How much would you save by cutting out avocado on toast and lattes?

For many pundits, millennials aren't buying houses because they frittering their money away on smashed avocado on toast and takeaway coffees.

The argument first reared its head in 2016 when an Australian newspaper columnist wrote, with his tongue firmly in his cheek, that he had seen hipsters "order smashed avocado with crumbled feta on five-grain toasted bread at A$22 a pop and more", money they should have been saving to buy a house instead.

Another Australian, 35-year-old property developer Tim Gurner, pushed the argument mainstream when he told Australia's 60 Minutes news show two years ago: “When I was buying my first home, I wasn’t buying smashed avocado for 19 bucks and four coffees at A$4 each.”

That attack on millennial "values" made headline news around the world, and enraged a generation that felt rising house prices and stagnant wages were to blame for their lack of home-ownership.

So two years later, with first home buyers making up the biggest share of new mortgage registrations in New Zealand but affordability still a major concern, how much would skipping brunch and artisan coffees add to Kiwi bank balances?

Prices vary between $8 and $18 for smashed avocado on toast (but rise to well over $20 if bacon or salmon is added).

So over the last two years, those who gave up a Sunday treat of smashed avocado would have saved between $832 and $2080. If smashed avocado was a Saturday and Sunday thing, then millennials would be saving between $1664 and $4160. (For those who dined out on smashed avocado every day, the savings over the last two years would be between $5824 and $14,560).

Prices for takeaway coffee range between $3.50 and $5.50, so if you gave up daily trips to a barista after Gurner made headlines, you would have managed to save between $2,548 and $4,004.

So the most Kiwis who gave up smashed avocado and takeaway coffee could hope to put towards a deposit is $6064 (or $18,564 if your wages supported brunch every day).

According to OneRoof Valocity data, the median house price for New Zealand is $550,000 and $825,000 in Auckland. That translates to a 20 percent deposit of $110,000 for an average Kiwi home and $165,000 for one in Auckland.

Giving up fancy toast and coffee for two years barely makes a dent in those figures. In fact, it would take a millennial squirrelling away brunch and coffee money 18 years to reach $110,000 and 27 years to reach $165,000.

But every little helps.

Auckland barista Irina Kuhtina, who makes on average 350 coffees a day and about 500 coffees on a weekend, says she gave up spending money on takeaway coffees and drinks and her bank balance is healthier for it.

She would spend $11 daily on a large coconut flat white twice a day until she decided to drink just water for a month. “I now look at my bank statement at the end of the week and there is no dramatic change in it,” she says.

For those who want to follow her lead, she recommends switching from café-made foamy sweetness to all-black home-made goodness.

A $16 espresso blend with 250g of coffee would provide you with 50 black coffees.

A cup of French press coffee would cost you about 30 cents. Compare that to a $4 long black - a massive saving.

Yes, the froth and the latte art are missing but your house deposit won’t be.

The good thing with coffee beans is they cost the same throughout the year unlike avocados.

In the winter one fruit has an eye-watering price tag of $5.

Making a smash avo toast at home would cost you almost as much as buying it in a cheap café. Forget about “gold on toast” or “smashed gold” until the fruit is $1 each.