I Stopped Buying Overpriced Salads and Then This Happened

I Stopped Buying Overpriced Salads and Then This Happened The plight of millennials is a hot topic these days. If its not our  fixation with social media and self-gratifying gadgets, its our seemingly apathetic approach to adult responsibilities. Mortgages, parenthood and job  longevity? Ha ha. And then, my word, what  about  those spending habits? How rash! Splashing cash without a real care in the world (or career for that matter). Wanting this and that we cant afford it but well take it; paying  for it later along with that hefty student loan and credit card debt (best gap year EVER). According to a range of reports and experts, it would appear  were all financially doomed; every last one of us selfie-taking budget-breaking  Gen Y-ers. Theres an  SBS article doing the rounds at the moment, entitled  I Stopped Eating Smashed Avocado and Now I Own a Castle.    Its a really entertaining read in response to another article by The Australian  which  highlights (and totally  generalises)  the ill-ordered priorities of brunch-obsessed millennials. The messages (while not totally literal in either castle or house?) are  just as poignant as they are comedic. Looking past the sarcasm and stereotypes (I know several twenty-somethings with home loans, sturdy jobs and children), what can we take away from both reads? Splashing cash on unnecessary items is  causing millennials  more money troubles than many would care to admit. Such ignorance to the bigger picture manifests neatly in our extravagant dining behaviours, which we gloat about online (my eggs are better than yours).  But is regular weekend brunching really  to blame for our monetary misfortunes, or is it just the social scapegoat for its slightly older and more boring cousin, known as lavish weekday lunching? Lets talk about food We need it to live Consuming it brings us joy Most singular items are within our immediate price range It makes for great daily Instagram content And, it can also be the perfect recipe for disaster. For want of trying to defend the brunching phenomenon Im inclined to engage in from time to time, I want to turn your attention to what I see as a far more harmful  habit, also guilty of robbing  our hip-pocket. That is, the  whole buying food out every day thing, instead of bringing it from home. Yes,  Im talking about  spending 5 times as much money as we should be on vegetables, fruit, caffeinated milk, eggs, yoghurt, porridge, muesli bars, meat and bread just to have  someone hand it to us over a counter in a paper bag or cup tray to take back to the office. The real millennial monster isnt smashed avo, its overpriced salads (5 times a week) When  we were kids, bringing  a  packed lunch every day  was normal (at my school anyway). Inside a brightly coloured lunch box thered be a sandwich waiting for us, alongside some fruit, a yoghurt and  maybe some cheese strings or a  biscuit  if we were lucky. Our pocket money was used  for a  new game,  clothes or kept in the  piggy bank for later; we certainly werent spending it on SALAD! Somewhere along the line things  changed. It happened around the time  we started earning a real salary and, instead of fulfilling our childhood dreams by  jam-packing snap-lock bags full of anything we want from our pantries, we opted to do away with the lunchbox altogether and splurge on fast food every day; a brand new kind of freedom altogether. Its just what everyone in the office does! I think our younger selves would have trouble digesting  the absurdity of this! Some simple  maths When you consider the premium paid  for packaging, plastic wrappers and pre-prepared food, its safe to say that buying lunch from a cafe or outlet every day is an unnecessary expense. Reading the aforementioned article on exorbitant brunching behaviours inspired me to do a bit of simple arithmetic (yet another thing my child self would struggle to swallow   voluntary maths, youve got to be joking). So, instead of dangling the  comfortable retirement carrot yet again (which  millennials  clearly dont respond to), I thought Id see  what real luxury might look like now, if we were to cut back on some of our mundane weekday food buys for a year. I stopped  buying a coffee every day and  now I Own an  Apple Ipad Pro!  At £2.50 a pop, buying a coffee 230 days of the year amounts to £575 Its a fair chunk of money considering there are a million and one ways to make your own coffee for cheaper. I stopped buying two coffees every day and now I Own a Delonghi Primadonna Elite coffee machine.  If you stop buying  two coffees  every day, you will save £1150 in a year! I cut out the blueberry muffin too and now I Walk past the bakery every morning in my Christian Louboutin heels.  Cutting out a £2.00 muffin every day will see your wallet grow by an extra £460 then rapidly diminish when you realise you can afford an amazing pair of kicks! I stopped buying a juice every morning and now I Eat an apple every morning as I walk to work in my new Gieves Hawkes suit. Dropping the daily   £4.00 cup will allow you to pick up a brand new £920  getup. I stopped buying overpriced salads for lunch and now I Am holidaying in  Australia for a month over Christmas. Saying no to the £8.00 sweet potato and feta salad could give you an extra £1,840 to spend on travelling the world! I stopped buying sushi for lunch and now I Carry my  homemade sandwiches in a real Louis Vuitton handbag. If you curb your tendency to splash out on a fresh sushi lunch pack every day, you could be the owner of a flash handbag with a £2,300 price tag. I stopped buying pre-made fruit salads and chocolate cake  at 3pm and now I.. Have The X Factor  playing on my brand new 3D television every  Sunday night while I bake some homemade cookies. Okay, okay, Ill stop there. Final thoughts I am in no way endorsing not eating as a means to affording luxury items; Im simply suggesting that maybe brunch on the weekend isnt actually so detrimental to us millennials, as long as we do away with  weekday wastage  and revert to a home-packed lunch like the good ol days.