Money changes a decision when it gives you permission to disappoint an unreasonable demand.

Savings are not mainly about purchases. What money changes, at the point where it matters, is your capacity to refuse: to leave a job that is harming you, to decline work on bad terms, to say no to someone who has been counting on your compliance. A reserve is the difference between a principle and a preference.

Treat some of what you save as refusal money rather than as spending money, and do not attach it to a purchase. Even a month of expenses changes which conversations you can afford to have. And when someone declines something you wanted, remember what that may have cost them.