Is it possible for a couple to attend prom at Mount Vernon High School with only $50 to spend?

By Mickey Hines

Lights, Camera, Action! It’s prom night and every teenager dreams of it being the peak of high school. For girls it’s to look their best, and for guys to take their crush to the big dance. When you are younger you look on social media to see the beautiful people attending prom. Only problem is that people get stressed over the price they have to pay to go to prom. Although the average amount of money most couples spend on prom is over $300, it is possible to enjoy the prom of a lifetime on a $50 budget.

Let’s go through the process of prom and begin with a $50 limit for the couple. The start of prom is typically what you are going to wear and you think of this so many weeks in advance. You take in account what would look best for you, this goes for boys and girls.

The Dress

Starting with the ladies, girls want the dress that not only makes their date’s jaw drop, but turns the heads of the other girls as well. The dress is what some girls worry about the most because they cost up to $200. The Mustang Moon conducted a survey over email on March 20, 2016  with 52 students responding. The girls were asked how much they spent on a dress for prom and the results ranged from $50 to $200. A prom dress can be expensive, but there are ways to avoid breaking your budget. Start of by not get hooked on the most expensive dress. What you should do is ask around from other friends and see if they have any dresses they would let you borrow. If they looked good in it years ago it’s bound to look good on you. A girl can make a dress look gorgeous.  “Borrow shoes or a dress from someone. I did that last year because I went to two proms,” said senior Jaylee Delancey. She shows a prime example of spending zero money on the dress and still had a fantastic time and still looked amazing without damaging her savings account.

The Hair

Styling a girl’s hair is an important step, but can break the $50 budget. Professionally, you can pay to get you hair done and in MVHS around 30 percent of girls do. Another way is having a very talented friend do your hair for you. This will cost you no money and will spend a good time with them. Finally you could do it yourself but some girls say this is a tough option. However, it is possible if you practice some ideas from Pinterest. This will cost you again no money. “If you practice it enough, it will be super easy,” said junior Kelsey Shady. She also stated that she has practiced before. The guys don’t typically have to spend lots of time on hair besides getting that mad flow that they want.

The Makeup

Makeup is another task for the females. Only two percent of MVHS girls get their makeup done professionally. The other way is have that talented friend help you out again or do you own. Girls do practice doing their makeup every day, but on prom night they might use a little more for the new and pretty look. “I do my own makeup, you don’t need to drop $500 on prom every year especially when most of the things you’re spending money on can be done at home for free,” said senior Alex Abresch.

The Manicure

Nails are a bit different and could cost you $30 for a manicure. There are so many options that can be done to your nails. The best way is to do your own because most guys don’t even notice just like junior Tenton Baty says, “ What are nails?” showing how little they pay attention to the female preparations. Girls do love their nails being done and pay money for it when they don’t have to.

The Guy’s Attire

Now onto the guys. For the guys prom is way easier and any guy would admit that. Guys can take less than an hour to get ready while girls will take all day. We will start with the most expensive thing which is the tux. Tuxedos are a very tough thing to get past. Some quick things you can do is borrow from a friend just like the ladies do, but typically tuxedos are rented. Renting a tuxedo costs between $150-200 in our area, according to the survey. So this can be a problem for our $50 budget and this will be option A. Not everyone has to wear an expensive tux. From the dances before you already have nice formal clothing. If you put together all of your best looking clothes you could have a pretty snazzy outfit. This could sometimes be better than an old plain tuxedo. You could have a hip vest on with some crazy pants that looks so cool and out of the ordinary. “My grandma made my vest, I used other formal stuff to make my outfit,” said senior Marquis Dew, “and I did not spend a dime.” This can be super cool and grandma would love you forever! Plan B was making a creative outfit which people have done before, the guys should choose this if wanting to spend less money. Now the girl has a very nice dress that she is borrowing and the guy has this new incredible outfit with the $50 budget not touched.

 The Flowers

We now move onto the things that cost for the both of you. Flowers are a highly discussed thing at dances. Homecoming is more likely for a couple to get flowers. Prom flowers are not as popular. The survey shows 60 percent of MVHS students buy flowers.

Flowers range from 10-25 dollars, but why do you need flowers if they fall off anyway? No one remembers what flower they had on them so why spend the money on them for one picture? “If you have a nice dress on you do not need flowers,” said junior Rachel Bell. A great example of how un useful flowers are for prom.

 The Transportation

Renting cars or limos is what a group might want to do, but 96 percent of MVHS students do not rent a car for prom. Car or limo rental would be over $200. Now with no car rental our budget is still at $50! “I wouldn’t be surprised if that (rentinging a limo) would be the first thing you eliminated,” said junior Ethan Wenz. Many say it’s a cool idea but when saving money it is not an essential.

 The Meal

The meal is what comes up next. A lot of people want to go to the most expensive restaurant and wait for hours just to eat good food. The easiest way to go out for food is to go to a cheap restaurant where you know what you like and it won’t be a waste of food or money if you don’t finish. So a McDonald’s or Noodles and Company would be fantastic and cheap. Also this memory would last longer because you went to such a bizarre place for prom. The cheapest way is to stay home and eat and have parents help out. “Order a pizza, everyone loves pizza,” said junior Lydia Frey. That costs nothing on that night because the parents could help buy the food. The typical thing to do is to go out to eat and that is an estimated amount of $10-25 dollars for the couple and depends on how much you get. If you limit dinner spending to $15 for the couple, you are left with $30.

Now you are at the dance after a full stomach and memories made and you haven’t even hit the whip yet.  The cost of the MVHS Prom is $20 a couple. So that hurts the budget and you only have $10 left. This might come in handy to go out for breakfast after post prom. You now go to post prom with $15 left in your pocket and you are having the time of your life because nothing was ruined. Your expectations for the night were a bit lower because you spent less money on prom night. Now your night was way better because it surpassed your standards.

After post prom you have a bunch of free stuff you won. The typical thing to do now is go to get breakfast or go to someone’s house to have a slumber party. Your night was one to remember and prom was the peaking night of high school. If you chose all the smart options I said you will end up with around $15 on your $50 budget. We have just broke the saying “Prom and cheap do not go in the same sentence”. So go out on prom night and chose the more affordable things and make memories instead of trying to pay for all the expensive things. With not spending tons of money and then something goes wrong you can laugh about it and not have to worry about ruining the expensive things you have bought.