The Economics of Prom

As I mentioned in my first post, I'm taking an honors economic course this year.  I find it really interesting and I enjoy most of the debates we have in the class.  A couple of weeks ago we had our senior prom, and in class our teacher had us go over the economics of how much prom costs to each individual.  It was actually pretty interesting, I'll break it down for you.

Our teacher defined the "cost" of prom as anything that we wouldn't have to pay for if we weren't going.  For boys the standard list consisted of the tickets, a tux rental, flowers, dinner, and transportation.  The girls' list was a little more involved, depending on how high maintenance the girl was.  The all encompassing list was, a dress, shoes, hair, makeup, nails, flowers, tanning and tickets depending on whether or not they had a date.  I was definitely more on the low maintenance end of that spectrum.

The class average cost came in just under $300, which our teacher said was lower than the usual class averages.  He'd only done it with one other class at that point and their average was almost $500.

Now I'll go over how much I spent:
Dress:  I bought my dress on ebay.  It was brand new, still with tags, and 100% silk.  The tag said $600, I got it for $10.  I'm a pro.  It was floor length but I hate floor length dresses so I got mine shortened to tea length.  Alterations cost $50.
Shoes:  $20.  I also got a free chip clip with the purchase because I could answer the trivia question (what is the plastic thing on the end of the shoelace called - an aglet).
Tickets:  $70.  I did have a date but he doesn't go to my school so I had to buy the tickets, which were $35 each.  Jon did offer to pay, but I told him he didn't have to since it was my prom.
That's it.  I didn't go tanning because it's terrible for you and doesn't even look nice anyway.  I did my own hair, makeup and nails.   I didn't buy  Jon a boutonniere because I didn't think he was buying me a corsage.  I told him not to because I don't think he should have to pay for something that's already dead and I'm inevitably going to lose somewhere.  He got me one anyway though, and it actually matched my dress perfectly even though he hadn't seen it before, which was really sweet (and it made it home safely!  It's currently in the fridge next to some yogurt).

With tickets my total was $150, without it was $80 (because in a hypothetical world Jon would have paid).  $80 was the cheapest in the class, $150 was second cheapest.  I win.

Some people spend entirely too much on prom.  There were two girls in my class who paid near about $600 - and they didn't even have to buy their tickets!  Maybe I'm just a cheapskate, but seriously, I had just as much fun - maybe more - than people who spent their whole life savings.