We the genZ love eating out a lot, and spending time with our friends or ourselves at any restaurant or cafe in the evening time for dinner or just chilling casually.
This trend is on the rise in India.
After the boom of UPI, the spending mechanism has become easier for the new generation. They hate to keep the cash or even the wallet in their pocket. if you disagree with me you can comment down below.
Nowadays for eating out, you don’t even need cash in your bank account, There’re many BNPL (Buy Now Pay Later) apps available in the market that provide short-term loans for such small expenses. And it gradually becoming a habit of young Indian consumers.
Eating out or eating outside food has included the factor of hidden cost of convenience
Before 3 to 4 years, the boom of Jio or the internet in India, People also used to eat outside, but now the scale and tarika (method) have changed.
Many instant food delivery apps like Swiggy and Zomato are making it a factor of convenience, anybody who knows the decent use of their mobile phone and knows how to use UPI can conveniently order food, from the comfort of their couch in their home.
But there’s a big hidden psychological cost involved in it. The cost of convenience. You may feel like giving or paying less, but instead, you’re paying more than the actual price of the dish or food if you dine in the restaurant directly. And sometimes if you are paying through your credit card or BNPL apps it just feels like a smooth transition of slides and buttons but in the gap of that, you spend more than Rs.500 which is even the average income of most of the young generation in the country.
if you see the above chart the average value is more than Rs.450, and the average daily income of Indians is 500, so most of them spend more than 90% of their earning just for eating out. If you see the first chart of Statista you’ll find that the age group between 16 – 44 prefer more to spend to eating outside at least once every day, several times a week or once a week.
and this thing is horrifying!
How did eating out become a habit?
The primary reason these days is the social media and the FOMO factor. People especially the younger generation Gen Z and Gen Alpha, consume food-related content every day on their social media feeds or reel videos, and generally those videos create dopamine hits in their brand and create food cravings.
The ease of accessibility
After they get the craving for food, they even don’t need to go out to dine, because of the ease of accessibility with their smartphone. They order with Swiggy, and Zomato and mostly pay through online payment methods only which are generally prepaid.
the younger generation uses cash payments or COD very less, and that’s why the value they are paying seems much less. Generally, when you pay for something with hard cash you feel the pain why giving it.
Emotional Triggers
Generally social media content, and FOMO all trigger them emotionally to order food and eat. Cooking food at home is a matter of great effort. You’ve to go for shopping for vegetables, which costs money for fuel and vegetables, and then you have to cook, then also costs money, time and and lot of preparation before starting cooking. Which almost takes an hour or two everyday.
But ease of convenience, accessibility, emotional triggers and the facility of getting food in your hand in less than 30 minutes are the main reasons behind it.
But how you are getting poor by the above eating out?
Cumulative cost over time
Let’s assume you earn Rs.1000 every day and for one time meal, you order outside food. Let’s assume you are spending Rs.400 every day on outside food. if we calculate it monthly you are spending more than Rs.12,000 just for outside food, which is almost more than 40% of your total monthly income. And yes I’ve put your daily earnings at Rs.1000.
if you are earning around Rs.800 then assume that almost 50% or more you are spending on it. and this is not the only reason.
The recurring increase in monthly interests
When you order, sometimes or most of the time, you must have using the ease of payment methods like BNPL, credit cards etc which cost interest on the principal amount spent.
If you don’t pay the principal amount of the credit card within the given period of 30 or 50 days, due to your low earning potential and lower salary, you end up paying interest on credit cards just for your eating outside food.
In my point of view, this is a crime. This is a crime you do to hurt yourself in the future.
The Impact on Your Savings and Financial Goals
The loans, expenses, and interests damage your savings and future financial goals badly. They take months and years to recover and come out of the debt trap.
Many people just try to clear the minimum payment due on their credit card, which is a blunder, because they are just paying the interest on their monthly interest, and not even touching their principal amount.
Generally, youngsters dream of having their own house or having their choice of vehicle etc. and most of them work hard and are talented. But the debt trap due to their credit habit due to their eating out practice makes them poor eventually which in turn impacts their saving, investment and financial goals.
Comparing Eating Out vs. Cooking at Home
Cost Comparison
Let’s assume you eat fried rice every day outside and this is your favourite food. Let’s compare it if you cook it in your home everyday how much will cost vs eating out and having it?
For cooking a plate of fried rice, you need rice, let’s assume you purchase good quality sona masoori rice, you spend around Rs.1500 for a packet of the rice bag, and suppose for all the masalas like Salt, spices you spend another Rs.500 for the whole month, and if you are a vegetarian or non-vegetarian, then you spend on eggs at rs.5 or 6 each. and for fuel, you may spend around Rs.1000 for a gas cylinder depending on the city you are living in.
and if we add more vegetables. and make the amount much bigger than this it’s not going anywhere more than Rs.10,000. But if you are eating out you already seen the data above in the starting paragraphs of the article. I think you got my point.
Health and Financial Benefits of Home-Cooked Meals
When you cook your meal at home, you take care of everything. You select the best ingredients, quality vegetables, raw materials, and spices, and you clean utensils, and cutleries before the preparation. You start in a clean kitchen environment.
You can even customize the preparation surroundings as per your choice. Some even play bhajans to make it satwik or a positive vibe while cooking food. and while cooking eating at home, makes you less sick and prone to food poisoning compared to eating out in crowded busy restaurants, where you can’t determine the cooking hygiene and mindset, or the quality of raw materials used to cook there.
Psychological and Lifestyle Traps
Keeping Up with Appearances with colleagues and Friends
If you are in India, the choice is a lot more than any other place. The street food gets you more attracted to order, especially if you are with friends you go with the flow and spend more out of your ticket. I don’t know about girls but boys generally don’t share the expenses, some guys pay for all their gangs, which ends up in a huge bill.
FOMO and Dining Out Trends
When your friends and colleagues are going to restaurants, clubs, movies dining out having fun, posting them on their story on social media, you get the FOMO. You get the mood to travel, dine and eat photographs in the restaurant with a plastic smile, even though the bill is costing you money, just for complete ego and FOMO satisfaction.
These are all you can avoid, if you stay away from toxic friendships, share the bill among all, or keep away from those FOMO content on social media, you can do much better with your personal finance and future financial goals.
Tips to Break the Cycle
Mindful Eating and Spending
After all, it’s your money. You can do anything with it. Think if you have any family responsibilities, or future financial goals like buying your own house, staying independent, or financially free, retire early, you have to go beyond what the regular guys do.
Morgan Housel, the author of the book ‘Psychology of Money’ said that while you are young, getting FOMO is a fact but you can’t just spend out of fear. You’ve to look for the future plan your retirement & live a frugal life with as little money as possible and try to inculcate a saving habit in your daily life.
You can invest or not, it’s totally up to you, but saving from your salary at least, 20 to 30% is mandatory to have an emergency fund or to face dark situations in the future with more strength and resilience.
Eating at home is the key to saving more. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t stop eating out You can spend eating out a few days in a month like once a week or going to a movie once or twice a month is really good for you to break from the work pressure and clutter mindset and good for your mental health.
Small changes like taking your lunch box to your workplace can save you a lot in the lunch break and make a big impact. Hosting your friends or colleagues at your place and presenting the handmade delicacies of your home town or that represent your culture can make your bond even more stronger without going for any fancy casual restaurant.
Generally new generation avoids this and feels shame. But the pure friends feel this as a blessing and pure bonding forms with such small small gestures and small changes in your life.
So, think before you spend. you have a future to plan and spend. You have a life to retire. There you’ll have no earning opportunities. You have to start planning for it.
All the best!
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