How Much Should You Spend On A Baby Shower Gift?

June 27, 2016

CleverDude_babyshowerpic

My wife and I spent part of our Friday evening gift shopping for a baby shower she was invited to the next day. The expecting mother was registered at several nearby stores including Walmart, Target, and Babies ‘R Us.

With Babies ‘R Us already closed, we started our search for the perfect gift at Target. We printed out the registry, and as one might expect given it was the night before the actual shower, every item was either already purchased or could only be purchased online. Procrastination had not served us well.

When we got to Walmart, we accessed the registry online and browsed through the lengthy list of items that had not yet been purchased. We were in luck, there was plenty to choose from. It was at that time I verbalized the inevitable question.

“How much are we looking to spend on this gift?"

An infinite number of answers can be found by searching the internet. I found some suggesttions of $100, some a little less or a little more. One site used a complicated formula based on a persons salary and size of their family. I then found the answer that made the most sense to me.

How much you spend on a baby shower gift should depend upon two things:

How well you know the parents-to-be.
How much you can afford, and feel comfortable spending

With those two things in mind, and our current financial allocations,b my wife and I have a two tier pricing structure when it comes to baby shower gifts. The lower tier falls into the $25-$40 range for people we wouldn’t consider close. The higher tier is for people in our inner circle of friends or family and commands a price range between $40 and $70.

In this specific case, we’ve known the mother-to-be almost her entire life. We picked out a vibrating bouncy chair as well as a package of pacifiers, and a really cute onesie. All together the bill came to just over $60.

The gifts were nice, needed, and fit within our budget. Nobody should dictate the correct amount to spend on a baby shower gift. It should come from the heart, and fit within the budget.

How about you Clever Friends, how do you determine how much to spend on a baby shower gift?