My wife is a big fan of the term "ballin on a budget", which means that we get nice things by saving for them, and by learning how to make things like nice meal

My wife is a big fan of the term "ballin on a budget", which means that we get nice things by saving for them, and by learning how to make things like nice meals for ourselves. If we go to a restaurant and pay a lot of money for a plate and decide we like it, we'll figure out how to make it. Slowly but surely that bar of "what's worth going out to a restaurant for" is shrinking. Not that we don't go out to restaurants, we love doing it because it's fun, but we're learning how to make really high-quality meals together. The other part of her "ballin on a budget" lifestyle is saving for nice things, not going into debt for them. The car we own is totally paid off. While it's not the nicest car you'll see in LA, it's definitely not a hoopty. One thing I do notice a lot about West Hollywood especially (where I live and work) is the fact that at least half of the nice cars have dealer plates on them still. People must not keep cars for much longer than a few months or something! I like the term "30k Millionaire" better if you want to degrade people who go into debt to look richer than they are lol