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Hopefully, everyone is doing well on their New Year’s resolution. Whether it’s exercising, eating better, or even learning something new, something more Americans should consider adding to their lists is tightening up their finances.
In a recent survey of 2,000 people across the United States, completed by Hloom.com, over 8 out of 10 Americans admit that they waste money. Doesn’t that number seem a bit low, though? I feel like I buy something dumb at least once a month, if not more often. If you are included in the 20% of the Americans who don’t waste cash, please let me know the secret to your success.
Money Wasters
Over 70% of us Americans waste money on food. Included in this figure, 33% admit to throwing out uneaten food. Meanwhile, 25% of people say that they spend too much on groceries. Some would wonder if this is causation or correlation 🙂
Source: HLoom.com
Interestingly enough, every generation agreed that they spend too much money on eating out. In the survey, Millennials were the generation that wasted the most money eating out. I wonder– is this because Millennials haven’t learned to cook yet, or because Baby Boomers don’t think they waste money when they eat out?
Another eye-opening stat was that the second largest spending category for Baby Boomers is cable TV. If you notice, Millennials don’t even have cable TV as a category. The closest that they come to regret around entertainment is through streaming services, which ranks #6 on their list. If you weren’t aware of how prevalent cord-cutting is, now you know.
On top of that, Millennials were the only group in which cigarettes didn’t make it on the list. Hopefully that’s because less Millennials are addicted to them in comparison to previous generations.
Breakdown by States
Source: HLoom.com
Leading the pack when it comes to wasting money in this area are: Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. In contrast, the New England states waste money eating out by almost 15% less, at 62%. California, Oregon, and Washington follow not too far behind.
It won’t surprise you to find out that those states that eat out the most are in the top 7 fattest states in America. The states in which people eat out the least are among the least likely to be obese. Interesting correlation, huh?
Changes In Spending Habits
Source: HLoom.com
At the top of the list, people are willing to cut back on eating out and alcohol. In the same breath though, they aren’t willing to cut back on their grocery bill and throwing out uneaten food. I would think if you cut back on your grocery shopping that you might throw out less uneaten and spoiled food.
On top of that, people were willing to reduce their electricity bills but weren’t willing to reduce the amount spent on cell phones and tech gadgets. I wonder what they are planning to plug their gadgets into.
How Each Gender Wastes Money
Source: HLoom.com
Both men and women tend to waste cash similarly. In fact, 8 out of the 10 categories overlap, with eating out at #1 by a landslide. The main differences include women’s regret of spending money on clothes and cell phones/bills, while men regret their tech gadgets and cable/digital TV.
On top of that, I thought it was interesting that more men find themselves wasteful compared to women, 19.8% vs. 14%.
Money Saving Tips
Source: HLoom.com
As you can see from this survey, we Americans waste too much money on unnecessary things. Whether it’s eating out too much, buying alcohol or watching too much TV, we can do better when it comes to spending our dollars wisely.
By making a few small changes with our expenses, we can save substantial amounts of money without affecting the quality of our lives.
This is crazy fascinating! And soooooo in order with stereotypes. I’m not at all surprised that both coasts throw so much at food. That’s where all the Top Chef-y, non big chainy stuff concentrate. The bottle water expense is kind of painful! What a complete waste!
Oh oops, wait reverse that, it’s south central US?! Now that’s surprising!
Hahahah…yeah it’s crazy how everything worked out. I definitely didn’t think this was the case.
It depends on how the question was asked. My interpretation is that this data highlights values and guilt. If an individual values eating out (stereotypically people on the coasts as you mention), then those individuals wouldn’t respond that eating out is wasteful. Instead, it’s something they enjoy and value the experience with little desire to modify their behaviors.
Wow great observation Jess!!! I didn’t even think of the guilt association but you are totally right. If those are the things that you value, it definitely wouldn’t be wasteful. I know I don’t view it as wasteful when I step out for lunch 🙂
I am guilty eating out a bit more than I should and I think that there is definitely a correlation with wasting food. One of the tricks that I use is to buy a bit less grocery when I am shopping. when I cook at home, I just make a bit more so I have to bag my own lunch. This trick kills two bird with one stone – eating out less and waste less food.
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At my favorite restaurant I try to save the food to make two meals out of it. That way I never waste it and I’m always super pumped that I get to eat it two days in a row 🙂
I was surprised and not so surprised at the eating out verdict. That’s one thing hubby and use have been working on for years but haven’t had much success with yet. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that we are too lazy to cook but still want to eat delicious food. Hmm
Hahhahaha….my wife makes delicious food and I still want to eat out from time to time 🙂
Glad not to see cigarettes on the Millennials list…finally!
I am currently working on reducing our grocery budget and food waste. It can be quite a challenge in a family of five when the kids are older.
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I was ecstatic to see that cigarettes were off the list as well. Hopefully that will finally put a dent in the tobacco companies profits 🙂
I admit that I am wasteful when it comes to food. I am wasteful in the sense that we spend WAY too much money on food, but we hardly let any food go to waste so there is that. But we need to really curtail our food budget.
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Thanks for sharing Jason!!! My wife and I do a pretty good job with food although I definitely need to cut down on my cookie consumption 🙂
We have an eating out budget and follow it pretty well. It does feel good to eat out once in a while because you don’t have to cook; people don’t feel like cooking all the time no matter how much they admit otherwise. At the same time, a balance should be achieved. When we are low on funds, HELLO TACO BELL! 🙂
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Hahhaha…when you said Hello Taco Bell…it reminded me of a comedian that use to say, “what’s that smell…taco bell” 🙂
Interesting to see how spending changes based on age demographics. We are pretty frugal by nature, so we do not focus on cutting back much. Tom
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Thanks for sharing Tom!!! That’s awesome to hear that you have your spending under control. I definitely need to do a better job 🙂
Eating out less is one of the things we’re working on this year. We’re looking at eating out by at least 50% less. In the past years, we did have a habit of going grocery shopping and still ended up eating out when we get home. And when we cooked food at home we usually cooked so much and ended up with a lot of leftovers, and guess what nobody wants to eat them again.
50% less – nice job!!
Hahahha…there are specific items that I tell my wife to make extra of and others that I hate left overs from 🙂 Thankfully she listens but she also LOVES leftovers 🙂
I spend too much eating out as well. It makes sense though that it’s the most people waste money on while also being the most people are willing to reduce – it’s just an easy thing to reduce. Other things don’t seems as possible, like utilities and thus such.
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I definitely agree it seems tough to lower much with utilities unless you start lowering temperatures in the house or cutting back on water usage 🙂
Really interesting stuff I love the visuals, easy to digest.
Eating out isn’t always a waste of money to me, networking lunches or business brunch can be OK in my opinion because of the investment side of it that could come back to help you. Although I prefer grabbing a coffee over the others , so then I can bring my own tea
Great points Chris!!! Business lunches are definitely worth it especially when you expand your network 🙂
Nice mustard
These seem like typixal results you would almost expect. Going on for food is always crazy, even mcdonalds costs a bit now. We love to go out for sushi, to save money we just go out for lunch all the time. Its about half the price and service is generally better. We cut cable and Ive also quit smoking which saves alot of money, over 1600 so far.
Always nice to see what we can improve on though. Wasted food always pisses me off!
Cheers
Rob
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Congrats on quitting smoking and that’s a great idea to go during lunch when prices are cheaper for sushi. I definitely need to do that!!!
Interesting statistics! Like SMM, we have an eating out budget and follow it pretty closely. We try to make it go further by not ordering alcohol, appetizers, or desserts, and by getting special deals or using coupons. Unless it’s really a special occasion. And we’re trying to do better on not wasting food.
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Thanks for sharing Gary!!! Sounds like a lot of us are doing well with the budgeting of going out and trying to do a better job of not wasting food at home 🙂
Super interesting, Rob! Thanks for sharing these stats. I am not surprised at all that eating out is the top category across the age groups. We have managed to get down to eating out once, at most, twice per month and the savings have really added up.
That’s awesome that you dropped it down to once or twice a month. I definitely need to start doing that 🙂
Love this study! I don’t waste money eating out, thankfully. Food waste? Still a work in progress!
That’s awesome you don’t waste money eating out. I definitely wish I did a better job in that area 🙂
Statistics presented in cool, colorful graphs and maps? I’M IN!
Wow, this is some revealing stuff. I guess I’m not surprised eating out is the highest spending category for most. Everyone has to eat.
I like the generational comparisons. Once you see the stats, they seem obvious. Funny to see that data backs up societal stereotypes about what each generation spends money on.
I find the credit card spending the most revealing. I would like to see this data compared to relative debt and savings for each generation.
I’m glad you enjoyed the article. I definitely agree that it’s really interesting to see how it looks compared to generational spending. It was definitely eye opening 🙂
Ughhh, food waste is what kills me, and I’m totally guilty of it, too. I think it’s harder to realize you’re throwing money away because our brains classify it as “trash.”
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I’m right there with you, now if we could imagine it as dollars going into the trash can that might change our perspective 🙂
I have cut my eating out to once a month and it has saved me a lot of money.
Thanks for sharing Steven!!! That’s awesome that you were able to cut it down to once per month!!!
Great post! We really need to limit our eating out and have tamped down, either by cutting amount of times per month we eat out or by eating a less expensive (read tasty ethnic) places. I think people tend to forget that quick convenience lunches or take-outs also are dine-outs that really add up over time. That $10/day lunch equals $2400 (assuming 5 day work week/4 weeks vacation). It is so tough for us to cut back on our actual ordering once we have decided to eat out. Bottles of wine will definitely be on our bill even though I know it is such a waste. I need to get more disciplined there!
So so so very happy that cigarette waste is through the floor!
Thanks for sharing Heather!!! I’m right there with you when it comes to eating out. I need to do a better job of that. It definitely adds up over time and sometimes it’s not nearly as good as what I make at home 🙂
Wow! I just wrote a post about things we have cut from our monthly bills that saves us more than $400 a month. I am very surprised at the things people are unwilling to cut back on which explains why so many people in America live in debt. More than 8 in 10 do and accept that they will die living in debt. I for one refuse to live paycheck to paycheck. We are almost done paying off all our debts and will then tackle the mortgage next.
Thanks for sharing Monica!!! Congrats on paying down your debt. Having paid off my mortgage I can tell you that once you pay off your mortgage it’s a game changer 🙂
Interesting read! And so different from here (Netherlands)! We almost never eat out. I cook 7 days a week. Sometimes we go out for dinner or get take out, but those are rare occasions. I know there are people who order food like once per week, but I don’t think there are a lot who do it more often! This year I’m going to try and spend less money on clothes. That’s one thing that always gets out of control!
Thanks for sharing Johanne!!! That’s awesome to hear that you eat in all the time. That’s a great habit to have 🙂
What an interesting post! Eating out and expired food are total on the top of my list. It is my goal for 2018 to get better in both of these areas. I feel like even switching from buying a drink when you go out to eat to just drinking water could save SO much!
I switched over to drinking water and it definitely saves me a couple of bucks. It all adds up 🙂
The diagrams in this post tell the story easily and colorfully. I like how you compared these different generations of people. Funny how no one thinks they waste quite as much money as they do or that the other generations are worse. Bottom line, we all waste money and can do better. What I really hate seeing is so much food from restaurants and groceries going to waste when so many poor people go hungry. There must be a better way to manage our resources.
Hahaha…that is the truth. Everyone thinks every other generation has it wrong 🙂
So many times I eat out and end up unsatisfied with the food. Home-cooked is always so much better. I recently went to a restaurant and ordered minestrone soup. It was an Italian place so I thought minestrone soup would be a safe bet. I didn’t know it was possible to mess up soup that bad. I was not able to eat it but I also am not one to send food back-I think that is rude and maybe I am just being picky. Still, I was glad I only wasted money on a bowl of soup and not an entire meal. It was a good reminder to just stay home and cook exactly what I want exactly the way I want it prepared.
Hahaha…my wife feels the same exact way. There are things that I don’t cook as well…like BBQ that I’m happy to spend the money on. Otherwise, it makes more sense for me to stay in and eat at home 🙂
I thought we were doing really well until I reviewed our annual credit card spending breakdown (we charge everything possible to earn cash back (we pay off our balance every month). We were shocked to discover we spent $14,000.00 on food last year! We are doing mini goals this year – January was spend less on food. We got it down to $300. We are almost at the end of February and have spent just a little more than $300.00 (added mini goal of frugal fun for February, we entertained more than usual).
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Wow going from spending more than $1,000 a month to $300 a month is huge cost savings. Congrats I know that must be quite the sacrifice. Great job!!!