I've had a similar experience. When I've had work lifestyles where I had to get up early in the morning, long commute, bureaucrapritude job, long commute back,

I've had a similar experience. When I've had work lifestyles where I had to get up early in the morning, long commute, bureaucrapritude job, long commute back, get back late, but every 2 weeks get a huge paycheck, I'd end up spending way too much on discretionary consumption & toys to make me "happy". When I've had more happiness-oriented work lifestyle phases, with no commute, no bureaucrapritude, but smaller or more irregular paychecks and less "security" I've ended up spending way less money on unimportant stuff, saved way more, and was way more happy in a substantive sense.