I guess doing stupid shit crosses generations. Even though Millennials are saddled with hundreds of billions in student loan debt, have either no jobs or shitty low paying jobs, live in their parent’s basement, and already waste what little money they have on electronic iGadgets, they still manage to eat out at restaurants at an astoundingly stupid level. Boomers, who should have accumulated a significant nest egg after 30 or 40 years in the workforce, spend 10.6% less per year at restaurants than supposedly broke, negative net worth Millennials. I guess marketing propaganda and complete lack of math skills taught in our public schools have worked their magic. The delusion of getting something for nothing and debt based consumption lives on.
Who spends more eating out, Millennials or Boomers?
Millennials love their restaurants.
Never mind the burden of student-loan debt and those low paychecks. Millennials—or at least those between 25 and 34 years old—spend more money on food outside the home than Boomers do.
Millennial households spent an average of $2,639 a year on their burgers, pizza, coffee and more in 2013, according to The Food Institute, a food-industry group. That’s 10.6% more than the $2,386 that the average Boomer household spends eating away from home.
Put another way, 43% of every dollar that millennials spend on food is spent outside their home. Boomers spend between 37% and 38% of their food budget that way, the industry group said.
And millennials won’t settle for what their Boomer parents ate—which helps explain the popularity of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. CMG, -0.66% and Shake Shack Inc. SHAK, +118.57% whose shares more than doubled on their trading debut Friday, and the accompanying struggles of McDonald’s Inc. MCD, -0.89%
“They’re looking for a little more upscale experience,” said Brian Todd, The Food Institute’s president.
At least two other factors help drive their restaurant spending: They tend to snack more than Boomers (hence those trips to Starbucks) and they are less likely to know how to cook, he said.
In the past I have eaten out regularly, but I should specify it was in whatever restaurant I work in because it was cheaper to eat at work with a 50% discount than to load up my kitchen with groceries and food inflation. So, the question is do Millennials eat out more than Boomers because they are eating at the restaurants they work at? Or are the spending money all willy nilly.
I should also add a lot of Millennial live on college campuses and eat out because of not having a kitchen. Also, my college had a contract with Chartwells (as do most campuses) and they provided all the food in our cafeteria, it was disgusting. Their standards for food were similar to public school cafeterias.
I could eat out a great deal more if I was living in Mom and Dadums basement and had no living expense.
If we are supposed to believe that the average spending on food per day is less than $7 either in or out of restaurants someone is delusional.
The average American male calorie intake is 2,700 female 1,800. (yeah, right)
The average cost of something as simple as an onion is .70 per 100 calories.
If all you ate were raw onions it woulkd cost you $13 a day for a woman. I picked onions because they are cheap, higher calorie foods are almost always more expensive with few exceptions.
No one in the USA is living on $7 per day in spending on “food outside the house”, i.e. prepared foods/restaurant/coffee shop/fast food fare.
A Big Mac is 550 calories. It would take about 5 per day for a male to get his caloric intake and the average cost of a Big Mac- probably one of the cheapest foods found “outside the house” is $5. That’s $25 per day.
My guess is that with most statistical data presented to Americans via the MSM, 90%+ never check the numbers. The majority of the other 10% probably never do the math required (it took me about 5 minutes to check this out) so that virtually everyone simply nods in agreement no matter how far off the mark it is, and in this case it isn’t even in the ball park.
If it is true that millenials spend 43% of their “food dollars” outside the home, and the average cost per calorie in the US is one tenth of a cent per calorie, then the average American millenial is only consuming 660 calories per day in total, less than in Myanmar. Looking at the average American, does anyone believe this?
Junk food=junk math
The survey was millennials between 25 and 34, so it excludes college kids.
I eat out everytime I eat. I might eat a home cooked meal once a month. I just consumed a protein bar for breakfast, I’ll eat a salad with grilled chicken for lunch and dinner at work today.
My mother is in a nursing home now. It was not that long ago I thanked her for all the wonderful home cooked meals she prepared as I was growing up. Mom never worked outside the home but would spend every afternoon preparing a large evening meal, everything homemade and from scratch. Wonderful, absolutely wonderful.
More and more I find myself looking in the mirror for signs that unknown to me for all these years, I am in fact an extraterrestrial, so completely out of sync am I with my fellow humans. Between 37 and 38% of my food budget (I’m a boomer) on eating out ? Granted, I live most of the year in a rural area and grow a fair amount of the food I eat, but even so… As for the younger set spending what they do, I guess the old-fashioned word “flabbergasted” best describes my reaction.
“Less likely to know how to cook”. This calls to mind a statement I’ve seen often on comment pages: “We’re doomed.” Yes, well, I’m not so sure I am, but I’m preparing to place my bet that a whole hell of a lot of THEY are.
“The survey was millennials between 25 and 34, so it excludes college kids.”
What’s the meaning of this shit?!? I am getting tired of seeing generational surveys of Millennials broken up by years to skew the data. Especially when it comes to teenage vs. college vs. older millennials. No wonder there are so much contradicting information and ridiculous stereotyping. This is the same way they break down the numbers for youth unemployment, underemployment, and student loan debt. It is just a way for them to mangle the information and lie!
Steph-
I did a little bit of research into Chartwells and their cost averaging system. Wow, that’s quite the scam. The use of the word “dining” is genius. It implies white cloth napkins and bone china when they actually mean a single cup of watered down coffee in a wax cup.
It’s mandatory for all freshmen to purchase a ‘dining plan’ that includes 10 ‘meals’ per week.
The term ‘meal’ is actually the average of all purchses made divided by the number of ‘guests’- so someone buying a soda just ate one of their 10 weekly ‘meals’.
Mandatory dining, guaranteed malnourishment. Such a deal!
And they make movies about the mafia like they’re organized crime.
HSF inspired me to look at the numbers. I’m 6′ 3″ and weigh about 204 lbs. I don’t know how many calories I consume per day, but I imagine it’s less than 2800. A typical summer menu for me (it’s summer where I live) consists of two coffees with milk (grind my own) and toast with garlic, olive oil and tomato. The coffee beans go for about eleven bucks a pound, so call it 37 cents a day, take it to 40 with the milk, the bread couldn’t cost more than ten cents, I grow the tomatoes, the olive oil, maybe another ten cents. Breakfast = sixty cents. Lunch consists of a 100-150 gram portion of meat/chicken/fish, plus rice/pasta/potato, and a variety of veggies, all home grown: the spuds, onion, peppers, carrots, squash, etc. Cost a buck fifty tops. Supper varies, but costs no more than a buck. Snacks are fruit (home grown) and sometimes salted peanuts, my weakness, that run a bit over a buck fifty a pound, figure two ounces, less than 20 cents. I drink only water and fruit juice (homemade), so let’s figure with margin for error on the upside that I spend under five bucks a day to eat. Granted, I live outside the US and grow a lot of my own stuff and lead a fairly spartan life, so I’m inclined to agree with HSF that the numbers presented in the article are not exactly accurate.
Now I feel more like a spaceman than ever!
HFS- My required meal plan while living in the dorms was $1,300 per semester (2004 dollars). My dorm costs were $1,200 per semester. My meal plan cost more than living in the actual dorm. After my first semester in college I still had 130 “meals” left on my swipe card out of 150 I started the semester with because I never ate in the dining hall. I was required to live on campus for my freshman year. I moved off campus at the first chance I got.
What money Minnie’s don’t spend on food they spend on ink. The most colorful generation in history.
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It will be very interesting to see what they look like in another 20 years as the lines on their tats widen and fade. (See ladies face below) I’ll be walking around saying “Hey Man great tat who does your work” then I’ll smile and walk off.
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Sensetti- Right, because we all know Millennials are the first generation to get tattoos in history.
[img]http://www.indiepixunlimited.com/image/233919&w=398[/img]
HS, I believe the average female consumption does amount to about 1800 a day, which is way too much for most women over the age of 35. That average is arrived at by averaging the fatties who consume 4000 a day with women who live on toast and tea, and barely consume 800. I think of the middle-age female body as a Fat Storage Device. At my age, you have the metabolism of a mollusk, and gain weight from even looking at certain foods.
I try to keep it at 400 calories for breakfast, 350 for lunch and 350 for dinner. I also keep it under $7 a day. My total bill for groceries, including non-food items like cleaning products, cat litter, and cat food, and a couple of meals out a month, is less than $200. Things like oatmeal, cranberry juice, milk, chicken, and vegetables are the largest part of my diet. If I let consumption creep over 1200 calories a day, I gain weight.
For reference those tats on the ladies face above are just over twenty years old. Do you think she might have had any second thoughts regarding the aesthetic value of a tattoo?
Clammy never said Minnie’s where first, the lady above is over 50. I said no generation in history is as inked up as the Minnie’s. There has been an explosion in tattoo shops opening up which is a direct result of Minnie’s seeking ink.
Sensetti- Most of those pictures you will find of young and pretty 20 somethings girls with that many tattoos are models. Many get their tattoos for free because they are in magazines. There is an entire model/tattoo business out there. Otherwise those tattoos above would cost anywhere between $3,000-10,000 for your average person who is not a tattoo model. Other people with full sleeves and full back tattoos, you can assume those people work in the business.
“history is as inked up as the Minnie’s.”
Yeah, because I saw so many Millennials walking around in the Central Arkansas area with an excessive amount of tattoos.
Clammy that pic you posted is a great example look at his left arm it looks like a black blob of ink. Tats look like shit over time and Minnie’s are going to learn that lesson in mass.
Sensetti- You do know that picture is of Sailor Jerry, right?
While we are here we should touch on the subject of the Obesity crisis that’s spreading like wild fire amongst the Minnie’s. Clammy should you decide to tackle that subject in a post title it.
Fat, Inked, and Broke.
I don’t care about fat people.
I understand that due to the wide range of ages in our household and the extreme levels of calories burned on average combined with the number of calories we produce on farm for our consumption as opposed to what we buy in- predominantly citrus/coffee/tea/oils/nuts/olives/chocolate that cost slightly more than average cost per calorie foods most Americans buy- coupled with the fact that we rarely eat out, makes it much harder to cost estimate out calories per dollar.
I can only go by the numbers offered in that article, the averge caloric consumption put out by the USDA, and the cost per calorie based on known foods and prices on a natioinal level to determine that not much in that article is factual or based on any kind of sound science or basic math. Add to it the number of obese/overweight americans I can see with my own eyes, the cost of all that travel- eating out implies carbon use/wear and tear on vehicles whether privately owned or mass transit, waste disposal of all the packaging associated with prepared or eaten out food, transportation costs of moving all that crap from point A to point B- I can only imagine what I’m leaving out- and you come to the conclusion that there isn’t anything remotely close to the truth in it except that maybe the younger generation is even less able to feed itself and manage the basics of nutrition and home economics than the last one did.
What is happening in our current culture that promotes individual health or is beneficial to the long term survival of modern society? Is there anything at all?
Slightly OT, but in my neck of the woods there is a movement afoot to limit the use of EBT cards for tattoos, alcohol, lap dances, cigarettes and weed.
What can you say?
http://www.unionleader.com/article/20150125/NEWS0621/150129433&source=RSS
Link above
HSF- Wouldn’t do any good considering you can trade food stamps for cash for $0.50 on the dollar. These people are kidding themselves if they think food stamps don’t have an exchange rate into physical U.S. Dollars.
No clammy I don’t know sailor Jerry and really don’t know if I want to know how you know him. Did you work in San Diego?
Sorry, it’s off to the mill for me, have a great day!!
Sensetti- In the tattoo world this is Before Sailor Jerry and After Sailor Jerry. He brought tattoo artistry to American culture. He is the one who started tattooing sailors in the navy during WW2. He is the one who brought us the pin up girl culture. He revolutionized the entire industry with his tattoo gun designs. He is godfather of American tattoo culture. IF you have no idea who Sailor Jerry is you know nothing about tattoos.
Steph- I don’t know for certain, but EBT have all but replaced foodstamps and you can take an EBT to a automatic teller and withdrawl the cash on a 1:1 basis. They just don’t want folks causing a kerfuffle with crotchety oldsters like the lady in article who flat out refused to sell ciggys to the welfare recipient with his EBT card. He got the cigs, she got canned.
Of course they spend their money eating out, little geniuses were too busy with five night a week after curriculum activities to learn how to take care of themselves.
Ok, I’ll even go a step further, so many came from homes where the parents couldn’t do it either.
Why do we blame the children for the parents’ deficiencies?
This is what pisses me off. I sit back and listen to parents bitching about their adult children, “they don’t…” “they can’t…” “they won’t…” and it never occurs to them WHY?
Want to know why they buy new cars they can’t afford, eat out, eat crap, get ink and are becoming landwhales? Because they saw their freaking parents do it. The little Millennial darlings have not awoken in a bubble, or cave, and found they were raised by aliens or wolves. Last I checked OUR fellow citizens raised them.
Adults that can’t cook come from homes where either mom & dad NEVER trained their kids on life skills (bet they don’t understand compound interest or the shackles of debt either), OR homes that didn’t cook.
We, as a society, are incapable of the least basic of skills that will be necessary again. THIS Is why the government is planning for our encamped futures!
Not only does cooking with your kids provide uninterrupted, quality, conversation, it teaches them lifelong skills that a growing segment of our population will have to pay someone else to do.
One of my greatest sources of pride is my son’s cooking. I just wish he’d invite momma for dinner more often.
@Chicago, wow, you seem so regimented. I have NO idea how many calories I consume, and as I go out of my way to consume a couple tablespoons of real, natural, fat a day, it is probably a lot more than I think.
Calorie needs are not as simple as a chart, or box, tells us. They fluctuate depending on things like environment, activity, health status. Scientific fact, when it is super cold, our bodies burn up a huge amount of calories attempting to keep us from freezing to death. So 1800 calories in January may leave you wanting and tired, while the same 1800 during a 95 degree day of ease will quickly be converted to fat.
The reason I don’t pay attention to calories is that I have finally gotten my emotional/mindless eating under control AND I shoot to primarily eat nutrient dense real food. Eating low-fat is what has contributed to this calorie-obsessive country. F&*k worrying about calories, worry about getting enough natural fat and protein to counteract the depletion of testosterone that leads to belly fat.
When my daily physical activity ebbs, or I start eating the standard American diet of too many carbs and not enough real fat/or added fake fats (McDs fries) and I don’t curb my portion sizes or stop myself from eating 3 squares of chocolate instead of one, then I start to gain weight. The surest way to put on pounds is starving during the day and eating a high-carb treat before bed. I’ll gain five pounds in a week with that diet no matter the calories.
I’m so glad I don’t spend my life obsessing over fake foods, sunscreen and calories. So very glad.
HSF- Not all cards will allow the 1:1 ratio of converting to direct funds. They have limits on who can or can’t receive money through their cards. However, for those who can’t get direct money they can barter and take a friend/family shopping in exchange for cash at half value.
“However, for those who can’t get direct money they can barter and take a friend/family shopping in exchange for cash at half value.”
And with that the Federal Government has moved the entire economic system back into the days of pre-history.
And all the modern economists call the barter system a failure.
I agree with the article. My children eat out, but they are not too bad. They were raised in a home where we did not go out for meals; almost everything was home-cooked. My son makes his own lunches, occasionally eating out at work. He and his friends do go out to pubs, dinners, movies, but he is listening to me and he’s saving some and spending some.
As for getting tats, I told my kids that one small one might be okay, but anything more is just drawing on yourself and they might as well do that with felt pens. A lady I casually knew had her legs completely tattooed. Might have looked nice when she was young (although I can’t see it), but now that she’s in her 50’s, uughh! God awful! The big red roses look wilted and faded, like they died on the vine.
I agree with TE. Most often, what you learn at home will be transferred into your own life. Teach your children well.
As for calories, I do watch them somewhat, but chocolate is a draw for me. I try to exercise and eat well. I was blessed with a good body, but as you get older, it’s harder and harder to maintain that.
TE, I try to incorporate a little fat in my diet, and have a penchant for oysters cooked in ways that aren’t known to be slimming. So, through the week, I eat very lightly. On my one “indulgent” weekend day, I eat very early in the day. I also have a weakness for exotic cheeses, which are also fattening, but at least they are so expensive that you can only eat a very little at a time. Lots of skim milk and cocoa with artificial sweetener- I don’t care what anyone says, saccharine is a life saver, though I avoid the other types of sweeteners.
@Chicago, I know it goes against 30 years of our pumped in health “facts” but here is the truth: skim milk and low fat foods with, or without, artificial sweeteners set your body up to gain weight.
Skim milk is like drinking protein-added sugar water. Your body immediately converts it to fat unless you are actively burning it.
I lost weight when I stopped eating lowfat. And I changed my carbs from bleached & processed, to varietal and closer to nature. Using pistachios or almonds or fried (in coconut oil with a little whole-wheat flour or garbanzo bean flour) onions, and coconut oil, I eat “breaded” foods as often as I like.
You eat in nearly the exact way I did throughout the 90s. Everyday was a fight for the belly flab, which I allowed commercials, magazines and doctors to convince me was MY problem.
Human machines NEED fat. Everyday. Our brains demand it, our guts demand it, our skin, hair, nails and eyes demand it.
Your “indulgence” is probably one of the healthiest things you do as long you aren’t paring the cheese with lots of high-carb/fake-carb crackers and the like.
Did you know that around 50% of the nutrition in a salad cannot be digested/absorbed by our bodies without REAL fat? (Not vegetable/canola/soybean or cotton, but REAL oil. Olive, coconut, nut oils – walnut is great in a vinaigrette, even butter).
Anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox now. I just know that this bullshit calorie counting/fake food/low fat/high carb diets are KILLING us. We have been sold a complete bill of goods friend.
My weight is within two pounds of what I weighed when I was 28 and eating low-fat. Except now I eat steak, and chicken carbonara, and oven-fried chicken thighs, and coconut oil coffee, with whole milk, and I am almost NEVER truly hungry, have no need for most snacks and am at peace with food for the first time in my life.
Oh yeah, I don’t have to work out like a fiend like I did to maintain this weight back in ’99. Not only was I starving, my cholesterol was high AND I worked out three to five times a week for an hour or more.
High fat, low exercise, no fight and have maintained my weight for nearly a year while eating bacon and steaks, along with baked fries and creamed spinach.
Hugs girl!
They are just too freaking lazy to cook. Ignorant about the poison they consume. I think everyone should take their time and appretiate what they are eating. If SHTF, You just may not eat that well.
While I’m not a “millennial” I’ll bite and say I do eat out a fair amount as part of the maligned Gen X generation. Having no kids means that we do have the disposable income for a meal out every week.
What I find most interesting is that millennials eat at shit restaurants. Calling Chipotle “quality” only counts when you compare it to McShits. I’ve had their 1000 calorie burritos before and while ok they sure ain’t gourmet. Fast-casual is really a farce. Two burritos, couple sodas and some chips/salsa is easily a $25 meal for junk. If you don’t include alcohol you can eat a very decent restaurant cooked meal for $50…and I am talking white table cloth kinda stuff. Don’t even get me started of the complete rip off the coffee shops are.
This book will challenge everything you THINK you know about fats.
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http://www.amazon.com/s/185-5669726-4798937?ie=UTF8&field-keywords=good%20fat%20bad%20fat%20book&index=blended&link_code=qs&sourceid=Mozilla-search&tag=mozilla-20
Can’t cook.
Can’t clean.
Can’t repair.
Won’t read.
Can’t write.
Can’t spell.
Can’t show up on time.
Can’t maintain a relationship.
Can’t save.
Can’t do math.
Can’t run a mile.
Can’t keep their word.
But they will vote to have government force others to do as much of the above as possible.
@tumbleweed
Can you show me where Gen X or Y is any different?
Or even the majority of still-working boomers?
They are the direct result of our tutelage. Just as we were the direct result of our parents.
I’m hard pressed to see many my age that are any different from your list. Most common comment upon entering my home? “Wow, did you read all those books?” After seeing my spice cabinet, “Wow, do you use all those spices?”
And it is never a millennial uttering it.
As a trucking guy I can tell you I eat out 100% of the time when I am on the road.We get 59 dollars per day allowance from the IRS (PER DIEM ).I still can eat 3 good meals a day for about 30 dollars.I usually stay in the truck and eat with little bb.He eats tuna .I eat just about anything that comes in a can.
30 times 30 =900 dollars a month if I eat in the restaurants.I can go to Wal-Mart and get 300 worth can goods that will last most of the month.
You all should get used to eating cold food out of cold cans.It’s not that hard once you get the hang of it.
TE – thanks for the great points! Stucky, I’ll have to get that book. Thanks. the tumbleweed – I think that describes almost the whole population. I agree with TE: how can you do any differently than what you’ve been taught by your parents? I’ve seen “mall kids” who turn out to be “mall adults” because that’s what they learned.
backwardsevolution
I very rarely post a book link that I haven’t read myself. I read that book about 10 years ago. It is THE book that started me on my quest to learn more about good nutrition — the real truth …. not the lies the FDA, the press, fake authors, physicians who took maybe one nutrition course, and people of such ilk have told me.
I think you’ll like it. I read it at the local library.
While we’re on the subject of carbs, Karl Denninger mounts the soapbox from time to time and is spot-on, IMO…
http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?singlepost=3357187
The very first line of the very first comment was Clammy saying she has ” eaten out regularly”.
I was too afraid to read any further. It could have scarred me for life.
Wife and I went out to our favorite Mexican place for dinner Sat. night. The place is staffed my still wet beaners and the food is excellent! It’s two towns away in a college town and well worth the drive.
A girl came in wearing all the latest college gear asking if she could use her food stamp card to eat there.
What the minnies need is another minnie to explain to them how bad they are fucking their lives up.
Hardscrabble says:
“If we are supposed to believe that the average spending on food per day is less than $7 either in or out of restaurants someone is delusional.”
A McDonalds double cheeseburger has 430 calories.
The McDonalds double cheeseburger is on the “dollar menu.”
2700 c/ 430 c = 6.27 double cheeseburgers.
6.27 cheese burgers = $6.27
“Junk food = junk math?”
LOL
Hardscrabble, I suggest you check your premise:
You can consume 3000 calories/day at McDonalds for about $7 dollars/day.
This is a fact.
I’m no expert on millennials but what I notice is that my millennial renters all have pizza and other foods delivered A LOT. One couple had pizza delivered at least 3 times a week or they ate out, I truly doubt the girl could cook. And the guy (over weight) once mentioned he had high blood pressure, AYSM mid-twenties and the kid has high blood pressure? Of course this kid would go for a walk just about every day; there was a store nearby and he would walk down there and return with a bag of potato chips and two cokes. I don’t know what can you say?
Americans lot in life these days is to live the good life. Hard work, personal responsibility, frugality, that’s all so old fashioned.
@yourmotherwaswrong.
Please don’t figure your future doctor’s visits, disability payments, insulin, blood pressure pills, statins and fake, no-fat, no-nutrition food you will be forced to eat once that “Inexpensive” diet’s true costs come out.
The cost of our food is NOT just the price paid at the register, it IS the cost of our aches, pains, illnesses, bad moods, fat asses and that is just the beginning costs.
Just like tvs, we tend to subsidize the front end and totally ignore the true costs that come three years down the road. Why bother forcing people/companies to pay for their actual cost to our world?
PS, even though you would not feel “hungry” the truth is that fast food constant eating is starving us to death. There is not enough nutrition in that crap to make up for the calories burned trying to digest it.
Nutrient dense foods may seem “more expensive,” the truth is that once you fix your body from artificially craving the chemicals (which are made to make you crave them), it takes very little actual, rich, delicious, real food to satisfy your nutritional needs and produce satiety.