Financial Literacy in Language Arts classes

The students of today want to be included in lessons.  They love giving their opinion and ideas, and some of them are very creative and original.  A lot of students really need to be taught financial literacy due to the fact that their parents are not teaching it at home.  Sometimes their parents teach them by their examples good or bad.  

Why do students spend as they spend? They have their own perceived needs, and should have guidance from their parents. But I recall my school days when students' spending was mostly "clique" style peer pressure. Groups of junior high girls dressed alike. Do boys and girls still do that? Boys, to a lesser extent; girls, to a very high extent? They did when I was much younger. Take one girl and her girl friends and they wore the same style of shirt or skirt or slacks or headband to school on any given day. The most ABSURD copycat spending was when gold-rim glasses were in style (1970s). Almost all the senior girls who wore glasses, got new matching glasses. One girl came to school wearing the same glasses, though she'd never previously worn glasses. I asked her about that. She wanted the copycat fashion, and bought the eyeglasses to wear. The seller had inserted a thin non-prescription lense.