It's really not

I stopped buying avocado toast and was able to afford a $1 million dollar home. Try harder. /s

Pfft, you should have skipped paying rent and then put that into a low cost index fund and in 30 years you'll have like 20 million. If you just paid rent it'll go nowhere.
- Are you even hodling?
- Should've got you one of them machinist jobs and played on that there company baseball team.
Right, just buy bootstraps and pull on them, they're actually quite cheap.

Pass on all the little treats, save tiny bit by tiny bit, and at the end of it all prices shoot up and negate the saving.

Life is "fun."

There's two sides to this really. On one hand there's folks like myself who spend years hemming and hawing over a $20 purchase and therefore never get the things they want in life because they're too busy focusing on what's financially responsible, but then there's also so many folks who spend hundreds of dollars a month on things they don't need but struggle to keep up with their savings, loans, etc.

Some people need to be reminded that it's okay to buy something for yourself every once in a while, and some people need to be reminded that that doesn't mean spending $500 every month on doordash and random crap from Temu

My older brother lives with 2 other people. One is his boyfriend and then there is another adult. All 3 have full time jobs. My brother has a very good job and the others don't make nearly as much but have stable employment. They have pets, but no children.
Somehow they are literally always in massive debt and never have any money. I just don't understand what in the world they spend money on to get to that point.
My younger brother has a job that is better than my older brother, but he's still not making anywhere near a doctor's salary or anything. My younger brother supports a stay at home wife and two children. And they manage to NOT be in crazy debt like that.
My older brother's financial situation has just always baffled me.
- Your older brother is on drugs. I'm sorry you had to find out this way.
  (I'm joking... sort of.)

Candy for Mandy. :) Treat yourself every once in a while.

Thank you for your sacrifice.