There was an article up the other day about Australia supposedly losing its car culture, and the front and back ends of the article were a woman in her late 20s in a car lot wondering what to buy. She was expressing concern about being able to make the payments on a car she was looking at... $6,999.
Bear in mind the full-time minimum wage here is about $37k annually, and she was a professional so would be getting more than that.
Lots of people just have no idea where their money goes. I'm a big believer in spending diaries, food diaries and so on. Your choices are yours to make - if you want to blow $500 a week on food, all good. But your choices should be informed choices. Back when I worked at the globogym, at one point I tallied it up and realised I was spending $1,500 a year on takeout coffee and buns. But since I was getting up at 0445 to cycle 23km to work and be there just before open at 0600, and then had to train a different person every 30', adjusting my demeanour to each one - well, $1,500 was worth it to get me through all that. I made the informed choice to spend my money.