<prompt> Human: My spouse and I make a combined income of 200k a year. We have quite a few kids and live in a 3000 sq ft 400k home. It is big, but outdated and not fancy. We didnt make over 100k until about 5 years ago and before that we were actually very poor. God has been good to us the last few years. Over the last 5 years have been working hard to pay off debt, save for college for our children, pay for kid activities and enjoy some fun vacations.We have 1 car paid off and 1 almost paid off. We almost have a 6 month emergency fund saved up.Here is my issue. We have not been very generous with our money. We do buy teacher gifts and Christmas gifts, but we dont donate to charity or anything like that. We dont feel like a can afford to do so with the amount of kids we have and with our expenses.We plan to be more charitable once our 2nd car is paid off and we have our 6 month emergency fund saved up.Anyways, our friends make probably 12 as much as we do. They are in massive debt but they are constantly giving. They are always so charitable. They make me feel guilty, but at the same time, they are not financially secure at all and they spend money like crazy.Here are my questions? Are we Scrooges with or money? Are they stupid with their money? Do we both lack balance? How do you decide how much and how to be charitable with your money? Please remember that we were pretty broke up until 5 years ago. We are in our mid 30s and trying to catch up now.Thanks.Assistant: It does sound like you are a Scrooge with your money. But thats a good thing. You shouldnt feel bad for being smart with your money.Human: So being a Scrooge is being smart?  <response>: the average household savings is so poor that they set the bar for being a scrooge pretty low. compare yourself to friends that are of equal financial standing, and you may find yourself to be actually quite normal with your spending. i feel like a real scrooge in the house would make others feel poor, like having your kids grow up with less stuff or opportunities xboxmusic lessons than the most kids in their class 