Why are you giving Uber your house deposit?

HOUSE prices might be out of control, but catching Ubers at the drop of a hat and paying to have our meals delivered certainly isn’t helping, writes Sophie Elsworth.

STEP aside smashed avocado on toast.

Insert Uber.

This is what is costing millennials a small fortune and yet another expenditure holding them back from making their property dreams come true.

There’s no denying smashed avo with a drizzle of lemon and sprinklings of crushed pepper is eating into Aussies’ paypackets every time that can’t be bothered cooking their own breakfast.

Munching down the mushy green fruit often comes at around $20 a pop.

But it’s really no different to millennials’ obsession with catching Ubers.

Sure, it’s often cheaper than traditional cabs, but despite this these fares quickly add up.

And it’s not just Ubers with four wheels, it’s Uber Eats too.

This yarn takes the cake of how lazy some millennials are when it comes to using Uber: I heard of a woman ordering a takeaway coffee via Uber eats from her local coffee shop... wait for it... four doors down from her home.

And the reasoning for paying a $5 delivery fee for a little man on a bicycle to deliver her hit of caffeine?

She couldn’t be bothered changing out of her pyjamas to walk a few paces up the street.

Seriously?

How much are small fees for the likes of food delivery and Ubers costing you (Pic: Eugene Hyland)

These little amounts of cash draining from our pockets can hit hard.

Whatever happened to waiting for the next train or bus to get you on your way or walking a few blocks to pick up takeaway?

There’s no denying house prices are absurd in most of our capital cities, particularly Sydney and Melbourne, but there comes a time when making sacrifices to save is the only way hopeful first home owners will ever be able to get their foot on to the property ladder.

But in many cases they don’t want to hear it.

Just last week a chef Instragrammed two slices of good-old Vegemite on toast in a cafe for a hefty $7.

How much would that cost to make at home?

And what makes these little bite-sized expenses seem minute is the removal of paying with cash.

Payments are taken straight from a user’s debit or credit account, no cash is exchanged.

Instantly this removes the pain point of paying — studies have proven handing over cash does hurt more than paying by card where you cannot physically see the money.

I remember saving for my first house deposit while earning about $50,000 when I got my first full-time job.

It wasn’t easy by any means, paying rent, trying to have some sort of life at the same time while also trying to squeeze in the odd holiday.

For years this meant sacrifices, no credit card debts, no overseas holidays, no home-delivered meals and certainly not putting my toes in taxis every time I stepped out the front door.

Something that has stuck in my mind though over the years is this, a finance peer once said to me, “Saving the house deposit is the hard part, paying the mortgage is the easy part.”

So ditching the smashed avo on toast at your local hipster cafe, making your own coffees, winding back on nights out and refraining from catching Ubers every time you need to walk out the front door is a great place to start.

It will all be worth it when you get your foot on to the property ladder and no longer have to live at the mercy of painful landlords and nagging real estate agents.

Sophie Elsworth is the deputy editor of MoneySaverHQ.