My mom was a spender. But she was incredibly generous with her time, possessions, and love. She never spent a lot on herself, but she spent money on her kids without a thought. My dad was frugal, but he would spend money on things he thought would be good experiences for us as kids (for example, we had lots of livestock that cost a lot of money to maintain - horses, cows, sheep, pigs - and generated very little income. He was a farm kid and he wanted us to have similar experiences). So really, neither of them were MMM-level frugal, but both exhibited traits that I've tried to replicate as a parent.