The theme for this year’s prom is “budget.”
Spending on the high school galas is poised to plummet 14 percent this year, with experts blaming everything from the weather to waning interest in higher-end teen fashions.
The average US household plans to spend $978 this year on prom dresses, tuxedos, dinners, limo rentals and other prom-driven needs, according to a telephone survey of 4,000 families nationwide by Visa.
That’s down sharply from $1,139 in 2013, a peak reached after three straight years of increases, Visa said.
“The prom bubble has finally burst!” said Nat Sillin, Visa’s head of US Financial Education. “I think people are realizing that prom is a dance, and you don’t have to spend like a celebrity to have a great time.”
Some industry experts said an unusually harsh winter may partly be to blame. Others speculated that prom spending may simply have been delayed by a calendar shift that has pushed Easter and spring break later in the year.
Spending plans were cut back most sharply in the Northeast and the South, which saw drops of 27 percent and 23 percent, respectively.
“I think people are realizing that prom is a dance, and you don’t have to spend like a celebrity to have a great time.”
The West Coast remains the biggest-spending prom region, averaging $1,125 per family. Midwestern families, as usual, are the most frugal, averaging just $835.
Nationwide, parents plan to pay for 56 percent of prom costs, while their teens are covering the remaining 44 percent.
Visa said that, for the first time since it began the survey, parents who make less will spend less.
Moms and dads who earn less than $50,000 a year plan to spend significantly less ($733) than the national average. Parents who make more than $50,000 will spend an average of $1,151.
Parents under 40 years of age plan to spend almost 30 percent more than those past the age of 40, at $1,074 versus $842. Additionally, men plan to spend $1,357 — more than double the $673 women plan to spend.