I haven't read through the thread but plan to come back to it.

One thing I've noticed with the benefit of being older (now in my late 30s) we are now comparitively a lot better off then we were in our 20s...even though we are on 1 income, it's worth more now than it was then just due to DH's increased seniority...also we're paying the same on the homeloan as we were in the past when we were in desperate straights BUT if push comes to shove we have the fallback of being able to borrow more just because our house has increased in value over that time. I also have more things of value that we have accumulated over the years so even though we don't have $$ to spend right now (and it's a real scrape to get the bills etc paid), we still live more comfortably than we did 10 years ago and I don't feel 'poor" like I did then, even though things are tight.