<prompt> Human: I am in my mid twenties and I always budget my spending. I am currently spending close to 60-65 of my after tax income on what I consider essentials. That is food, rent, bills, car loan, insurance etc. 20 of my income goes to savings. The remaining 15-20 I spend on wants.What Im worried about is that my wants spending is quite low. Sometimes I feel as though I am neglecting my social life and personal enjoyment due to saving for a day that may never appear. I sometimes avoid going out with friends and family because of the associated costs. I also get the impression that they think Im very tightfrugal with my money. Its not a nice impression to give people.And when I say that 15-20 is for wants, this includes any non-essential or unexpected expenses - medical bills, car servicing, birthday and Christmas gifts etc. When you take all this into account I could be looking at somewhere in the range of maybe 10 or less spent on personal enjoyment.Am I being too tight with my savings, spending too much on essentials or does everyone actually spend that little on themselves? How do you do it?  <response>: I spend about 10 of my income on wants. I wont deny that sometimes I want to spend more, but its all about priorities. I like having money in my retirement account, and I like that I have an emergency fund and that Im planning ahead for future purchases. Here are my coping mechanisms, if you will:1. Have awesome friends. Our usual fun night with friends is at someones apartment, not a restaurant or a bar. We all bring over a little something to eatdrink and then we hang out, watch a game or a movie, play board games, etc. Having friends who are on the same page about spending is HUGE.2. Spend money on experiences rather than things. I hate the idea of stuff cluttering up my apartment, so that makes it easy to limit myself when I want to go shopping.4. Learn to say no to some things, but also suggest alternatives. For example, when your friends invite you out to dinner, say Sorry, I cant make it for dinner, but how about we grab coffee on Tuesday instead? Dinner is probably 20, whereas coffee is 3.5. Make a rule not to spend money for fun by yourself. For me, if I want to go out and buy lunch instead of eating leftovers or a can of soup at my desk, I have to go with friends or coworkers. That way I get food AND friend-time out of that same purchase. 6. If you have a small windfall, give it to yourself as fun money. For example, I recently sold something on Craigslist and used that unbudgeted money to go shopping. Yay! 