Yes, absolutely.

This is the whole reason why we're getting control of our spending this year. Every year we live like kings on the bonus DH gets in the spring then by November we've charged the credit card back up again because we've continued the spending "high" way past the time the bonus money runs out.

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Megan

I think most people will spend more money with more money earned. I know we have!
However, once you become serious about following the Dave Ramsey way or just being more frugal/conscious of what you used to spend, it's much easier to curtail those "wasteful" expenditures.

My husband was making a lot more this past summer due to putting more hours in at work. We spent money on eating out and misc. that was almost wasteful. I was not on board with frugality full force then, but if we come into several months of extra income at the rate my husband was earning in the summer, I will definitely save most of it.

I went back in my checkbook registers from about a year ago. I was sickened to find that on average I spent about $500 month on frivilities! Gag! One saving grace was that I didn't use my charge card; only cash. I have not charged items for years. I purchased things at: TJMax, Marshalls, Home Goods, Kohl's, Barnes & Noble, etc. I mostly purchased clothes, candles, books, housewares, and nonessential nonsense.

No more! I want to feed my bank account instead of my unfrugal desires.

Yep, for us it seems!! When my dh and I married 7 years ago, he was in the Army making less than 20K a year. Now he's out making 6 figures and our lifestyle hasn't changed THAT much. Well we aren't eating Ramen for dinner most nights LOL (but we do still like ramen) We have two nicer vehicles instead of one old one, we have a house instead of living in military housing, we consider tivo a need, and each of us have a cell phone-those are some pretty basic changes that crept up. But we also have 3 kids so that evens us out big time! We are comfortable, buy what we want within reason (and I always have a coupon), eat out when we want, but we don't go on lavish trips or spend money on frivolous things. We use bonuses to pay off debt and for savings. This year we are working on paying off the vehicles. I think MS is great for keeping me inline financially.

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I am only one, but I am one. I can not do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do. -Edward Hale

I think to a point. We have always had some car payment since we have been married. they have all been for used vehicles and only because the vehicle before it would have cost thousands to fix and they were older vehicles too 10 years min. But I have never been one that wanted a brand new vehicle. I have always been more conserened that I live in a nice place as to if I drive this year's new fancy car.
I think that if and when we have more money we do not get crazy with it. We get caught up on bills, maybe one of us (dh or I, kids always go) to the dentist or eye dr. As for trips we only do small weekend trips during the summer and those are all within about three hours from home.
We have just in the past few months been able to start and contribute to a savings account for us. There is not thousands in it and it will be a long time before there is one thousand let alone many. And sometimes it is only $10 that we can put into it, but we are trying.
We have alwasy spent our tax refund on paying bills and getting neccessities-clothes or shoes for the kids if they need it, stocking up the deep freeze.
I hope that one day we are making lots more money than we are now and that we have learned from our mistakes in the past to know that just because there is extra money in the checking/savings accounts at the end of the month after paying bills that it does not mean that it needs to be spent on frivious things.

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Nothing is as important as passion. No matter what you want to do with your life, be passionate.
Jon Bon Jovi

To avoid this we save half of all raises my husband receives. The other half boosts our budget. If we didn't commit to saving half the raise each year I know we'd immediately absorb it and raise our discretionary spending. Though it's frugal, we do enjoy a very comfortable lifestyle--we try to remember that we are our own family unit and don't need to compete with friends, family, or neighbors for who has the best toys/vacations/cars. After just three years of doing this we've been able to completely budget for our biannual property taxes, auto/flood/homeowner's insurance, and car registrations. We also budget based on 24 checks (two checks a month) instead of 26. The two extra checks per year, the Christmas bonus, and the tax refund fund our vacations each year.

It's funny that I'm reading this post today. I've spent the last week trying to get ready for taxes and I've been going over my Quicken reports and I'm atonished as to how much money my husband and I made this year...where did it go?? I mean really?? Somewhere I lost track of a lot of things and I need to get back on track. It was a real wake up call to see the figures on paper and I could kick myself now for not saving more this past year. I think a lot of it has to do with seeing the money in the checkbook and automatically thinking if it's in there I can spend it. One of my "resolutions" is to keep careful track of the money we earn this year....I hope that made sense. Reading these other posts helps me realize that other people make more and spend more too.

I think that is so true. It even varies during the year for us. Dh is laid off now until March. What he made in a week is now what he gets in a month. Sad, but true. We survive though. We buy only the necessities and when he goes back to work we go shopping. LOL. We have done this for many many years, but didn't think it would happen this year with the new company, but it did so we adjust. Not happy at first, but then we think about how bad off we thought we were with 2 or 3 kids and now we have 5 and still manage.

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~Missy~

You don't get to choose how you're going to die, or when. You can only decide how you're going to live !!!

Yes I have to agree. A increase in money means I am ok with spending more. I have my list of things I would do or get if we had the money. New windows, insulate the walls, new living room furniture, landscaping, more eating out. We made more before DD but we happily blew it on many a thing New Computer and 11K in home improvement projects

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Kimberly Proud Mommy to Bethany Rose April 2006

I totally agree. We went from having an $800 mortgage at one point of our income-lives, then to a $1400 mortgage, and now we're at a $2900 (granted it was only supposed to be $2400 when we signed up for it, darned ARMS...).

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I guess it can depend on your mindset, too. Me & DH put tax refunds and bonuses in the bank, any raises we get - we put the extra in savings. Except for DH's last raise which went into the gas/grocery budget as those prices just keep going up and it was nice to have the extra to cover and not have to keep stretching what we had.

Maybe one day when we have thousands in the bank and are debt free, then maybe we'll have the mindset to spend on whatever we want whenver we want. But for now, it's all about saving for those emergencies and our future.