I started working again pretty recently (just graduated), and finally have something to contribute.
I work at a tech company, and one of the interns was talking about how her personal laptop's screen had broken and would cost $50 to fix. One of the full time devs and another guy (not sure if he was a full-time intern or salaried or what) were telling her she should buy a new one instead of fixing it. Something gave me the impression they were sorta giving her a hard time about it - like they thought she was being really silly for wanting to fix it or something. Even after she explained how the laptop is only a couple years old and otherwise still works fine, and doesn't have "mommy and daddy" paying her expenses. Full time guy says his parents aren't paying for him either.
At that point I'm just *internal facepalm*. The point that not everyone has money to drop on unnecessary upgrades went right over his head. Guess I just get frustrated with that "I'm making a good living, therefore everyone else is too" attitude. (As I understand it, intern coworker is doing alright for herself, but doesn't have much room to not be frugal. Still seemed rude of other coworker to be pressuring her to upgrade.)
It's also been kinda interesting seeing how frugality at this office differs from the company's other location. My office is in a lower COL city, while the larger office is in an exurb of NYC. People at the other office eat lunch out almost every day (but will eat the company's Friday free lunch in), and their lunch room doesn't even have recycling bins, at least that I could find. In my office people mostly eat in - but that's partly because there aren't a bunch of restaurants right across the street, and it's so cold outside that no one wants to be out there. And we have recycling bins, and some shared utensils and a mini dish washer. Peoples' attitudes seem a little less wasteful in general. Between that and most of our managers working at the other office (so people aren't as discreet about complaining, swear more, and there's no reason to pretend to be busy), this place feels a bit like a frontier town in comparison to the "empire" at headquarters.