I was musing on our walk today (walking is great for musing) about my years in grad school. I was watching every penny, almost literally. I had an OK apartment (with green shag carpet and appliances) and a car (my dad paid for it). I ate bologna sandwiches almost every day for lunch at my desk. Breakfast was Total cereal. I had one of those tiny Hibachi grills and I do chicken or burgers at night. I made a lot of soup and spaghetti and "chili". A beer was an extravagance. I think it's "character building" to live poor (I made about $5 K a year, according to an inflation calculator, that's $22 K now). My starting salary was nearly $30 K (over $100 K today), I thought that was rich, and I still mostly lived close to the bone.
I stayed pretty cheap for another 25 years or so, when my last two went off to college I realized I had everything pretty well funded and loosened up. I bought a 1987 Minivan new for about $15 K and put 155,000 miles on it, did the routine maintenance myself.
Anyway, if you are not "unhoused" and can afford rent and food and taxes etc., you are doing decently well. Stay off using credit cards.
