How to Plan Anniversary Gifts on a Budget (2026 Guide)

Key Takeaway: Plan anniversary gifts by setting one shared number with your partner, then scaling it by year: keep off years modest and save the splurges for milestones like 10, 25, and 50. The early traditional themes (paper, cotton, wood) are naturally cheap, and experiences often beat objects at any price.

Anniversary gifts are the easiest gifts to over-spend on, because the occasion repeats every year, both partners are buying, and the gift usually comes bundled with a dinner or a trip. The fix is a simple system: one shared number, a milestone map for the years ahead, and the traditional themes doing the cost control for you. Here is how to set it up, step by step.

Why Anniversary Budgets Work Differently

Most gift budgets cover one giver and one event. An anniversary is different in three ways, and each quietly inflates the cost:

• It escalates. Nobody expects the 14th anniversary to match the 25th. A flat "same amount every year" plan over-spends the off years or shortchanges the milestones.
• There are two givers in the same wallet. Buying independently, a household can pay for two splurges — or suffer the mismatch where one unwraps a weekend away and the other a card.
• The gift is only part of the bill. Dinner, a babysitter, flowers, travel — the celebration often costs more than the present.

The five steps below handle all three. (For the all-occasions version of this system, see our guide to setting a gift budget for any occasion; this article covers what is specific to anniversaries.)

Step 1: Agree on One Number — Together

The single highest-leverage move is a five-minute conversation, weeks before the date: what are we spending this year, and on what? There is no official going rate for anniversary gifts, so anchors help: Empower's 2025 survey data puts the typical spouse-to-spouse Valentine's gift at about $51 and holiday spending on a partner at about $322 — most anniversary spending falls between those two, scaled up in milestone years. And per CNBC's coverage of the same survey, 75% of Americans say gifts have gotten more expensive with inflation and tariffs — all the more reason to set the number before shopping.

Two structures work; pick whichever fits how you celebrate:

1. Matched caps. Each partner spends up to the same limit on the other (say, $60 each). Simple, fair, no mismatch.
2. One shared celebration, plus tokens. Put most of the budget into one shared line item — the dinner, the show, the night away — and cap personal gifts at something small (under $25). Usually the better deal: one great evening instead of two medium objects.

Whichever you choose, budget the whole anniversary: gift + meal + sitter + transport. That total, not the gift price, is what hits your account.

Step 2: Map the Milestone Years (When to Splurge)

Anniversary budgets should breathe — small in the off years, bigger at the milestones. The widely recognized big ones are 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50, with 20, 30, and 40 as a second tier. A simple escalation map looks like this:

Two tactics make the splurge years painless: fund milestones from the off years (trim $25-$50 from each off year and the 10th-anniversary trip is largely pre-paid when it arrives), and book milestone plans early — a trip booked eight months out costs meaningfully less than the same trip booked in a panic three weeks before the date.

For gift ideas matched to each specific year, our year-by-year guide to modern vs. traditional anniversary gifts covers every year with real picks — this article stays on the money side.

Step 3: Let the Traditional Themes Cap Your Spending

Here is the budget secret hiding in plain sight: the traditional anniversary themes for the early years are made of cheap materials on purpose. Paper, cotton, leather, flowers, wood — the tradition hands you a built-in price ceiling and makes a modest gift look intentional rather than stingy.

Notice what these have in common: under about $30 each, and the value comes from the keying — the gift visibly matches the year, which reads as thought, not cost. A $15 paper gift that references your first year together beats a generic $75 gadget. When you want the theme gift personalized — engraving, photos, custom prints — our guide to personalized anniversary gifts includes budget picks in most categories; for more ways to make inexpensive gifts land well, see how to give thoughtful gifts without overspending.

The flip side: the later themes (silver at 25, gold at 50) are expensive materials — the tradition agreeing with your milestone map. Those are the years the off-year savings exist for.

Step 4: Decide: Experience or Item?

For couples specifically, the research leans one way. Cornell University psychologists found that experiential purchases deliver more lasting happiness than material ones — and that even anticipating an experience feels better than anticipating a thing. An anniversary is a shared memory machine, so an experience usually buys more joy per dollar than an object.

The budgeting advantage is that experiences scale to any number:

• Under $25: a picnic that recreates your first date, a sunrise hike, a movie night with the film from the year you married.
• $25-$75: a weekday-lunch tasting menu instead of Saturday dinner (often half the price), a class together, a local show.
• $75-$200: a one-night off-season getaway, or a nice dinner plus a small theme gift.
• Milestone years: the trip you pre-funded in Step 2.

Off-peak is the cheat code: the same restaurant or hotel costs less on a Tuesday in March than a Saturday in June. If your anniversary lands in peak season, mark the date with a token gift and book the experience for the off-peak weekend after. For milestone years, a hybrid works well: one shared experience plus a small, theme-keyed keepsake — something to unwrap and something to remember.

Step 5: Plan Early and Track Both Sides

Anniversary over-spending is usually last-minute spending: rush shipping, full-price flowers, the only restaurant with a table left. A little infrastructure fixes it:

• Put the date — and a lead-time reminder — on a calendar you actually check. GiftList's Occasions calendar lets you add custom occasions like your anniversary and sends advance reminders, so planning starts weeks out instead of days. Create a free account and add the date once; it reminds you every year.
• Keep a wishlist each, all year. When your partner saves ideas to a GiftList wishlist as they think of them — and flags a "Most Wanted" item — you stop guessing, and guessing is the expensive part.
• Let AI work inside your cap. Tell Genie, GiftList's free AI gift finder, the year, your partner's interests, and your limit ("10th anniversary, she loves gardening, under $50") and it suggests real products with live prices.
• Compare prices before you buy. GiftList shows live price comparisons across retailers like Amazon, Walmart, and Target — the same item is often cheaper one store over.
• Log what you spend. A two-line note per year ("gift $48, dinner $85") tells you what your anniversaries really cost — and what to pre-fund for the next milestone.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• Flat-budgeting every year. Spending $100 every single year means the 10th feels like the 7th. Smaller off years, funded milestones.
• Budgeting the gift but not the evening. The dinner-sitter-flowers stack routinely doubles the real cost. Budget the occasion, not the object.
• Both partners guessing. Two independent splurges — or one splurge and one card — are both budget failures. Have the five-minute conversation.
• Equating money with effort. On theme years, a keyed $20 gift with a story beats an unkeyed $80 one.
• Starting the week of. Late planning forfeits sales, off-peak rates, and shipping time — a deadline tax on every line item.
• Skipping the year entirely "to save money." A letter and a planned evening at home cost almost nothing and still mark the year. If kids make going out hard, our guide to planning an anniversary with kids at home has low-cost ways to protect the night.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much should you spend on an anniversary gift?

There is no official going rate for anniversaries. Most couples land between $50 and $100 in off years and spend more in milestone years like 10, 25, and 50. For perspective, Empower's 2025 survey found spouses spend about $51 on Valentine's Day gifts and roughly $322 on a partner across the holidays.

Which anniversary years should you splurge on?

The classic splurge years are 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50, with 20, 30, and 40 as secondary milestones. Keep the in-between years modest and intentional — a card, a theme-based gift, a dinner at home — so the milestone years have room in the budget to be genuinely memorable.

What are the cheapest traditional anniversary gifts?

The earliest traditional themes are naturally inexpensive: paper for year 1, cotton for year 2, leather for year 3, fruit and flowers for year 4, and wood for year 5. A handwritten letter, printed photos, a cotton throw, or a small potted plant all honor the tradition for under $30.

Is an experience or a physical gift better for an anniversary?

Cornell University research finds experiences tend to deliver more lasting happiness than material purchases — even anticipating them feels better. Experiences also scale to any budget: a picnic recreating your first date can mean more than an expensive object. Many couples pair a small keepsake with a shared experience.

Should couples set an anniversary gift budget together?

Yes. Agreeing on a number — or on a structure like one shared celebration plus small token gifts — prevents the awkward mismatch where one partner hands over a weekend trip and the other a card. It also keeps the anniversary from quietly wrecking that month's regular budget.

How do you celebrate an anniversary on a budget with kids at home?

Trade babysitting with another couple, celebrate at home after bedtime with a takeout tasting menu, or move the date to a weekday lunch while the kids are at school. Put the budget toward time together first and the gift second — the gift can be small when the evening is protected.

Make Next Year's Anniversary Cheaper Than This One

Agree on the number, map your milestones, let the traditional themes do the cost control, choose experiences when in doubt, and plan early enough to skip the deadline tax. Then set it up once — create a free GiftList account, add your anniversary to the Occasions calendar, and start a wishlist each. Next year, the reminder arrives early, the ideas are already saved, and the budget conversation takes thirty seconds.