Just the other day I had my own green-with-envy moment and I'm still in the process of trying to shake it. My next door neighbor's car (a BMW 325i) was having engine issues, so it was in the shop for several weeks, and she got impatient and decided to buy a new car. She and I have coffee regularly (she's at home with her 3-year-old while hubby is at his finance-related job) and she told me all about the laborious search for the new car; they tried Lexus, and Mercedes, and BMW, before finally settling on an Audi (not sure of the model -- I'm pretty car-ignorant -- but it's a quasi-SUV with all wheel drive and a third row, and was probably about $60K). And she's also telling me all about the 5-day trip they just took to Turks and Cacos, and about their upcoming trip to Napa.
We, on the other hand, run our own business, and the last two vacations we took were to industry conferences (where I taught, so much of the expenses were covered). We have an older home in the middle of a development of McMansions (which were built up all around us after we moved in), so don't have the fancy granite kitchens and big family rooms and ginormous master baths (our master bath could fit in her powder room). So sometimes I just get so damned tired of hearing about her fabulous adventures and wishing I could have just a taste... But we're on shoestrings. We took a horrible financial hit when we sold our last house and probably won't recover from that for years.
But I have to remind myself, and often, that we have a good life. Our only debt is our mortgage, we own our cars free and clear, and we put our kids through college. Our business survived the recession and is blossoming, and we work from home. We love having the best of two worlds: an older home with character (but no insulation!) and property, but in the middle of a neighborhood. Now, if only our kids could get established enough to move out... but then again, if they did, our free labor would disappear too! I wouldn't want my neighbor's life; her husband travels a lot for work and is a couch potato; watches tons of sports and has a beer belly. I've never seen them affectionate towards each other. I get to play with her little boy (we call him our Practice Grandson). Oh, and they are wine connoisseurs and have us over often for happy hour, and they think a $60 bottle of wine is "reasonable". We'll have them over for wine and bring out the sub-$10 bottles!
