A year and a half ago I was making below average as a software developer in my city, but it was enough for me to feel comfortable so I didn't mind. I was frugal for the most part: I rode my bike or took public transportation, I never went "shopping", I lived without air conditioning, my main hobby was playing video games I got on sale ($5 - $10 for weeks of entertainment), but I certainly did have some extravagances: takeout several times a week, going out to lunch every single day. I maybe saved 5% of my income. My income had been stagnant since I entered the workforce a few years before, but I had enough money to live comfortably with no stress, so I didn't particularly care.
Then I started reading up on personal finance, and eventually I stumbled across MMM and started thinking about what my priorities were in life. This led me to do two things: cut frivolous expenses that weren't making my life any better, and start really working at excelling in my career to make the most of the time I need to put in there. I began to advocate for myself in one on ones with my manager. I also stopped working any overtime - I had been putting in ~10 hours a day before, now I leave almost every day after 8.
As a result, at work in the last year and a half I've received two promotions, my salary is 35% higher (54% higher if you factor in estimated bonuses and stock options that I've negotiated for myself), and in my last one on one with our company's CTO he was talking about wanting to promote me into a new role in another 6-8 months!
Throughout all of this the spending for both my fiancee and I is slightly lower than my single spending was! We're actually spending significantly more on some things that we've decided are important to us (renting a nice condo instead of my old decrepit apartment, eating out at foodie restaurants, travel), but we've stopped spending on anything that we've decided doesn't actually make our lives better.
We talk a lot on this board about the freedom that comes with FI, but I think there's also something to be said about the drive that comes with examining your life and priorities and cutting out the cruft in favour of who you really want to be. :)
