Don drinks Dunkin' Donuts coffee, from the local shop or using the Keurig here at home. During our drives back-and-forth to Hilton Head he now knows where he can find a Dunkin's so our stops are always at the same places. I drink hot tea and have yet to find anyplace that I can buy it where they use tea-only carafes to brew it, so I skip the bitter coffee taste that pollutes every cup of tea except the ones I make myself. During our long drives I make a thermos-full and ration it, or I buy bottled iced tea.
When I was a twenty-something working in Boston I bought lunch every day at the cafe run by the YWCA - they had an awesome salad bar and great sandwiches at near-cost, and the profits went to the women who needed the services the Y provided. Don sometimes brought from home, sometimes didn't, depending on whether he liked the leftovers from supper the night before.
Young people these days on the whole aren't any different than we were at their age when it comes to wasting a few bucks on unnecessary frills, and from what I see with my thirty-something kids they are facing far more challenges than we did at their age (during the Dark Ages of the late 80's/early 90's.) My kids have begun their families and are living in starter homes but I know that it was harder for them to get this far than it was for us, evidenced by the fact that they're older at this stage of the game than we were at the same stage. Just look at the expenses involved with the internet and communications - we resisted cable TV for as long as possible, paying a +/- $20 monthly telephone bill and watching 9 free local channels; they pay upwards of $200 for bundle packages or streaming services that include all sorts of extras but would cost more if they chose only the necessary basics on an a-la-carte menu. Food, housing, everything is proportionally more expensive for them than it was for us. The bulk of their retirement will be on them; we're nearing retirement age as the last generation who will collect at least a portion of our retirement income from 100%-employer funded plans.
Suze Orman is an extremist who preys on people suffering financial woes that go far beyond the price of a cup of coffee every day. As you can tell, it bugs me when she and other people talk about this next generation being wasteful or feeling a sense of entitlement.