What the Kids Are Paying for Prom
This year, families with teens are expected to spend an average of $1,078 on prom, up from $807 last year, according to data from a survey released today by Visa that includes results based on a thousand telephone interviews conducted at the end of last month.
“This is social-arms-race spending. It’s extreme,” says Jason Alderman, director of Visa’s financial education programs.
Spending has been driven to never-before-seen levels as teens are influenced by everything from celebrities and reality TV to the prevalence of social media, experts say.
Linda Korman, advertising director for Seventeen Promand Teen Prom, says teen girls view prom as their “red-carpet moment” and are “heavily influenced” by celebrities who walk actual red carpets in designer gowns.
Wait. What? Why are high school students spending more than $1,000 to go to a school dance? I remember going to my senior prom a little over a decade ago, and I didn’t know anyone who spent more than a few hundred dollars to buy a ticket to the dance, find something to wear, and grab some dinner before the party.
Actually, a lot of girls I knew scouted out prom dresses at the mall, and then went home and made the dresses themselves with some help from the artsy kids who knew how to sew. And I didn’t go to a high school in a small town in the Midwest—I went to high school in the O.C. (yes, that O.C.).
I rented a black and white tuxedo jacket for $30 (money I earned working at the mall) that I wore with some other things I already owned, and thought I looked great because high school boys sometimes have a lot of confidence that comes from nowhere. I probably should have thought more about how I looked because despite being in the marching band, and student council, and being the sort of person who loved doing my homework, I found myself being nominated for prom king. But seriously, if I have a kid one day who asks me for $1,000 to go to the prom, I’m going to laugh really hard, and then hand my kid enough money to buy a ticket to the prom, a little something more to get something nice to wear, and then tell the kid to dip into his or her savings if the kid wants anything more (my kid will totally have a savings account).
I remember skipping my prom because I was a hippie and nobody cool was going to it.
@Trilby Same! I went to an amusement park with my lesbian friend (the school wouldn’t let her bring her girlfriend – ah, the suburbs) and had a BLAST. Also, cost a shitload less than the dress/limo/whatever would have.
I went to prom about a decade ago, and, um, it was super-expensive? Dress, manicure, ticket, limo, hotel, amusement park ticket for the day after prom …..
Oh, wait. I grew up on Long Island, where nothing makes sense.
Also, The Great Ankle Injury occurred a week before prom, so I was on crutches/in a wheelchair the entire time.
17 year-old me was an idiot. Not much has changed.
I read this headline as “what the kids are paying for porn” and was about to get outraged. “Paying for porn? Nobody should pay for porn! I thought you people were ‘digital natives’!”
@jfruh That’s exactly what I read it as too. And I thought, “Kids know how to use the internet! They don’t need to pay for it.”
@jfruh I came in here 12 hours late to make this comment.
Ok, I went to Prom in 2007. I had just turned 18 and thus was finally able to dip into some money in my name that I wasn’t able to (legally) before becoming an adult. I got a $400 dress for $250 and a pair of awesome marc jacobs wedges for $150, my father did design work for a department store at the time so that was after a discount. While I’m sure my parents wouldn’t have funded such extravagant purchases, newly money-holding Jobeans would! So $400 for my outfit, $70 for my prom ticket, $30 for hair and my friends and I all took the subway there. All in all I spent $500 but I still love the dress and the shoes I bought and wear them often enough, so no regrets. Prom was pretty lame though.
I went in…2004? I think? And maybe spent $150 all told. No wait, maybe 200, I had to get new shoes. And my parents did not pay for it. Maybe my Dad bought me the shoes, but I remember they were on sale.
Of course your kid will have a savings account Mike Dang. Of course.
I worked for a photography studio in the O.C. (yes, that O.C.) for many years and prom was one of the few times of year that we made serious money. Those teenagers would pay up to a hundred bucks for a couple of 5×7′s and some wallets that cost less than 3 dollars to produce.
I went almost a decade ago and hung out with a frugal crowd who all had minimum wage jobs. Drove all my girlfriends to the Jessica McClintock outlet to buy $10-50 dresses, friend drove his mom’s van to transport 4 couples, and ate at some teppenyaki place showing up to prom smelling like bbq. Awesome time on the cheap.
Kids have higher standards these days. Have you checked out a hs yearbook recently? Fewer awkward photos, more fashionable kids who can pass as 20-something.