I don’t think there’s any debate that Millennials and Gen Z have inherited a much worse economy than that of our parents and grandparents. Wages have not kept up with inflation. Most of us will not be able to buy property until we are much older — and a good portion of us likely never will. Many of us begin our adult life saddled with tens of thousands of dollars of debt because we were told we needed to go to college or university despite tuition increasing tenfold in recent decades. Renting an apartment used to cost about $250 a month in 1980, and now you could be looking at over $2,000 for the same unit. Our grandparents could afford to buy a house and raise a family of four on a factory worker salary with zero education, and most of us can’t even afford a dog.

I’m saying all of this because I don’t want you to think that I’m discounting the struggles faced by young people today. I get it, I’m living it too. But at the same time, our generation is one of perpetual victims. Nothing is ever our fault. Every bad thing that happens to us is because of those nasty boomers, and we don’t take any personal responsibility for our choices.

We spend more money on things we don’t need than any generation that came before us. We buy expensive clothes because we want to look good. We go out to eat or order food on a weekly basis, because we want a fun social life or don’t want to cook. We travel every year because we want to experience the world and look cool on social media. We buy new phones and other tech when we don’t really need to because they have a handful of new features we never knew we needed until we were told we needed it. We spend tons of money every month on subscriptions to streaming services because it’s convenient. We go to the bar and spend $100 on cover and drinks because, even after all that other stuff we bought, we’re bored and want to go out.

I’m not judging anyone, because I do all of those things too.

But think back to how our grandparents lived (in an economy that certainly wasn’t great either). They just didn’t spend money like we do. They cooked (mostly boring) meals at home every night, only going out on very special occasions. They didn’t fly to another continent for vacations, they took a road trip to another city. They weren’t buying new clothes every month, they took care of what they owned and it lasted them decades. They saved all the money they could, and for many of them it paid off.

I’m not saying that if we just stopped buying Starbucks every day we too could own houses, because we know that’s nonsense. But we would all likely be a bit better off if we could take a hard look at our spending habits and start living within our means.

Some people may say that it isn’t our fault and that we’re being manipulated by advertising and “influencers,” and we face societal pressure to have — or appear to have — a particular lifestyle. But at the end of the day, we still choose to conform to that.

Maybe it’s a complete lack of hope for the future as costs continue to go up (and the Earth is literally catching on fire), a sort of “let’s live while we still can” mentality. But whatever the reason, let’s at least own up to it: Yes, we have been living through an affordability crisis that we didn’t cause, but we aren’t making it any easier on ourselves with our unsustainable spending.