This is our second year now of school related parties and I'm starting to question how much I spend on gifts and what I buy. I don't like buying junky presents for kids I don't really know, and therefore don't know their parents views on plastic stuff, popular movie themed stuff etc so I tend to buy what I consider to be better quality stuff - books, jigsaw puzzles, more educational based things that are still fun but not crap IYKWIM. Don't want that to sound boring - I always buy stuff that I would (and frequently do) buy for my own kids too, its just not junk. I usually spend about $20. Between them my DDs have 7 birthday parties to go to over the course of three weeks. I know its a busy time with birthdays but the expense is really starting to add up! My own kids' birthdays are also in May so it is going to seriously blow the budget this month

So, I would love to know what everybody else does.