. And make your actual friends and family happy without breaking the bank.

Part of the problem is that it’s hard to know how much to spend on a gift. Most budgets include groceries, utilities, rentals, or mortgages, but not birthday gifts.

Beware of the typical birthday gift costs

If you fall into this trap, the cost of gifts will increase. However, a gift worth $100 isn’t more meaningful than a gift worth $10. It’s the gift that counts.

Statistically, people tend to buy expensive items as birthday gifts.

According to online studies, 35% of respondents paid $ 40-100 per gift. This means that five gifts can cost up to $500. If you don’t set limits or a budget for gift shopping, you can quickly lose control of birthday gift spending. However, you can quickly change your budget to avoid buying excess gifts.

Part of the reason is the change of ideas. Instead of impressing or making up for the time, you don’t spend it with your friends, family, and children. And other relatives need to learn how to make a gift with the joy of doing it.

However, spending money on individual gifts is still unavoidable. If so, you can use some tricks to buy thoughtful and practical gifts like the pros.

Know your budget and know how much you will spend

The cost of birthday gifts will skyrocket, with no hard limit on the amount you can spend. Before setting limits on availability. You need to create a budget to see how much you can responsibly allocate for gifts.

Calculate your last month’s salary and add it up to determine your monthly salary. If your income fluctuates due to hourly wages or commissions, add four months of salary. And divide by four to get your monthly quota.

Determine a fixed cost by adding up the rent you must pay each month. For example, rent, utilities, insurance, vehicle bills, and other bills.

If the number is positive, you can determine the comfort level of the monthly gift. This amount should be low enough not to affect your ability to save.

Make a budget for birthday gifting

As with other bills, enter a monthly budget for the amount of your birthday. So you don’t have to end up or buy expensive gifts at the last minute before someone’s busy day.

Plan extra cash and give yourself some extra money.  We recommend adding extra padding to this number (like $20). To offset birthday expenses, you might have unknowingly left off the list.

This way, if your real best friend from college said that you are going to party in town on your birthday. You can get a present (or another unexpected greeting) from him without spending any money.

This extra money can also be used to improve virtual birthday gifts. Such as when a parent turns 50 or celebrating a children’s 16th birthday is very cute.

A firm budget is the backbone of any smart money management (including gifts).

By knowing the amount, you can responsibly allocate for birthday gifts. You can be sure not to spend too much money.

Fortunately, tech-savvy people can use Lars Peterson’s budget tool on the US News list to ease the budgetary burden. You can use apps like Mint to automatically track and classify expenses.

Make a list of birthdays to find the best time to buy gifts.

A deeper understanding of an upcoming birthday will help you manage time; eliminate the need to buy gifts. And manually create gifts at low prices. For example, on Black Friday or New Year’s promotions. Urgent timing concerns.

Use technology to create birthday lists

We recommend that you track the next birthday of everyone you care about quickly. If you want to attend a gathering of friends or family, don’t be surprised. Because you don’t have to buy expensive gifts at the last minute to find out whose birthday is coming.

Use a simple formula to determine how much you will spend on different birthdays

Even if you know how much you will spend on a birthday present, it is difficult to decide who to spend it on.

Limiting birthday gifts’ expense means that if you buy an excellent gift for your spouse or another important person. You spend on gifts for close friends, co-workers, children, or relatives. It means less money.

This will provide you with an annual birthday present guide. Ranking of upcoming birthdays by the importance

First, list all the birthdays you need a gift for this year. Give each person a score from 1 to 10. Of these, 10 are the most important gifts, and one is the least important.

Providing experience, not gifts

If you want a more meaningful gift, you can try to remember the happiest memories. Most people are probably doing something, be it camping with friends, family vacation, parties.

This will help you get a better gift for less money.

For example, a music-loving kid in your life might appreciate some $50 concert tickets to see his favorite band play drums worth over $200.

Avoid these common pitfalls and make great gifts

Let us solve the mistakes people often make when buying gifts. We propose many ways to avoid giving scary gifts. After actually asking many people on Facebook and Twitter about bad holiday gifts, we provided useful tips for donors.

Don’t give recipients gifts that suggest adverse effects, such as gym memberships, self-help books, deodorants, or other gifts of this nature. He also tells people to avoid overly practical gifts and warns that gifts can only be redone if done correctly.

Save money by buying gifts in advance

If you find a deal for an item, it will be an excellent gift for your next birthday. So even if the party has been over several months, please buy it now.

When the store is closed, on sale in the new semester, Black Friday, or any other price drop, please pay attention to these unique gifts. When shopping smartly, you will find many beautiful gifts at affordable prices.

Save money by buying the same gift for multiple people

Similarly, uying multiple items and offering them to different people. This actually saves you money and allows you to deal with many gracious gifts at once. For example, if you know many ambitious artists and see low prices on canvas, please buy many things and give them away for the rest of the year.

Become a great gift giver through practice

As stated in the previous section, you should avoid giving gifts that are too practical. However, there are some correct ways to make suitable gifts. And these types of gifts may be some of the recipient’s favorite gifts.

If you give people a gift that they really need, then you will make them happy.

Listen to your friends and family. If they often talk about how easy life is with the new ice scraper, or if they openly seek out the steel whistle needed for work, then you are very practical for them and should give a gift.

Get great discounts and save money with gift cards

For acquaintances that are not particularly interested or challenging to buy, gift cards are ideal gifts. You can save money by purchasing gift cards second-hand, looking for gift cards to sell, replacing unused gift cards with new gift cards, and using them as gifts.

How to trade used gift cards

eBay and other online retailers often stock large quantities of used gift cards at relatively high discounts. However, buying gift cards online means that you risk buying sold-out gift cards from scammers.

This is why we recommend always seeking a money-back guarantee when purchasing gift cards on these sites. Even if your gift card balance is insufficient, you can still get a refund.

This is usually not a problem because many online gift card retailers require sellers to check their gift card balances. If you want to ensure that you receive the amount paid when you purchase a gift card online, Raise Marketplace provides a comprehensive guide to check the gift card balance you get from various vendors and retailers.

Find a new gift card to bargain

If you do not want to resell gift cards, we recommend that you consult online retailers (e.g., Amazon) or physical stores (e.g., Staples) for gift card discounts.

These sellers usually lower the price of gift cards for many popular stores and services during the holidays, so please check the prices around that time and store the gifts on the card in advance.

Exchange unused gift cards for new gifts

Another option for actually finding great deals on gift cards: use online card swap marketplaces to trade gift cards that aren’t being used for new gift cards into gifts. The article mentioned sites like CardCash, where users can exchange unused gift cards between these sites.

Whether you buy an old or new one or exchange it for a gift card, these tips can actually help you save money on one of the most popular gifts.

Take a DIY approach to getting meaningful and reasonably priced gifts.

Homemade and Handmade gifts can be some of the most thoughtful gifts. They let the recipient actually know that you care enough for them to spend some time creating items for them on a busy schedule and usually cost a lot less than the items bought in the store. It is also actually cheaper to go with a DIY gift than buying one a the store.

Make sure you value DIY gifts appropriately

Although DIY gifts are generally cheaper than purchased gifts, be sure to include any costs for their materials in your birthday gift budget. If homemade gifts require frequent trips to craft stores to retrieve expensive items, the packages will cost a lot of money too. Just because you haven’t received a gift from the store doesn’t mean it’s free. So make sure your DIY project does not go overboard. 

Know when you can make homemade gifts

Some people may wonder if it is appropriate to give homemade food for someone’s birthday. Fortunately, according to Life hacker’s Alan Henry, the answer is almost always yes.

As long as you answer “yes” to the following two questions, you can hand make a gift as long as you have the crafting skills and think the gift will be appreciated.

How to make awesome DIY gifts using apps and technology

You can also consider making birthday playlists as gifts on Spotify or Google Play based on the recipient’s likes. So if the DIY gifts are made with crafts or online tools, you can use your time and talents to get inexpensive and meaningful gifts.

Common questions and answers

Conclusion

We hope to thoroughly answer how you should spend on a birthday gift for a friend with the above guide. Follow our tips, and you cannot go wrong with your gift-giving.