---
title: This Is the Biggest Budget Buster of 2015
description: There might be a connection between your expanding waistline and shrinking bank balance
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published: '2015-12-08T18:34:25.000Z'
modified: '2024-04-16T09:18:02.000Z'
section: Personal Finance
tags:
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  - Food & Drink
  - hospitality
  - Personal Finance
  - Savings
word_count: 198
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![560124655](https://img.money.com/2015/12/560124655.jpg)

If you find that your belt keeps getting bigger while your wallet gets skinnier the two might be connected and you're not alone. Dining out was the single [biggest](https://secure02.principal.com/publicvsupply/GetFile?fm=WW72&ty=VOP&EXT=.VOP) over-budget cost center for employed Americans this year, according to the 2015 Financial Wellbeing Index from Principal Financial.

According to the index, 24% of respondents named “dining out” as the main thing they blew their budget on in 2015, an increase a two percent over last year. The online survey queried 1,122 adult employees of small and mid-sized businesses in the U.S.

Millennials (also known as Gen Y) were more likely to [blow](https://time.com/132181/millennials-brunch-obsession/) their budget eating out (34%) than were members of Gen X (25%) or Baby Boomers (14%).

Perhaps unsurprisingly, health care costs were cited as a concern for next year by the most respondents, 50%, though that’s a big step down from 58% in 2013. Food prices (46%) were the second biggest concern.

Though there are apps, coupons and strategies to save while eating at restaurants the only sure-fire way to save a buck is to simply eat out less, though that can still take a bite out of the old pocket book if you’re not careful.

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