Inspiring stuff @getonthetrain. It's amazing what you have achieved in just 3 years.
We did something similar a number of years ago when, some years into tour relationship we realised we were still spending money as though we were single and carefree rather than as though we were the family that we now were.
The end results was, all out savings were gone and we had £11,000 of credit card debt. That was a third of our combined salaries at the time!
I read an article that said the 3 biggest expenses people "wasted" their money on unnessary DIY, takeaways and processed food.
When we looked at our budget we saw that we were doing exactly that so we stopped. We paid off our debts within two years and have saved more than ten per cent of our income since then.
Sadly we had a big investment loss, due to to banking crisis, so have not been able to retire early, which was our plan.
But, I totally agree with you that
You can live well on less than you think
In fact, I would say for most people it is a lot less! 😁
It's pretty crazy how much people must spend on 'extras' as I have tons of money to invest every month and others that make as much or more than me are scraping by. Of course, they always go and grab lunch somewhere while I am microwaving last night's leftovers.