Graduation — How much to give?

[TipsyTraveler]

My niece’s high school graduation party is tomorrow. She’s passionate about plants and fishkeeping so I got her a token gift of a goldfish plant to tie in those two interests. The plan was to stick an envelope of cash in it, but my DH and I aren’t sure how much to give. I was thinking $100, my DH was worried $250-300 wasn’t enough. So now I’m wondering if I’m being cheap and my DH is wondering if he’s being excessive. This is the first time we’ve had to give a grad gift and we don’t have the first clue of what’s standard.

I know answers will vary, but I’m just interested in getting an idea of what other people usually give for this type of thing.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

You should do a poll!

I think for a niece, $100 would be about right.

 

[jeff_h]

Ditto, I would give $100 as well

 

[clh2]

Do you have a lot of nieces/nephews? That would help me determine whether I would go towards $100 or $250
In our case, we have 17 nieces/nephews, so we would go towards $100 for a high school graduation, and $200 for a wedding.

 

[runwad]

We do $100 for nieces and nephews, 11 of them.

 

[cassie58]

My son graduated last year and $100 was the standard from relatives and close friends who he calls "Aunt and Uncle". That is what I will be giving my goddaughter, who is also like a niece to us.

 

[katie01]

I think $100 is plenty generous

 

[quandrea]

I’m doing $100 for my two nieces this June.

 

[Deanna404]

I would say $100 would be appropriate in my area, but I live in a city. In the rural area where my sister lives (with my nieces and her husband), she told me to give the girls no more than $20 each. I expressed surprise, but she said that is what everyone in her area does.

 

[Hook326]

My nephew’s high school graduation party is tomorrow and we are giving him $200. When his brother graduates in 5 years, I’ll give him the same. We are close with them. I only have one other nephew by another sister and he also graduated this year. We didn’t send him anything as we don’t have any relationship with them (toxic situation) and haven’t for many years. If I had a lot of nephews/nieces, I would give less.

 

[tcufrog]

If it's a precedent and y'all have more nieces and/or nephews then think about how much you can afford to give them all. For example, if you had two graduate the same year and the total you can afford to give in a single year is $300, then you don't want to give any of your nieces or nephews more than $150. My cousin has 4 kids and the first one graduated from high school last May. I wanted to be fair and I knew she had twin sisters so to decide how much I would give each one, I took the maximum amount I could afford to give in a year ($300) and divided it in half. Each kid will get a gift worth $150 for graduation. That way it won't look like I'm playing favorites.

 

[ronandannette]

My niece’s high school graduation party is tomorrow. She’s passionate about plants and fishkeeping so I got her a token gift of a goldfish plant to tie in those two interests. The plan was to stick an envelope of cash in it, but my DH and I aren’t sure how much to give. I was thinking $100, my DH was worried $250-300 wasn’t enough. So now I’m wondering if I’m being cheap and my DH is wondering if he’s being excessive. This is the first time we’ve had to give a grad gift and we don’t have the first clue of what’s standard.

I know answers will vary, but I’m just interested in getting an idea of what other people usually give for this type of thing.

$100 is perfect. Save the big $$$ for when she gets married and you have to cover your plate.

 

[TipsyTraveler]

Thanks everyone! I only have two nieces but, truthfully, life is expensive right now as we’re in the process of moving and I’m not feeling as generous as I might normally. We just gave her money a few months ago for her birthday and I was hoping not to have to shell out hundreds of dollars for her graduation. I’m happy to see the consensus is that $100 is an adequate gift.

 

[DisneyOma]

I'm giving my neighbor $100 for her graduation - but that's because we've known her since she was born, and I drove her to school for 4 years! (I'm going to miss my morning buddy ) Gave much more to our niece, but we are her godparents. I think $100 for family would be a good lower limit, especially if you are close.

 

[aprilgail]

For my daughter's graduation it varied - my sister gave her 100 and my brother gave her 1,000 plus he gives her 100 a month while she is at school. My brother is a single teacher so he makes a VERY good salary and he spoils her- But I think 100.00 is perfect- most of my friends and neighbors also gave 100 and most of her friends gave between 20-40 I believe.

 

[kimmar067]

OP, when I first started reading this post, $100 popped into my head...

 

[tink1970]

DD has completed her Thank You notes from her recent HS graduation and the most frequent amount from aunts/uncles who sent her a gift was $100. That said, gifts ranged from $20-$150 from relatives. Honestly, she was just a happy with a $20 bill as she was a $150 check-it's really the sentiment expressed in the card and acknowledging the event.

 

[littlejimmy]

50 bucks.

 

[AppleDumpling]

Agree with most here. I think $100 is fine for high school graduation. (I’d give more, $150-200, for a college graduation.)

 

[TB'sWidow]

I would do $100 but family members only gave my DD who graduated last week $ 50