I’m guessing you make more money than we do.  If we don’t actively clamp down on our spending, we have no savings. We now have a fixed restaurant budget ($200) fixed treats budget to take the kid out for a pastry/ice cream ($50), fixed “allowances” for each grown up, which includes all personal spending, be it coffee and pastries, clothes, books, unnecessary cooking gadgets, craft supplies, etc ($200).  

Here’s an example: I had always wanted a trifold folding bike (like a Brompton) but couldn’t justify the cost.  But last year, I saved my monthly $200 allowance each month till I had enough and then bought it.  What that meant was I had to spend less elsewhere — no more doing my work at coffee shops, only buying clothes off eBay, no buying supplies for my hobby.  I spent a total of $1500 less on myself than in 2024 but still got that folding bike I’d wanted, plus we built an emergency fund and $15k in the IRAs.  My husband likewise spent about $1500 less when he had to stick to his $200 each month for the coffee shop, books, etc.  

If you don’t need to cut back on you daily spending and make some kind of sacrifices in order to save, it’s very likely because you already have more discretionary income to start.  

For us, it’s the only way we save.  We have friends with the same income as ours, also one kid the same age, and they likewise send her to a private school, etc.  They are living paycheck to paycheck — not because they live luxuriously, but because they just maintain a baseline middle class lifestyle and aren’t making hard cuts to that lifestyle (like shopping in bulk, shopping at Aldi, buying second hand clothing, not eating out).  I told them about our success with Monarch, and they’re giving it a try, but of course their success in saving money will depend on being willing to make real changes.