Answer (from Piper Jaffrey report which is chock full of teen spending habits): Food

Here's the chart from their report: 

A lot happening in this slide so here's a way to orient your students: 

• Height of the bars measures what percentage of spending goes to food and clothing spending (see left axis).
  • For example, in spring 2017 teens spent about 23-24% of their budget on Food and 19% on Clothing (see left axis)
• The squiggly yellow line measures the Net Food Spend (or how much more teens are spending on Food as compared to Clothing). 
  • For example, in the spring of 2017, teens are spending about 5 percentage points more on food vs. clothing (right hand axis)

Questions for students:

• What would be your headline for the graph to describe the spending trends for teens?
• Do you think food trends (like the sushi burrito/donut, avocado toast, rolled up ice cream) have been the main factor in teens spending more money on food?
  • Have you tried any food trends? How much did they cost?
• What other factors do you think might explain this shift in spending habits?
• Would you rather spend $50 on clothes or $50 on food?
  • What would you spend it on and why?

Here's the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.

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Sticking with the theme of budgeting and purchase decisions, be sure to have your students try this popular NGPF Activity: Create A Salary-Based Budget!

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NGPF has just started a new service: The Daily QuoD (that's Question of the Day in NGPF-speak!). Subscribe to our blog (right hand side of NGPF Blog homepage) and you will receive a new QuoD every weekday during the school ready to use in your classroom. Enjoy!

About the Authors

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

More posts by Tim

Danielle Bautista

Danielle is a native of Southern California and a recent graduate from the University of Maine, where she braved the frigid winters—a feat in and of itself—and earned her Bachelor's degree in International Affairs. She has a passion for working with non-profit organizations and serving populations in underprivileged communities. When Danielle isn't writing NGPF blog posts, spearheading various outreach projects, or managing contests and flash surveys, you can find her doing some sort of outdoor activity, learning a new hobby, or cracking what she thinks are witty puns!

More posts by Danielle