Have you seen the debate about avocado toast? I find the whole debate rather amusing and I think in some cases people are missing the point. The point being it is very easy to spend a lot of money on small items that when you step back and look at the cost from an annual basis, can add up to a sizable sum. In this case, I don't think it's fair to pick on the millennials. I see a fair number of people from my generation (gen-x) spending money every day on breakfast and lunch, and beer and wine. Yes, we own homes but we were not saddled with the amount of college loan debt as our children. In our case, we are putting off retirement or not saving for retirement with our daily purchase of breakfast and lunch, easily $15 - $20 a day.
My advice? Follow David Bach's approach. Save first with an automatic transfer, then allocate a set amount for important things like catnip! Be choosy, don't blindly spend all your money on silly stuff. This applies to all of us, not just millennials. Now, you'll have to excuse me, I'm going to make some avocado toast. Yum.
