Posted on 04/17/2012 6:41:29 AM PDT by C19fan
It's prom season again, and this year families with teens are expected to spend an average of $1,078 for their child's Cinderella night . This figure is up from $807 last year, according to data from a survey released today by Visa, based on 1,000 telephone interviews conducted at the end of last month Jason Aldreman, senior director of global financial education at Visa Inc, said in a statement: 'Prom season spending is spiraling out of control as teens continuously try to one-up each other.'
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Spending beyond their means, those who make between $20,000 and $29,999 a year will spend more than $2,600. (Emphasis Mine)
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
proms are stupid
and what kind of freaking morons are buyin liquor and hotel rooms for their kids?
Those who think that obtaining a dumbed down certificate is worth thousands....same who spend 30K on a wedding.
BTW, how many of those spending upwards of a K for these events come from a family on some sort of public assistance from Food stamps, to WIC, to medicaid to housing. It galls me to no end that in effect I am paying for this crap.
$1,000 for a Wedding Dress - ok ... it’s stiff, but I could go along with that.
But, $300+ for a Prom Dress .... hey, sweatheart, you want that Prom dress, I suggest you get a job babysitting, at the grocery store, fast food, theater or retail store and save your own money.
This Daddy ain’t shelling that much out for a dress they will likely wear once, and never wear again. I work too hard for my money.
My daughter says most of the girls aren’t saying, “I got the cutest blue dress you’ve ever seen!” They’re saying, “I got a $750 dress.” That told me where their heads were at!
She got a high-quality dress from last year’s line for $150. (She also gets a $75 credit to the store if she returns it for resale later.) Prom wheels are a pickup truck, not a limo. Fishing at the river with her date and friends is the after-prom activity of choice.
No one is going to look any more beautiful or have more fun no matter how much they spend. :-)
Schools should have nothing to do with “proms”. Taxpayers should not spend a penny on them for sure.
They may be broke but thye are not poor. Stupid, certainly.
There’s a reason most poor people are poor.
What do you expect — kids are fed Hollywood images of their fav celebs donning gowns and throwing lavish parties all day long.
Whatever happened to the days of holding it in the high school gym?
Now, if you don’t rent the limo, hold it on some cruise ship somewhere, you’re nobodies.
I find seeing high school girls dressed up in overly sequined gowns with cleavage to their navels a bit silly looking as well.
Nowadays, what the difference between a wedding dress and a prom dress anyway, just a veil? Total flesh parade...even at your wedding?
Even if they’re not on welfare, their money comes too easy.
Then she sold (not gave) it to her little sis for her prom. To this day, neither one will disclose the sales price to papa even though I kid them about it from time to time.
Sounds like a red neck prom...
Man I wish I was a kid again cuz it sounds fun..
I remember going to prom in my 1978 primer gray Camaro...
I think we all went to someones parents cabin for the night. I think my total spent for the prom was about 150 bucks. Of that my parents provided 0.00 dollars. I earned the rest.
330.00 for prom dress . . . alterations extra.
skipped prom freshman, sophomore and junior year . . . thought it would be more special IF she waited for senior year. Her decision. Most of her friends, this will be their 4th prom . . . starting freshman year by dating upper classmen . . . some go to TWO proms per year IF date attends a different high school . . . they go to both proms.
No hotel. No liquor. No limo.
She’s earned 4 years tuition so far, some we don’t know about yet that might be applied to housing. So 330.00, I’ll gladly pay it. I didn’t go to my prom(s). Cool kids back then didn’t go.
When we left D/FW 20 years ago to move here before kids were born . . . the rich kids weren’t taking limo’s . . . they were renting/chartering HELICOPTERS to fly them over to Dallas’ Reunion Tower for dinner before the prom. Ridiculous. Wonder what they do now? Like I said, that was 20 years ago.
Back in the day, my friend would have a post-prom party - no booze, well-chaperoned - just a bunch of kids eating & watching movies all night.
And one year we got a case of White Castles and had a picnic at a local golf course.
Hotel parties? No thanks!
Not surprising. Conspicuous overspending makes broke people feel better. Same reason broke people drive cars with $5000 rims, wear gaudy jewelry, and fancy clothes with designer labels.
Rich people care about being rich. Poor people care about looking rich.
SnakeDoc
My senior son forked out $150 of his own money to rent a tux last night. The only thing I will contribute is he can use my “good” car to drive to prom (only if he washes it...).
Makes me feel like an old geezer. Went stag to my Sr. Prom - spent the afternoon cleaning my old Pontiac, put on some clean slacks and a matching shirt.
Went to the Prom for an hour, then went out with my buddies for a failed attempt to eat something at every resturant in the small town about 25 miles away. Then, gorged with food to the point of being sick, we went home and slept in the next day until about noon.
All in all, we had a good time - not as much fun as a lot of others, but for me, it was fun. Total cost? Can of Turtle Wax, a new car de-oderizer, and $20 for food.
Most proms are thrown by the PTA, or Boosters, or something. Financed through fundraising, not tax money ... at least as far as I know.
SnakeDoc
Out of control, how silly. As far as I know all these expenditures are perfectly voluntary.
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