An astounding 88% of millennials are forgoing everyday goods and services to make larger purchases of up to $1,000, according to new research from Commonwealth Bank’s StepPay.
Although millennials are considered good savers, spending habits have shifted over recent months. In fact, 65% of millennials have admitted to delaying payment for essential items at one point, while another 44% put these expenses on hold in favour of a more exciting purchase.
This practice of sidestepping – or pushing everyday purchases down the list to prioritise more exciting ones – has started to become more commonplace, more so with men (42%) than women (35%). In particular, millennials are most willing to sidestep buying new shoes (59%) and household items (43%) as well as fixing cracked phone screens (41%).
These sacrifices are made to make more exciting purchases, such as new technology (52%), concerts and festivals (44%), new furniture or repairs to existing furniture (40%), clothing, shoes and accessories (39%) and socialising (35%).
“Juggling money can be one of the more challenging skills we all manage on a day-to-day basis,” said Caleb Reeves, general manager at CBA. “While millennials work hard to find the balance and are sensible with money overall, we can see they still need to navigate competing choices and priorities.”
Older millennials aged 30-35 years old are more likely to sidestep than their younger counterparts aged 25-29 years old.
Reasons to delay payment for essential items include other unexpected expenses (59%), lack of urgency (28%), lack of money (28%), no satisfaction from “mundane” items (25%), spent money on a large purchase they got for a deal (21%) and going out with friends (17%).
When millennials do prioritise essential purchases, they opt to pay for groceries (79%), electricity bills (71%) and car services (71%) over other domestic necessities.
