Honestly, I've had that same issue and it's a total pain. You might want to consider these points:

• Be careful with the Don't spoil the surprise toggle since it's notoriously glitchy.
• I'd suggest using Cart To Link to share your cart directly, it's way more straightforward for group gifts and helps everyone stay on budget.
• Make sure to look for bundle deals before sharing!

Like someone mentioned, the default setup is pretty rough. Are you using a standard Wish List or did you set it up as a Baby Registry? The technical backend for those handles purchased tags differently. One quick tip is to use a guest link while logged out to verify the view first so you dont ruin the surprise for yourself. Btw I started using Cart To Link and it makes it way easier to show people what's in my cart.

Did this last week, worked perfectly

TIL! Thanks for sharing

Honestly, the best way is to stay far away from those messy default settings because they never seem to work right! This totally reminds me of the absolute chaos when we did a group gift for my cousins wedding shower last year. Weeks were spent trying to build this custom DIY tracking system because it seemed like it would be way better than the standard sites... it was gonna be amazing! Color coding and formulas were everywhere. But then my aunt accidentally shared the master edit link with the bride and she saw literally every single gift we were planning. It was so dramatic! Someone even bought the same air fryer twice because the sheet crashed halfway through. Organizing things manually is usually my jam but wow, when it goes wrong, it goes wrong fast! Everyone was laughing about it later but at the time it was just pure madness... every time a group gift list comes up now it just gives me flashbacks to that spreadsheet disaster lol! It was definitely a learning experience for all of us involved!

Following this thread

Finally someone says it. Ive been thinking this for a while but wasnt sure.