Yesterday was my youngest son’s 1st birthday! For weeks my wife and I struggled to figure out what to get him. We have almost every toy imaginable that a 1 year old boy would want to play with from our first son. We also have so many clothes that are in good condition from our older son that he doesn’t really need any new ones. The struggle was that there really wasn’t anything to buy for him. We didn’t want to go out and buy a bunch of things that he would use for a few months just to buy him something. At the same time, we didn’t want to favor either child so we felt like we needed to do something.
My wife and I have been frugal people for a very long time. However, when our first son was born 4 1/2 years ago, we had a major meltdown. We bought every type of toy and clothing item you can think of. Add on top of it some very proud grandparents who wanted to spoil their first born grandson and we had a basement full of almost brand new toys. We didn’t want to make the same mistake again for our younger son. The following list is the plan that we came up with on our son’s birthday gifts -
- Family Gifts - Are boys are fortunate enough to have excellent grandparents who love to spoil their grandsons. We let them (along with other family members) buy him all the fun toys that we may not have had. Grandparents tend not to be frugal with their grandchildren. I think it is more important to them to see the smile on their grandchild’s face when opening a present. My wife and I feel that if they want to spoil the kids, then let them! Our son had a blast opening up all of these gifts but soon ran out of interest so it didn’t matter if we bought him anything or not.
- Keepsake - We did purchase a few small keepsake items (i.e. piggy bank, cross) for our son that he could keep forever. These were small purchases and I think it made my wife feel better that we got him something he could hold on to forever.
- Water Toy - Our son loves the water so we purchased a water table toy that he can play with outside. This was one type of toy that we didn’t previously have and we actually got it on clearance because the stores are trying to move out all of their summer toys.
- 529 Plan - Instead of buying a bunch of new toys that will be used for a few months and then sit in the garage or attic, we are investing additional money into our son’s 529 Plan. We have a 529 plan setup for both of our son’s college education and figured that he could use the money while in college more than he could use a new toy!
How do you spend on children or adults who have everything?
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Dawn 07.21.08 at 11:44 am
My mother is the hard one. If she wants something, she just buys it. I’ve been trying to get her memberships to local arts organizations like the symphony and the botanical gardens.
Scott @ The Passive Dad 07.21.08 at 1:50 pm
The 529 plan is a wonderful gift for the whole family. I finally opened another one for my son and had to play catch-up to match his sister. I got a little lazy with our son’s account, and put it off for 2 years. Great job getting one started for your son so early. What company did you use? I opened one through Vanguard for my son and they also have a Upromise link to the account- Even more ways to save.
passivefamilyincome 07.21.08 at 10:29 pm
Dawn - We buy my in-laws theater tickets (Purple Rose) and things like that. They love that kind of stuff and don’t need any material items.
Scott - We have the kids 529 plans setup through Fidelity. I have $250 per month automatically invested in each of their accounts. The $500 bill adds up but I always put our tax return to work in those accounts. This year we got back a good chunk, so I only need to come up with $50 per child per month.