I think it's dry humor. But my grandfather did tell me a story about a friend he used to have who was in the military. This friend was stationed in Germany (I assume in the 50s/60s, though I don't actually know when). At the time there were many very good, sturdy, and fancy German-branded items that were very expensive to buy here in the States, but were pretty cheap in Germany in comparison. So while he was there, his wife asked him to buy this, and that, and the other thing, all because they were such good deals! They were "saving" so much money and would have such a nice house! When he got back, he remarked to my grandfather that he was going to go broke from saving money.
That lesson has stayed with me. My MIL is known to buy things because they're "deals" and it took the better part of a year for my husband to start evaluating purchases based on overall choice of buying that item, not whether it's marked down or not. As I see friends set up apartments and houses, I think there's a lot of spaving going on.