Wide Open Wallet
An honest look at family finances
Kid’s birthdays
Author: Ashley20 Jun
My niece and nephew both have birthdays coming up. And if they are anything like my kids (and I’m sure they are) they already have every toy in the store. I mean, both my kids have Christmas presents they haven’t even opened yet. It just seems so wasteful to go out and buy more toys for them. Buying them a toy is more an exercise in finding something they don’t already have, rather than finding them something I think they would like.
The best idea I can come up with is to buy the kids something small and open a savings account with the rest of the money I would have spent. But that seems so “grandmaish”. Plus, I would have to open it in my name and put the kids on as co owners. And that seems kinda cheesy. So I don’t know.
Anyone out there have any good ideas for this type of situation? I can’t be the only person to face this dilemma.
pic by: Inferis
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3 Responses for "Kid’s birthdays"
Okay, I paint piggy banks. You could get them a small (or large) piggy bank this year, and then give them money to put in it every year after….(yeah, just a small plug : )
Also, if you ever need a picture of a piggy bank for a post, feel free to use one of mine. I would be honored : )
Lynn
Korff Ceramic Originals
I dont know how close you live to them, but buy them a ‘day’. I have 9 cousins on one side of the family, and so for Christmas, my parents would buy everyone tickets to a provincial hockey game and we would all go together. One year, they took all the boys rockclimbing for a night in January as their present. It doesn’t really matter what it is, it’s just time spent together, doing something. If they’re younger, a zoo, a waterpark or something with fun slides/watersprays, etc…
I just went through this with my own nephew. He’s just turned one, so I didn’t really feel obligated to get him ’stuff’ since he’ll never even remember it (and he sure doesn’t need anything). I opened a 529 plan for him, which his grandma(my mother) also contributed to. I will probably continue to contribute to that instead of giving him gifts or go half and half. It may be kind of grandmaish, but I’m going to be the rich aunt that teaches him good money management. Also the cool aunt with the awesome computers and cars.
And if he doesn’t want to go to college when he’s older, I’ll cash it out to him when he’s 25, or earlier if he gives me a good reason why I should. Like if he wanted to open a car restoration or repair service (his dad’s a big classic car junkie) and could show me a sound business plan.
P.S. I love Jills idea too.
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