Millennial spending habits are being questioned (again) and the internet isn't here for it
Another day, another headline about millennial spending. Sigh.
This time, a study by Barclays looked into generational spending habits found that millennials spend more than £3,300 each year on coffee, food, going out, and clothes.
Per the findings, emailed to Mashable, a survey of 20 to 37-year-olds found that the average bill for these items comes to £3,312.74. In a press release, Barclays said that millennials could save "a whopping £10.5 billion a year by making minor changes to their spending habits."
A breakdown of the spending shows that millennials spend an average of £904.20 per annum on socialising, £738.96 on new clothing, £705.96 on eating out, £522.60 on takeout food, and £441 a on "daily treats (coffees etc)". That means that millennial coffee expenditure on average amounts to about £36.75 a month, which won't exactly break the bank (pun intended) in the grand scheme of things.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Manchester Evening News reported the findings, and its tweet promptly began gaining some attention on Twitter.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Many are of the (rightful) opinion that £3K a year is a reasonable amount of money to spend on food, drink, clothing, and spending time with fellow humans.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
By this point we're pretty well-versed in responding to millennial-shaming stories, so naturally the jokes started pouring in.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
The author of the Manchester Evening News story tweeted that it wasn't his idea to report on the findings and that he considers it "a non-story made to make young people look like we squander our money when the reality is we can't afford a house."
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Coffee anyone?
Rachel Thompson is the Features Editor at Mashable. Rachel's second non-fiction book The Love Fix: Reclaiming Intimacy in a Disconnected World is out now, published by Penguin Random House in Jan. 2025. The Love Fix explores why dating feels so hard right now, why we experience difficult emotions in the realm of love, and how we can change our dating culture for the better.
A leading sex and dating writer in the UK, Rachel has written for GQ, The Guardian, The Sunday Times Style, The Telegraph, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, Stylist, ELLE, The i Paper, Refinery29, and many more.
Rachel's first book Rough: How Violence Has Found Its Way Into the Bedroom And What We Can Do About It, a non-fiction investigation into sexual violence was published by Penguin Random House in 2021.
