If you take your parents/inlaws out to dinner

[vanillacourage]

for their birthday and pay for their meal, do you count their meal in your total budget for their birthday?

i.e. you have $100 to spend on their birthday, you're taking them to a place that's ~$50/person, so you spend $50 on the gift that you wrap?

[ECB]

Yes.

[Deleted]

We usually just pay for the meal.

[definitelyO]

My ILs have asked us not to get them birthday presents. so the meal is the gift.

but if it were a friend - then I budget x$ for gift and x$ for dinner.

[Deleted]

We just take them out to dinner, but now that we're trying to actually stay on budget, it will probably come out of fun money or the cost of the gift.

[KaraOrNot]

No, we budget the meal separately.

[madladybride]

Yes.

[dexteroni]

My parents have never let any of us pay for a meal. But when it's someone else, no, I don't deduct the cost of the meal from their gift.

[glynn2009]

If we take them out to eat that usually is their gift.

[aspentosh]

We don't buy our parents gifts anymore unless it's a biggie (50th, 60th, etc). And my mom and I just rotate who pays. But if it were her birthday (or my Dad's) we'd just pay for it.

[futurepivko]

Yes

[Doctorblue]

We don't generally buy presents. So, the meal would be it.

[ejpint]

Not really. Usually if we see my parents, it's an overnight trip involving two meals out. It often ends up that they'll pay for dinner the first night, and we'll pay for the celebration meal, so it's a wash.

My ILs don't like to go out to eat, so it's a non-issue there.

[rex]

Absolutely.

[kittycatlove]

No gifts just a meal here.

[Deleted]

I really want to count their meal in the budget, but historically my family never has so we don't. My family makes kinda a big deal about bdays, usually a nice dinner plus a gift. We usually split the check with the other parent (i.e., split the check with Dad for Mom's bday dinner) plus get a gift. So a bday in my family usually runs DH and I about $150 :-( Plus, my whole family (mom, dad, and sister) are all born in the same month, each a week apart. DH calls it "the month of birthdays" b/c we spend every.single.weekend at a birthday celebration of some kind.

[chessie]

May 22, 2012 12:50:05 GMT -5 glynn2009 said:

If we take them out to eat that usually is their gift.

This. We don't do real gifts anymore with parents, we take them out, pay the bill for both parents, and call it a day. No one needs anything.

[The Impossible Girl]

May 22, 2012 12:50:05 GMT -5 glynn2009 said:

If we take them out to eat that usually is their gift.

This.

[chessie]

May 22, 2012 14:44:16 GMT -5 @supergreen said:

I really want to count their meal in the budget, but historically my family never has so we don't. My family makes kinda a big deal about bdays, usually a nice dinner plus a gift. We usually split the check with the other parent (i.e., split the check with Dad for Mom's bday dinner) plus get a gift. So a bday in my family usually runs DH and I about $150 :-( Plus, my whole family (mom, dad, and sister) are all born in the same month, each a week apart. DH calls it "the month of birthdays" b/c we spend every.single.weekend at a birthday celebration of some kind.

This is what I do, I only invite the bday couple only! 75 bucks tops for a nice lunch. My parents, i did not invite my siblings or their wife- it was just a gift for my parents.

[cjeanette]

If we took then out to eat that would be the gift.

[thumper55]

I just figure out what I want to spend for the gift
the dinner I would pay for without thinking about

[smiley]

We brought MIL and FIL out to dinner for Mother's Day and counted it as MIL gift. We tried to count it as FIL birthday present too because his birthday was the same week but we ended up going out to dinner again later in the week. MIL and FIL paid for that second meal.

We normally do not eat out with my parents.

[yellowbrkrd]

For a birthday we don't count it because we normally take them out.

For Mothers Day this year we took my mom out to dinner because she couldn't be at the big family gathering we had, that meal came out of our budget for her gift.

[miss1180]

my in laws aren't big on gifts, so they told us not to get them birthday gifts anymore. taking them out to a nice dinner is their gift.
the only time we buy them gifts is for christmas now, and even that is usually something pretty small that they want for their house.
same with my parents...