Reply #3: When we first started out, we pretended we had only one income.

[pnwmom]

(The higher one.) The second income, we saved till our first baby was born a few years later. So when I stopped working, we were used to not having my income. (Plus, my husband's had grown in the meantime. The raises we added to the nest egg.)

We bought appliances at chip and dent sales, furniture at used furniture stores or warehouse sales, food with coupons, etc. We bought subcompact used cars and drove them into the ground. We didn't take vacations except to stay with family every year or two.

It was a BIG deal when we bought our 19 inch TV set.

Fast forward -- a young couple we know in a high cost area in CA is making about 60K and managing to save almost 30% of their income. Except for their rent, which is unavoidably high, they live very frugally. They don't know how they'll be able to ever buy a house but I'm sure they will be . . . maybe not in their area, however.