Living in this generation now-a-days as a teenager, so many things are expensive and hard to pay for. Many people have different viewpoints when it comes to what and how teenagers spend money. Certain people think that teenagers waste it on video games, food, or unnecessary items. Certain teenagers use money to be academically successful or put it into a savings account. Being an independent teenager can be quite expensive, teenagers must pay for car expenses, clothing, education, etc., really anything you could think of as a teen yourself paying for that is expensive.
We did some research about it and according to plutusfoundation.org at least $13,900 per year is being spent on us teenagers! Yes, that is a lot especially for one per kid, even with teens paying for themselves or their parents also paying for certain things it adds up to being a lot of money within one year. There is also a dramatic difference between older teens and younger teens because we older teens are young adults having to start saving money and spending it on needs and not wants (which us older ones tend to spend a lot of money on unnecessary items because we “think” we need it). Being older can be more of a struggle when it comes to money because many families do not cater to their kids so many teens are stuck paying for everything by themselves and not knowing how they will save money all by themselves.
We went around Doherty High School and interviewed a couple of students and got their feedback on how expensive it may be for them and what they may think is extremely expensive to spend money on.
Jamil Anderson- Hodge is a junior and said, “Yes, being a teen is very stressful, especially tattoos and shoes just fashion in general for most teens can be hard because now a days we all have a type of way we like to dress.” Junior Danica Spain stated, “There are a lot of expensive things out there that us teens are having to pay for which is hygiene products, jewelry, piercings, Dutch, food, clothes, shoes, birthday presents.”
Junior Jocelynn Williams said, “It’s not cheap, but there are ways to save like thrifting.” Junior Hector Marioni said, “Food is currently so expensive along with clothes, supplies and gas.” Junior Lalannie Donald stated, “[I spend] around $80-$150 a month for sports and school bills, then money for lunch and other expenses we have to pay for.” Last was junior Yaslin Seguinot who said, “[I spend] $90-$200 for sports, lunch, clothes, homecoming, prom, and other stuff…”
To wrap this up, you can see that everyone is expressing how expensive teen life is, what they spend the most money on, and how much inflations has affected teenagers. As you can see being a teen is hard and very expensive and we are always spending some type of money each day.
The struggle is basically real because the price is not keeping up with the cost of being a teenager, most teens aren’t even getting paid minimum wage ($16.04) and it’s harder to make money stretch with only making such little money.
