Like many of you, I’m sure, I had braces growing up. I was lucky enough to have parents who were able to afford to get them for both my sister and I (our brother had perfect teeth naturally of course). I actually started with a spacer in third grade (complete with head gear!), had a retainer in fourth grade, and then finally, in fifth grade, it was brace time!
I actually do remember the day I had them put on because the fifth grade classes had won a contest and our prize was an ice cream social – a pretty awesome prize for elementary students (ok…I still think ice cream socials are pretty great!), but I didn’t realize that my teeth were going to be super sensitive and put chocolate chips on my ice cream. I was pretty bummed when I tried to eat one and couldn’t do it because it hurt my mouth too much! But I digress.
I didn’t get my braces off until eighth grade and was a little sad when I did (am I the only one who didn’t want to give up my braces?!) and then it was time for the new retainer! Which is not nearly as exciting as picking out new rubber-band colors to decorate my mouth with, but it was a new phase in my life and I had to move on.
Fast forward to my freshman year of high school. It’s only a year later, but in that short amount of time, I had managed to lose my retainer. I wasn’t really nervous about telling my parents, I figured we’d just get me a new one and be on our merry little way. I knew having braces itself was pretty expensive but hadn’t spent a lot of time thinking about it because I had never heard the exact figure for it. My dad was the one to take me to get my new one and after having my teeth molded, we went to pay for it. I figured that for some plastic, little pieces of plastic mind you, it couldn’t be that expensive. Boy was I was really, really wrong.
$500 dollars wrong to be exact.
When the cashier said the amount, I had a slight panic attack. It was the moment when I realized just how expensive I was. That’s not a typo – I really didn’t have a concept about money and the expense of things, didn’t pay a lot of attention to how much something cost, but that moment, it hit me. Things are expensive – I was expensive.
Obviously, if you read my first post, it didn’t stop me from spending all of my money willy-nilly later on, but it did teach me to be much more thankful for everything in life – and to be more conscience about how much money people spend on me.
When did you realize just how expensive things are? What did you learn from realizing it?
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Photo by Monica Y Garza
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We didn’t have adequate insurance coverage until I was in high school, so I got braces very late. I couldn’t wait to get them off, but sadly that didn’t happen in time for graduation. In any case, I knew how much braces cost my parents, but they had waited until they were able to afford them and I was aware another retainer would cost a lot of money. I still have the same one. As far as realizing when things were expensive, that happened when my dad was laid off when I was ten or so. There was a lot of cutting back and arguments about money, so it was hard not to feel like a burden.
JourneytoSaving I definitely learned my lesson and still have my second *ahem* retainer as well. I feel like I had braces really young because no one else my age had them; they all had theirs put on in high school and several still had them at graduation too. I felt like a burden too when I realized how expensive I (and my siblings) were; money wasn’t really talked about that I can remember, but my parents typically had a few jobs each to cover all of the bills and everything.
I didn’t have braces, but I did have glasses and I learned early on the cost of breaking a pair of them. Replacing them was somewhere in the neighborhood of several hundred dollars and hurt a lot more when my parents made me help pay for them to teach me to be more responsible. Now, I hope our kids got my wife’s 20/20 vision. ;)
FrugalRules Oh man, I have glasses as well and I thought they weren’t expensive…until I realized that the cost of the glasses didn’t also include the lens part. Silly Sally. Probably a good learning experience for you :) I hope they got your wife’s 20/20 vision as well!
I had braces for what seemed like forever. I’m sure it cost my parents a fortune! Now that I have kids, I hope that their teeth are perfect =)
Holly at ClubThrifty Gosh I desperately hope mine have perfect teeth, vision, no allergies…but I’m expecting the worst.
DC @ Young Adult Money Holly at ClubThrifty I’m pretty sure I cost my parents a fortune too! And I’m expecting the worst for my kids as well DC…but one can hope!
I had braces forever! I’m sure it was expensive but back then money seemed like just a number, not something concrete like it is now. It wasn’t until I was in grad school and completely paying my own bills that I realized how expensive it is just to exist!
myeverydaylifeblog I’m glad someone else had braces longer than two years! That seems to be the “norm” for having them. I was so oblivious as a kid when it came to money, now I’m thinking of ways to impart how important it is to my kids!
It is kind of crazy to look back and think of all the things my parents spent money on, and then to look forward to when I get to spend on those very same things for my kids. Woo hoo! I had braces for something like 6 years, and had various versions of retainers and the like both before and after. At the time I was just focused on the annoyance, but the costs really do add up.
Matt @ Mom and Dad MoneySix years is a long time, Matt! I had them for a few years and it’s hard not to be annoyed at them when you have them on. I’m definitely glad I had them, though, and I’m just crossing my fingers that my future kids don’t need them.
DC @ Young Adult Money Matt @ Mom and Dad Money Six years is a long time! It seems like the “norm” for having them is about two years. I’ve never heard anyone say that they regret having them though, I know I don’t!
Great post Sally. I laughed out loud when I read the title. I sometimes look back and marvel at how much my parents spent on me (I too had major tooth expenses, root canal at age 15)- and I was just one of FIVE children!
brokeandbeau Thank you! Glad it did :)
It is crazy to think about how much they spend on you! Especially when there are other children with expenses in your family too!
I also had a retainer, bite plate and braces! For three years in middle school. Yuck. But now I have an awesome smile and a permanent retainer. I knew I was expensive then and I felt expensive when I knew my parents didn’t have much money. But they always made it work and I had a good upbringing. Thanks for sharing your story with us!
deardebt I love my smile now as well and don’t have a permanent retainer, but my sister does (luckily my teeth don’t shift if I don’t wear my retainer for a while!). My parents always somehow made it work too so that my siblings and I had a good life.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
It’s amazing how much we cost our parents!
I was fortunate enough to make it through without braces. However, I do have two baby teeth with no adult teeth underneath. The cost of getting those yanked and fake ones put in…$4,000 A TOOTH! Outrageous. At least insurance should cover a lot of the cost if either baby tooth decides to give up and crack. My dentist just tells me to be vigilant about oral health and to help them last as long as possible.
BrokeMillennial It IS amazing!
$4, 000 per tooth?! That’s crazy to me! I would wait until they crack and insurance helps cover them too…jeez!
I definitely thought about this when I was younger. I remember hearing from the dentist how expensive braces would be, and I felt so bad for my dad!
SenseofCents I never heard an exact figure or anything like that so I wasn’t really aware of the actual cost of having them all-together either. My parents worked incredibly hard to pay for them and everything else; I’m pretty sure they spent several years making payments in order for me to have them. If I have kids, I hope they’re as compassionate and aware as you!
I remember very clearly the day I realized things cost money, and I cost even more! I was in elementary school and I guess I had been acting bratty about something – maybe not getting something I wanted – because my mom got in my face and berated me about how I needed to be appreciative of everything I did have. I was scared out of my mind because my mom rarely got angry, and man oh man did it leave an impression on me. I started paying attention to the price listed on things, something I had never thought to do before, and even at that young age I started making decisions about things like what I wanted for lunch based on how much it costs. My mom says she feels bad about whatever she said that day, because it made me slightly neurotic – but I would rather have learned that lesson and been a little too intense about worrying about prices than have missed it and continued to think money just appeared out of no where to let you buy what you wanted.
CSMillennial Definitely a good lesson! I hope you’re a little easier on yourself now though, sounds like you really took that lesson to heart and at a young age!
I saw this happen recently with my 11-year old son. We had to buy him some new basketball shoes and he was blown away with the cost and must have said “Thanks Dad” 4 times. Teaching moment for me as I was able to talk to him about why Mom and Dad work so hard, live frugally, and save money so we can afford to buy him new shoes.
KyleJames1 That’s awesome! Great job on raising him and way to take advantage of that teaching moment!
I never had braces and I really did not realize things were expensive when I was young. I discovered how life was expensive when I moved to my own apartment at 20 years old and paying rent every month was not that cheap.
BorrowedCents I wish I had learned at a younger age how expensive things were! Paying rent every month would definitely open up one’s eyes to that!
The biggest wake up call for me came when I first took our kids to Mcdonalds as a family of 4. I the quickly realised why my parents were always saying no :-) I used to feel so hard done by.
MoneyBulldog It all adds up so quick! I don’t really ever remember my parents taking us out to eat as a family – only on very rare occasions.
The first time I got injured and rode in an ambulance and didn’t have health insurance in college. A half mile ride costed me 400 bucks that took me a month to pay off because I didn’t have any money. I didn’t have insurance because I was in school and it was too expensive.
Charles@gettingarichlife Ambulance rides are veryyyy expensive and it scares me to the point that I would rather be shoveled into a car and taken to the hospital…not very practical, but they are just so expensive! And only $400 for a half mile…crazy!
I have a 16 year old brother so I take him out once in a while and always cringe at the cost of the brand clothing he wants or places he wants to go to. When I was a teen I was always out with my parents, plus the private school and the extra curricular activities and yes, the braces, it must have cost them a fortune!
RFIndependence What a great sibling you are! Make sure he knows how great he has it ;)
I had braces for years…..I got them put on in second grade when I only had two crooked teeth. I also had head gear to boot! The braces were expensive but I don’t really look at myself as an expensive kid growing up. Now that I have kids I think people kind of exaggerate on how much money it costs to raise kids. Sure it costs a lot if you get them everything they want but it really only costs as much as you let it. (Minus necessities like braces, medical etc.)
SingleMomIncome Haha, gotta love the head gear! :)
I don’t have any kids, but it’s interesting to see how everyone spends on their kids differently – especially if the income is the same across households.
I
absolutely dreaded having braces and I had to sport the whole braces
and huge glasses in high school. I definitely am glad that I suffered
through them though because it was worth it in the end. I think when you
are that young that you don’t fully appreciate the necessities your
parents spent their money on as much as the fun gifts. I really look
back on things and remember to appreciate them and be thankful for them
now that it is up to me to afford things of the like.
Just Another Betsy I definitely agree! If I have kids, I hope that I can teach them that as well.
I never had braces as a kid so I decided to go one day to see how much braces would cost. After they did everything, the final projected total came to over $7k. I decided that day I would just live with slightly crooked teeth. I see no reason to shell out over 7 grand just to have straight teeth. That money would be much better off sitting in an investment account.
MicrosMissions Isn’t it crazy?! I was so young when I got my braces, I don’t really remember how bad my teeth were…but I hope they were super bad so my parents got their moneys worth!
A such a good point! Braces are one of the first major expenses for kids. I was one of the blessed who did not need them. I find it interesting that braces are fairly reachable for the middle-class with insurance in the US. I spent some time in Europe and the first thing people noticed about us as American were our teeth. Perfect teeth are more of a visual distinction there as braces are much more expensive and not as commonly available.
LifeDollarSense Very interesting! I shouldn’t be surprised as Americans tend to be more cosmetic than other countries :)
I realized it when my mom, as a single parent, was struggling with the $400 a month she was getting in child support. She ended up getting the amount upped to $750 which finally gave my mom enough breathing room that she didn’t have to work three jobs to pay the bills.
Tara Zee I’m glad she was able to get it upped! $400 would only cover so much for rent and doesn’t even include food, clothes, etc.
I had braces AND I’ve been wearing glasses since I was in kindergarten… I’m pretty damn expensive haha
LisaVsTheLoans Haha, I have glasses too! Our lucky parents :)
I remember being amazed that anyone would pay that much for braces once they told me it wasn’t a necessary medical procedure. Plus it hurt like hell! I think it’s important to realize how wealthy we are as Americans.
Cash_Rebel Definitely! Americans are very fortunate.