That’s pretty much me. I drive a 10 year old car, we live in a small 4-bedroom rental house that is one of the best deals in town, and I haven’t been on a tropical vacation that wasn’t paid for by work in years. The only “extravagance” in terms of spending is private high school for my daughter. But the cost of living is just so damn high here that it’s hard to save, outside of maxing my retirement accounts. And it’s not just housing, which is ridiculous, it’s everything - $400/month for gas/electric (don’t even have a/c), gas is $.50-$1.00 more a gallon, restaurants or a cocktail or two (which we don’t do often) are double what they are elsewhere, and a combo of high state taxes and sales taxes. Throw in child support (even though I have 50/50 custody and the ex is long remarried), and many months I do coast into the next paycheck on fumes.