9 Millennial spending habits that are financial wastes

Financial waste is where money is not used intentionally. This is where money slips through the cracks of your budget. Figuring out where these cracks are will help your budget as every dollar/pound/euro/ will have a job.

This is an updated version of the ones I have seen in the past. Especially since many people have dropped cable for streaming services.

1. Daily lattes. This is still the most popular one to put on these lists. It is much cheaper to make your coffee at home and you can sit on your couch and drink it. It’s a great morning ritual to sit on your couch, look out the window, and drink coffee.

Photo by Crista Wathen @thetravelinggator

2. Takeout. Nowadays, there are so many apps and third-party businesses that will deliver food right to your door. For many years, the main option for delivery was pizza but now you can have any type of cuisine delivered. However, this becomes expensive quickly. The best option is to learn how to make your favorite takeaway foods! Then you can make it whenever you want for not only cheaper than having it as takeaway but sometimes sooner than when the delivery would arrive.

3. Designer items. This one is a bit of an odd one. There is only one argument that makes sense when purchasing these type of items is when they are bought for an investment. Some individuals purchase designer handbags and then sell later on the resale market and recoup all their costs and then some. In this sense, I can see the reasoning, however, more often than not it is a financial drain on your wallet.

4. Banking fees. When in the working in the finance industry I saw my fair share of people getting charged various fees that were unnecessary when there was a way to get around them. Usually, accounts have stipulations on how to avoid these fees. If you do not know what they are, you should talk to your banker.

5. Credit card interest fees. It is recommended that you only use your credit card for purchases you were already going to make and pay it off at the end of the month. This way you do not lose anymore of your hard-earned money. Especially since the interest rates are higher than most loans or credit lines.

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6. Excess groceries. Meal planning is extremely important. This ensures less waste, both literally and financially. For instance, the average consumer in the U.S. wastes a lot of food. Throwing away food is throwing away money.

7. Unused gym memberships. If you cannot remember the last time you went to the gym, then you should probably cancel it. We live in a time where there are so many FREE workout videos or training apps that it nearly makes having a membership unnecessary.

8. Lottery tickets and scratch offs. Just like anything else, if it is in excess than it is not good. Buying one every so often is alright. Personally, it is nice when you buy a ticket and for that moment you can imagine the first thing you would do if you won.

9. Having multiple streaming services. Now that cable has somewhat gone away from many people budgets, it has regained new life in streaming services. Netflix’s success is being copied by many companies, including Disney. While it is, at the moment, cheaper to have several streaming services than having cable, it is now becoming niche services. Pretty soon, we might have to pick our favorites, instead of having only one service that caters the whole range.

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