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SALT LAKE CITY — With prom right around the corner, families nationwide are finding themselves shelling out more cash for the event than ever before — on average, by more than $250 than in 2011.
A telephone survey released Friday by Visa found that families are planning on spending an average of $1,078 per couple on the dance this year, up from $807 last year. The event has become more extravagant as teens search for the recipe for a perfect night: a one-of-a-kind experience they hope they will remember for the rest of their lives.
"This is social-arms-race spending," Jason Alderman, director of Visa's financial education programs, told USA Today. "It's extreme."
Not surprisingly, it is teen girls who are driving up prom spending. Males will spend on average less than $500 on the dance between a tuxedo, a corsage, dinner and a limousine. Females, on the other hand, have a lot more to worry about.
All told, everything teen girls are spending money on for prom — from a dress and shoes to a manicure and professionally done hair — will run them about $600, according to a survey done by Seventeen Prom and TeenPROM magazines.
Prom has become close to a red-carpet event for many teens, and exposure to celebrities on everything from reality television shows to social media has intensified the seeming need for more extravagant spending, as teens look to emulate their favorite celebrities' red-carpet looks.
- Tux: $127
- Accessories: $100
- Corsage: $20
- Limousine: $100
- Dinner: $75
- Dance tickets: $20-$50
Total: $442-$472
Female
- Dress: $231
- Lingerie/hosiery: $26
- Handbag/jewelry: $55
- Shoes: $45
- Manicure/nail care: $61
- Makeup/hygiene: $99
- Hair: $66.50
- Boutonniere: $10
Total: $593.50
"It's a rite of passage, and there's a legacy of how you look at your prom," said Linda Korman, advertising director for Seventeen Prom and TeenPROM. "Girls want to dress to impress."
And depending on their geographic location, some girls seem to be predisposed to want to spend more. In the Northeast and the South, where coming-of-age parties were a traditional part of culture, spending on prom is higher than in the rest of the nation.
According to the Visa survey, families in the South expect to spend about $1,047 on the event. Families in the Northeast are even higher, at almost $2,000. Midwestern families expect to spend about $700, according to Visa, while families in the West will spend the least at nearly $750.
Retailers and consultants say the increase in spending and in the expected glamour of prom is in part due to peer pressure: prom is another method for teen girls to "keep up with the Joneses" in their own way.
The trend has had some interesting consequences: families in lower income brackets are actually expecting to spend more on prom than families in higher income brackets, according to the Visa survey.
Families who are expected to spend the most on prom are those who make between $20,000 and $29,999 a year, while families in the highest income brackets are only expected to spend between $700 and $1,000.
"Appearance is everything, and for prom, appearance really matters," said Alison Jatlow Levy, a retail strategist. "You'll probably see people spending a little beyond their means to make the right impression. It's like your Cinderella night, so you pull out all the stops."
