I've been contemplating my views around money and I tend to wonder if I'm cheap or if I'm too indulgent. I notice that whenever I try to spend more than $15 on anything nice for myself, I feel this need to be like "that's too much money I can't have it better detach from this to save because I don't know when I might need the money." There are also emergency things that come up and most of the time my parents pays for those things (like how our house needed repairs after the most recent storm and medical issues) but even though they are the ones paying and they are in a financially secure place, I catch myself panicking internally and wanting to not do things that I probably need to do because of the costs associated (this is especially true with health related things because I'm nervous about insurance not covering things and out of pocket costs because the US health care system is a mess).  I guess I have this thing in my mind where I think I have to save every penny in order to have a decent and secure life without debt especially while I'm young. In my mind when I think of treating myself, my mind immediately goes to*well what about retirement, paying for your future kids college, stockpiling enough money to have a years worth of expenses at hand, being able to afford emergency expenses etc. you don't deserve to buy ____ unless you have all of that covered as soon as possible. I mean lets be real you don't NEED this. There are people in tougher situations than you and you're thinking about spending a little more money? Just be grateful for what you have, you don't need material things to give you joy. It's fleeting and a waste of time and money* Mind you I grew up financially stable and people would describe my family as upper middle class. I've been like this since I was a kid so basically as long as I can remember. Because of that, I think it's been normalized in my mind to think this way so idk if I'm doing the most or if I'm being reasonable.