What to Spend On as a Teenager

Most teens get their first real money and immediately face the same problem. More things to spend it on than money available. The pull toward fast fashion, new games, and whatever just appeared in your social feed is real. So is the frustration of looking at your account a week later and not being able to point to a single thing you feel good about buying. This article is not about telling you to stop spending. It is about adding one layer of thinking that changes what your money actually does for you.

Key Insights

• Teenagers in the US spend an average of $2,331 per year, with clothing and food taking nearly 40% of the total. The purchases that build the most value are the ones most teens overlook.
• The 24-hour rule eliminates most impulse buys. If you still want something the next day, it was probably worth buying.
• 64% of Gen Z say social media directly influences what they purchase. Removing saved payment info from shopping apps is the single most effective fix.

What Teens Actually Spend Their Money On

According to Piper Sandler’s semi-annual survey of over 14,000 US teens, the average teenager spends $2,331 per year. Clothing takes the biggest share at 20%, followed by food at 19%, and video games at 10%. Together, clothing and food account for nearly 40 cents of every dollar a teen spends.

The breakdown matters because it shows where money naturally flows when you are not paying attention. If clothing and food reflect what you actually care about most, that is fine. If it does not match your priorities, it is worth noticing. Most teens are surprised by the numbers because each transaction feels like a small, isolated decision rather than part of a pattern.

Teens with a part-time job spend considerably more, around $3,826 per year compared to $1,399 for those relying on allowance alone. More income creates more decisions, and without a framework, that extra money tends to flow into the same default categories. A strong saving habit is what keeps income growth from becoming spending growth by default.

Spending That Builds Skills and Earning Power

The highest-return purchases for teenagers are ones that build a skill or increase your ability to earn later. A photography course, a coding class, a domain name for a side project, equipment that lets you offer a service. These convert money into capability, and capability grows over time the same way compound interest does.

A teenager who spends $50 on a course that teaches them how to build websites is not just spending $50. They are potentially buying the ability to charge $500 or more for a future project. The same logic applies to buying a used microphone to start a podcast, materials to start selling handmade goods, or the right gear to offer a local service. The test is simple. Does this purchase help you earn more than you spent on it? If yes, it is worth prioritizing over something that gets used once and forgotten.

For a full breakdown of what types of businesses teens can actually start, the guide to online business for teenagers covers three main paths with realistic timelines and what each one requires to get going.

Experiences Over Stuff

Research on spending and happiness consistently shows that experiences produce more lasting satisfaction than physical purchases. The new item loses its novelty within days or weeks. The experience tends to stay with you long after it is over.

A concert, a weekend trip, a cooking class with friends, a camping trip. These tend to be remembered and talked about for years. A piece of clothing or a gadget fades quickly once the novelty wears off. When you are deciding between two purchases of similar cost, the experience is almost always the better bet for how you will feel about it six months later.

Shared experiences also carry a social return. Spending money on something you do with people you care about tends to strengthen those relationships in a way that buying something for yourself rarely does. A meal out with close friends, tickets to something you all wanted to see, a trip you plan together. These purchases buy memory and connection, which hold their value long after the day is over.

Health Is Worth Spending On

Health spending tends to have one of the highest long-term returns of any category, because it directly affects your energy, focus, and ability to do everything else well. Good running shoes if you actually run. A gym membership you will use. Quality food. Mental health support if you need it. These are not luxuries.

The key qualifier is actually using what you buy. A gym membership you visit twice and forget is one of the most common ways people waste money at any age. When health spending matches real habits and real needs, it pays back in ways that show up across everything else you do.

Why Social Media Makes You Spend More

64% of Gen Z say social media directly influences their purchases, according to CNBC, often toward items they would never have thought to buy on their own. Platforms are designed to surface things that look appealing, normalise a certain level of consumption, and make buying as frictionless as possible.

The problem is rarely any single purchase. It is the accumulated effect of buying things you would not have wanted if you had not seen them in a feed. Unboxing videos, affiliate links, sponsored posts, and “get ready with me” content all normalise a consumption pattern that most teen budgets cannot support. The result is spending that feels small in the moment but adds up significantly over a month.

Three practical fixes work well together. Remove saved payment information from shopping apps, which adds friction that breaks the impulse loop. Unsubscribe from promotional emails. Apply a 24-hour rule to any purchase above a set amount. The goal is to create a gap between the impulse and the purchase. Most impulses do not survive a night of honest reflection.

What to Think Twice About

The three biggest money drains for teenagers who are not paying attention are fast fashion, subscription creep, and status purchases. Often all three are driven by the same social media feeds covered above.

Fast fashion is significant because the individual items feel cheap. A $15 shirt does not feel like a serious purchase. But ten of them across a month adds up to $150 that left your account for clothing you will mostly stop wearing within a year. The actual cost of cheap, trend-driven clothing is easy to underestimate because the transactions are small and frequent.

Subscriptions are the other quiet drain. Streaming services, apps, gaming passes, and monthly boxes pile up without ever feeling like real spending because no single charge is large. Ten subscriptions at $8 to $15 each adds up to $80 to $150 a month that most people do not notice because they signed up for each one at a different time. A quick audit of your monthly charges is worth doing at least twice a year.

Status purchases, meaning those driven primarily by how they make you look to others rather than what you actually want, tend to produce the least lasting satisfaction. This is not a judgment on caring about how you present yourself. It is a practical observation: spending driven by anxiety about how others see you tends to leave you reaching for the next thing faster than spending driven by real preference.

A Simple Spending Framework

The most practical teen spending framework works in three steps. Save a fixed percentage first, cover your responsibilities second, then split what is left between building spending and enjoyment spending.

Save a set percentage before anything else. 20 to 30 percent of every dollar you earn is a solid starting point for a teenager. Then cover any money responsibilities your family expects you to handle, such as your phone plan, gas, or personal expenses. What is left splits into two buckets: spending that builds something, meaning skills, experiences, health, or earning tools, and spending that is purely enjoyable in the moment.

The ratio between those two buckets is something you adjust over time as you learn more about what actually makes you happy versus what just feels good for a few minutes. Starting with 70 percent enjoyment and 30 percent building is completely reasonable. The goal is not to cut every enjoyable expense. Teenagers who try that tend to abandon their money habits entirely. The goal is to make sure some portion of what you spend is working in your favour.

The 24-hour rule covers the rest. Any purchase above a threshold you set, $30 or $50 is a common starting point, gets a mandatory overnight wait. Impulse decisions rarely survive a full night of sleep. If you still want it tomorrow and it still makes sense, buy it without guilt. If the urge has faded, you just saved money with almost no effort. For a deeper look at building the saving side of this habit, see what teens are earning online and how they are allocating it.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How much of my money should I spend versus save as a teenager? A common starting point is saving 20 to 30 percent of everything you earn and spending the rest. As a teenager with fewer fixed expenses than an adult, you often have more flexibility than you think. The exact percentage matters less than the habit of saving first before spending anything. If 30 percent feels out of reach right now, start with 10 percent and build from there.

Is it okay to spend money on video games and entertainment? Yes, as long as it fits within a plan that also includes saving and some spending directed toward things with longer-term returns. Entertainment is a legitimate category. The issue is when it crowds out savings entirely or takes over the budget without intention. Deciding in advance how much you want to spend on entertainment each month, then sticking to it, is the approach that works.

What is the best thing a teenager can spend money on? Anything that builds a skill you will use, creates an experience you will remember, or helps you earn more money later tends to be a strong choice. Beyond those categories, spending that reflects your actual values and interests rather than what you think you are supposed to want tends to produce the most satisfaction. The best purchase is one you still feel good about a week later, not just in the moment you buy it.

How do I avoid spending money on things I regret? The 24-hour rule is the most practical tool. Wait one full day before completing any purchase above a set amount, even something as low as $20. Removing saved payment information from shopping apps and unsubscribing from promotional emails removes most of the friction-free buying that drives impulse spending. Tracking what you spend for one month without trying to change anything first is also surprisingly effective. Seeing the pattern tends to change behaviour on its own.

Last updated: May 2026

Robert Puharich is the founder of TeenLearner, where he helps teens build real-world skills in money, AI, and life. With over 20 years in education and a Master of Education (M.Ed.) from UBC, he created TeenLearner to teach practical skills such as budgeting, career readiness, decision-making, and the wise use of technology. Robert is also a published author and business founder.