Money Maxims: The Prom

By David Pilley on May 15, 2012

The prom. A night for high-schoolers to “dance.” A night where most sitcoms joke about “getting lucky” (or not getting lucky). Even an event in which an episode of the popular TV show Family Guy devoted about two minutes for a crude song. The media has multiple portrayals of the high school prom, and the ultimate conclusion is that the prom is something high school seniors need. The prom seems to be a rite of passage, something a teen has to experience in order to become a fully-functioning, empathetic adult. Those who don’t go to their prom are viewed as missing out. In 2007, actress Drew Barrymore famously threw a promenade-themed party for a friend who had “missed” her senior prom.

I didn’t go to my high school prom. It fell on my 18th birthday. It was a Friday, a half-day of school. It rained the entire day, and, with a high temperature of 55 degrees F, it was the coldest May 6 on record at the Raleigh/Durham International Airport. I don’t remember these facts because it was the prom. I remember them because it was a big birthday.

I have no regrets from not going to my senior prom. I didn’t miss out on “getting lucky,” and I certainly didn’t miss out on fraternizing with my fellow classmates of which, seven years later, 99% percent of I have lost contact. Of the peers I’ve met in my life so far through high school and college, only three are married to their high school sweetheart. Many of my peers have married people they met in college, and many are still single. The prom isn’t as life-changing as the media wants you to think, but it could potentially be, depending on how much money you, the parent, spend on it!

The credit card company Visa does a survey each year gauging how much the average parent spends on a high school junior or senior who attends the prom.  This year’s study is based on 1,000 telephone interviews, and Visa found the average amount spent on the prom to be $1,078! This is a sharp jump from $807 in 2011, and the amount varies greatly in different sections of the country. The average amount spent in the Northeast is nearly double the country’s average, at $1,994, while Midwestern families spend an average of just $696. The overall average of $1,078 is enough to cover half a semester’s tuition at a typical in-state public university!

The most shocking information Visa revealed is that some lower-income families (between $20,000 and $30,000 incomes) will spend an average of $2,635 for the prom. That’s more than an entire month’s salary for these families! The article goes into further detail of one individual girl’s expenses. A $379 dress, for starters. A matching necklace and earrings, a $700 limousine drive, the prom tickets themselves (costing $75). $28 for a spray tan, $50 for hair, and, of course, a photo package to remember forever how happy you were spending over a thousand dollars on one night. The article allows us some respite the family isn’t going completely in debt over the dance, as the girl will be wearing the same $40 pair of shoes from last year’s prom.

Hey, you can spend money on your son or daughter to go to the prom. It’s your child, and it’s not my place to say what you should or shouldn’t do for him or her, especially since I don’t have any children of my own. However, you are still in the process of teaching your son or daughter responsibility. Your son or daughter should be aware of how much you are spending, not to make him/her feel guilty, but to make him/her realize you care about them. The real world involves making tough decisions, and spending over $1,000 on a social event may hurt your financial situation just as much as a late payment on a credit card. It’s especially something to think about five years from now, when your son or daughter has lost contact with his/her high school friends and has little recollection of what occurred on that night in May.

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Image adapted from original by Jan Sundstedt