I am going broke buying gifts for parties my girls have been invited to this year. Up until recently, parties were for friends that they have had for years, and I generally spend $15-20 on a gift. However this year it seems there are invites for girls they just met this school year, and there are many of them. I am glad they are making new friends, but certainly cannot afford to keep this up!

I am wondering what your general rule is for gift spending and if you had any good affordable gift ideas for 11-13 year old girls. Thanks..

Gift Cards.

Fashion jewelry also seems popular around here, too.

Lisa

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"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

I just always have my radar out for my nieces. I like to send them what I call junk boxes throughout the year.

They are almost 11 and almost 8...a little younger than your age group, but my best advice is to be watching all the time. Keep the stuff in a drawer or closet shelf and be ready. Plus, you won't have to run out and buy on short notice.

Check the clearance areas at Walgreens and Target especially. Once in a while I am at a craft store and check their clearance and use a 40 or 50% off coupon on something regular price, they have all kinds of craft projects. You can usually pull together a nice assortment of lotions, body wash, sponge, emery boards, etc for a pampering gift. Or, stickers, sticker books, markers, scrapbooking material, etc.

Another easy one is a disposable camera and photo frames or book, or those photo boxes.

dl

We just had two parties last weekend for my d/d to attend. It does add up! I went to American Eagle since they were having a good sale, coupled with buy one get one 1/2 off. I bought two hoodies on sale for $19.95 each, so it was a total of $30 and the girls loved them.

I also hold on to the Michaels' 50% off coupons or AC Moore's coupons and look for things the girls would enjoy.

How about $1 per year. It is a little cheaper then $15 to $20 each. And what kid doesn't like cash. Do all $1 bills so it looks like more.

Watch Claire's and Icings---They have 10 items for $5 4 to 5 times a year. You can stock up on items that tweens/early teens love!

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"Well-Behaved Women SELDOM make history."Laurel Thatcher Ulrich


"Yesterday is but a vision, and tomorrow is only a dream. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a dream of hope." Anonymous

"Your candle does not lose it's light by lighting another candle" Generosity

Have the courage to be yourself.

I have 3 girls attending parties all the time too it seems, and of course they want to go to every one. I watch for things on clearance throughout the year. Kohls has an awesome clearance. For kids we 'barely know', my limit is absolutely $10 or under (the more 'under' I can get the better). Sometimes I just do a $10 giftcard or cash and be done. Boy it does add up, and I have pretty much told my kids that they are going to have to pick/choose this year as money is tight tight for us right now (for just about everyone I guess). That age group LOVES the $4 posters & add in some stationery or something of the sort, etc. If you find a GREAT deal on something, get as many as you can afford at one time and put it away in the gift closet. We have had on average about 1 party per child since they started school (I'm talking about my own kids having a party of their own, so we have went to wayyyy more than we have invited to, if that makes sense--well, my 2nd grader hasn't had one yet with friends even). Parties have just been an extra we can't do for now; well, not the way the kids all want them these days anyway. It's just too expensive when every child in this area has the big $300 blow-out every single year. We have a lot of very wealthy people in this area. This year we are doing a sleepover for my going to be 10 year old. That's it. Didn't we all love those better anyway as kids?!

My DD and her friends LOVED sleepovers!! And they can be very economical...Papa John's pizza, popcorn, rented (or better yet if you have it, NetFlix movies). Go to the dollar store and get stuff for "makeovers" etc. Just prepare for late night into early morning giggles!

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"Well-Behaved Women SELDOM make history."Laurel Thatcher Ulrich


"Yesterday is but a vision, and tomorrow is only a dream. But today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness, and every tomorrow a dream of hope." Anonymous

"Your candle does not lose it's light by lighting another candle" Generosity

Have the courage to be yourself.

I try to limit the amount, too, as it gets out of line with more and more parties each year. Although most teenagers already have digital cameras already, some of the younger girls don't yet. If the child doesn't have a digital camera, a great gift is disposable cameras and a photo album. Walmart has small plastic albums with cute pics on the front (kittens, etc.) that are only about 96 cents. The disposable cameras are inexpensive also. For less than $10 you could give a camera and album or maybe even two depending on the cameras you choose. The kids could take pictures at the party and then the birthday girl would have an album to remember her party by.

I have three teenage nieces and I buy tops jewelry purses etc throughout the year for boxes I send. At Holiday time it's all about Gift Cards.

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The political system is broke and it's a joke.

Just like everyone else said, I had a gift box stored in the closet of different items I would buy throughout the year on sale. It would include frames, scrapbooking items, lots of lotions and soaps from Bath and Body Works....sometimes they go on sale for 75% off WOOT, books, candles, notepads, cool pens, maybe even really fun stuffed animals, shirts, etc.

Sometimes it's fun to pack everything of one color theme.....just jam packed with things.
The girls always liked the presents and it would be so much fun to count up the prices and see I might have spent only $5, lol.

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I have a 12 yo daughter that is constantly getting invited to parties too. We too have done the "keep a box in the closet" thing but most recently she has found that she enjoys going to the dollar store and buying one the small crates that holds cds and then we pick up candy,etc. here and there (on sale of course) and fill the crate. Usually we include a soda (or energy drink) in the middle and work around that. One party she went to the girl was turning thirteen so we went to a store that sold bulk candy and bought 13 of everything (smaller sized candies like candy necklaces, lipsticks,etc.). We bought one of the shrink wrappers from the dollar store, wrapped it up and tied a ton of ribbon on it. She loved it! She started doing this after she received one filled with her favorite gum and chocolates and we have been doing this ever since. If you get things on sale it could cost $10.00 or less...

I have pre-tween boys, but here are some ideas that come to mind....
- journal and a fun pen
- arts & crafts supplies
- picture frame
- pampering stuff -- lotion, shower gel, bubble bath, lip gloss,
- $10 gift card
- fun t-shirt or hoodie
- inexpensive purse or tote bag
- costume jewelry
- bucket filled with school supplies

TONS of great ideas here. I especially like the disposable camera/scrapbook idea for tween girls and I had been buying Bath and Bodyworks stuff at full price (for shame )

I am glad to know i'm not the only one who has to has to economize on gifts. I used to do the "gift closet" in preschool, but had stopped. I had been scrambling at the last minute and spending too much. I am definitely going to take advantage of Claire's, Michaels and Kohl's sales/coupons.

Thanks for taking the time to respond.