I know a few people just like that younger than me. They will never be able to afford a house, they are so poor, will have roommates forever, blah, blah, blah. Yet they always have expensive coffee drinks, food delivery, every streaming service, etc.
Cooking is something I really started putting effort in to about six months ago. It became fun, and I don't devote a lot of time because I generally prep all my meals on Sunday and store the raw prepped ingredients to be actually cooked on demand. I cook about 80% of my meals and I eat like royalty. Bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee almost every morning. Hot fresh meals every meal, less the occasional sandwich to work. Fine ingredients for everything and I've really been pushing myself to learn more. Once I got into a groove, most of the work is a couple hours every Sunday and 15mins per meal. Not only has my health gone way up (I feel a ton different), but even buying ingredients with zero concern for buying low-cost I still spend less on food. Even something like coffee, I can randomly splurge on a $25 bag of coffee just because I want to, because I still spend less than a couple bucks a cup, good luck doing that at a coffee shop.
As for holidays, I cut my budget on that and started saving the difference. I still do something "nice" every couple years, but the rest of the time I've had nearly as much fun with cheap non-pretentious short trips to do things with friends and family.
It's easy to say "if only you didn't buy that latte" but you're passing over the fact that housing and food costs in general are rising at an insanely high rate. You can only make so many cuts and soon nobody will be able to catch up
I know a few people just like that younger than me. They will never be able to afford a house, they are so poor, will have roommates forever, blah, blah, blah. Yet they always have expensive coffee drinks, food delivery, every streaming service, etc.
Cooking is something I really started putting effort in to about six months ago. It became fun, and I don't devote a lot of time because I generally prep all my meals on Sunday and store the raw prepped ingredients to be actually cooked on demand. I cook about 80% of my meals and I eat like royalty. Bacon, eggs, toast, and coffee almost every morning. Hot fresh meals every meal, less the occasional sandwich to work. Fine ingredients for everything and I've really been pushing myself to learn more. Once I got into a groove, most of the work is a couple hours every Sunday and 15mins per meal. Not only has my health gone way up (I feel a ton different), but even buying ingredients with zero concern for buying low-cost I still spend less on food. Even something like coffee, I can randomly splurge on a $25 bag of coffee just because I want to, because I still spend less than a couple bucks a cup, good luck doing that at a coffee shop.
As for holidays, I cut my budget on that and started saving the difference. I still do something "nice" every couple years, but the rest of the time I've had nearly as much fun with cheap non-pretentious short trips to do things with friends and family.
It's easy to say "if only you didn't buy that latte" but you're passing over the fact that housing and food costs in general are rising at an insanely high rate. You can only make so many cuts and soon nobody will be able to catch up