Tooth Fairy Talk: Are You Spending Too Much Money?

Tooth Fairy

When it comes to the Tooth Fairy, you might not consider her a piece of your personal finance – or your budget. However, she’s a bit factor in budgeting when you have kids of a certain age. Trust me; our 7-year-old lost 4 teeth between December 20 and January 5. She’s pretty much toothless at this point, and she’d lost two more teeth only a few months prior to those four coming out. The Tooth Fairy, in our house, has been an expensive issue. When she lost her first tooth at 10 pm one October night, she came running into the living room where we were turning things off and getting ready to head to bed. She woke up to use the restroom and her tooth fell out when she licked her lips.

At 10 pm, the Tooth Fairy had no small bills. The Tooth Fairy had a $10 bill. The Tooth Fairy overpaid heavily for that first lost tooth and used that as a reasoning so that she would not be devastated when the next one fell out and she didn’t get $10. It happens, and sometimes you have to roll with that. However, our Tooth Fairy still pays $5 per tooth. We thought it seemed reasonable considering I always received $3 growing up. It’s been a long time, plus inflation…right? It turns out we might all be overpaying our kids for losing their teeth (someone remind me why we pay them for something like this to begin with?).

It turns out that according to recent dental data, the average dollar amount left by the Tooth Fairy in 2015 was $3.91. I’m over-paying. On that note, it seems that some kids get a cool new toothbrush instead of money – though cool toothbrushes tend to cost a lot more than $5, so that Tooth Fairy might be overspending, too. However, many parents will be pleased to learn that the Tooth Fairy leaves a paltry $1 to 32% of children. I think we might all jump aboard that tooth train.

Photo by Getty Images

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