Awww, the poor babies:
PENDLETON — The dress, the hair, the limo, the dinner.
It's never cheap to go to a high school prom.
But Hannah Cantrell estimates her costs will be over $400 for Pendleton Heights High School's prom at the Murat Theatre in Indianapolis. At first, she guessed around $350 for clothes, but she remembered that her hair and nails had to be ready, too.
[. . .]
A researcher at North Dakota State University found couples in that Midwestern state spent an average $509 on the prom in 2004, with girls shouldering $296 and boys $213.
[. . .]
This year, Your Prom magazine polled its readers, usually a group of more upscale teens. The average price tag was over $1,000. Boys spent $545; girls, $530.
Maybe I'm just bitter because I was too much of a pathetic nerd in high school to even think of going to the prom. But just think of all the cell-phone minutes the kids could pay for if they cheapened up on the prom a bit.
