Frugality may be termed the daughter of prudence, the sister of temperance, and the parent of liberty.

Careful spending is downstream of thinking ahead and upstream of being able to say no. It is not a virtue people admire, and it rarely feels like anything while you are doing it, which is why it gets skipped in favour of virtues that show. Yet almost every refusal you want to be able to make later depends on it. Whoever can afford to walk away usually arranged that quietly, months earlier.

Work out what one month of your life costs, then what three months would cost. Build toward the second number rather than toward any purchase. That number is the size of the no you can afford.