An estate agent has been criticised for saying that people who buy a Greggs breakfast every morning are spending money foolishly, rather than saving for a potential deposit to but a property.
DM & Co. Homes, based in the West Midlands, was slammed by angry TikTok users yesterday after a video explaining how a £5 spend every day racks up to £8,400 over five years.
In the clip, the agent warned that buying from the bakery five days a week adds up and could set you back £8,400 over five years – which in theory is enough for a 5% deposit on a £175,000 property.
The video has now gone viral, attracting hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of likes.
Text on the clip reads: “You spend £5 at Greggs every morning. That’s £35 a week.
“That’s £140 a month. That’s £1,680 a year.
“Three years later that’s £5,040. Five years later that’s £8,400.
“You could’ve added that to your deposit on a property.”
The estate agents captioned the video writing: “Who’s guilty?”
However, a number of TikTok users were left feeling unhappy by the post, branding it “pointless” and “condescending”.
One person replied: “This is literally boomer mentality! Buying a sausage roll is not going to stop you from saving a deposit. Pointless video.”
“I agree with the premise that a little change can add up, but this kind of advice frustrates more than helps,’ another person wrote. “The housing market is broken and telling people not to buy a coffee isnt going to change that.”
Megan Griffiths, property media creator for the DM & Co. Homes, explained: “Some users don’t really understand the point of the video or have the motivation to save. They don’t realise how much these things are and that it will add up over time.”
It echoes comments made by TV presenter Kirstie Allsopp last month, who said that if young people give up life’s luxuries such as Netflix, gym memberships and coffee, more would be able to afford to buy a property.
Kirsty Allsop defends ‘unbelievably stupid’ comments after copping Twitter backlash
Comments (12)
Lockdown. People stop going into the office and eating out, economy collapses. Well all the above commenters are clearly right.
Just FYI the agent referred to is female, which lends credibility ro Mick Roberts’ post.
Just to add to the story … many tenant applicants fail credit score because of the amount of money they spend on Greggs’ and like companies on a daily basis (also the on-line betting fanatics) which every month takes their bank balance to zero and yet they are saying they can afford an additional £X hundreds a month on rent and associated costs. We see the same situation with many tenants who end up in arrears, a Big Mac appears to be more important than rent.
What the hell is wrong with people these days?
However, a number of TikTok users were left feeling unhappy by the post, branding it “pointless” and “condescending”.
Someone else pointed out: “Every penny you’ve ever spent could have been saved and added to your deposit, but humans buy things. So this doesn’t work.”
If you don’t want to face an uncomfortable truth you can use those fingers to continue scrolling rather than keep putting them in your wallet to buy pointless things so that you have more money to save. I mean, how difficult is this to truly understand?
We had one this week with a genuinely unforeseen circumstance that meant she is awaiting a benefit claim, but this means she can’t pay rent and, even when the claim is settled, it’s unlikely it will cover the rental value required to keep her in the property. She has been great with communication to be fair to her and has always been a good tenant so us and the LL are keen to help, but during communication between her and landlord to try and work together she uttered ‘I have submitted all my financial details to the council for review, but I don’t know where they think I can save any more money, I have already been through my expenses myself and I have even moved to the basic Sky package’…. I mean…. I don’t even have Sky!
When did the world become this place where everyone should have everything they want and missed the point that there is a trade off?
Ha ha, I was the last out of all my tenants to get Sky, they used to laugh at me when I said I just had basic 5 channels before Freeview.
” “A warm breakfast every morning for eight years is worth more than a deposit on a property you’ll hardly see.”
“Chill out, Greggs is my only source of happiness,”
The guy is right – snowflakes do not like it but he is correct
I make my own breakfast, unless I can AFFORD to eat out !
Same here, I wun’t be eating out till I bought me first house. And with the money u not wasting on rent, u can probably eat out for free. Not rocket science.
Pathetic some of this is.
I know that giving up every little luxury for so long can get u much further up the road than u would otherwise be.
I din’t go on holiday for 5 years, had no treats. drove a van for 20 years, so could have more later on.
Gratification postponement.Take the bus for 10 years so u can get the taxi for 40 years.
Exactly Mick, this country is in a
‘ Gimee now, for nothing and I don’t even wanna pay later ‘ mentality.
The agent is subject of Woke cancel culture and I stick up for and applaud people like him who speak their mind and the truth.
Ha ha yes.
I had her brother yesterday in house of mine. Never worked day in his life. Got offered 2 council bungalows now (Does have genuine disability now).
One a year ago door frames a bit marked-Refused it.
Yesterday after telling everyone moving, person of mine moving into his, booked van paid deposit, I spent £500 on built in wardrobe doors for this one, builder booked time off, Letting Agent boards on 1st house, he then changed his mind cause kitchen on front of bungalow. As well as costing me 3k a year in lost rent looking after him.
No Morals, no saving up, no putting himself out. Wants it all for note.
And then this morning tells me the fence a bit low we’ve just had done.
Ooh and he rang up to cancel the free £1900 boiler we was having fitted cause he din’t want me to have it when he was gone.
An alternative would be to check your regular outgoing payments each month (music and TV streaming etc). My kids did that recently and are now much better off each month. Problem is, they can now afford to go to Greggs for breakfast!