I don't think it's a fake person, but maybe embellished with humorous hyperbole by either the original poster or my MMM himself, as either self-depreceating humor or sarcasm. I would not call myself mustachian. There was a period of time in my life (early 20's to early 30's) I had accidently lived that kind of life without having a name for it (I just thought I was a bohemian : )). But after getting through grad school post doc, and having a regular job for 10 years I live a pretty regular life (buy furniture from stores, things for the house, regular vacations in hotels/motels) I AM interested and curious whether I could go back to living a more Mustachian life, though we have experienced lifestyle inflation (plus dependents) that make it harder than when I was youg. We do know some people who are very bad ass in how they live. But I also know a number of people (including in grad school) who would never live this way, would look upon it with horror and believe unless you HAVE to live that way (unemployed, poor, etc ) why would you LIVE that way?". So while extreme frugality is out there, it is still really not part of mainstream American society so I do believe people would write those things.
My husband and I fight about MMM. I am definitely more into MMM, and when I tell my husband about an article he may respond with he sounds like a d***he, or that guys an a*****e (in jealous jest). However husband is now considering putting on a metal roof on our house and I didn't even realize there was an article about that on MMM!
While my husband used to be as minimal as I was, our standards of living gone up, me with activities for the kids and things for the household (also some personal stuff for me), and him going out to drink or eat out on a regular basis, and also what he buys at the grocery store. I recently brought up I want to retire "early" explaining that meant for me is 61 or 62, and even that I had gotten critiques from him and his mother "why would I want to do that, you'll change your mind, you shouldn't quit early (I'm the primary breadwinner).
It's not that we are terribly mismatched. We do agree on basic things like having a modest house and a paid for single car, but on day to day stuff we still spend a lot of money and disagree on how we should be spending our money. And basically, just people don't want to change or feel like they have to change or give up what it enjoyable to them, that is scary.
I have considered the allowance idea, but we can't agree on what is included in the allowance fund.
He also just doesn't even like talking about money (let alone budgets) and maybe he is more in the mainstream about that than I am.