I've been poor, and I've been middle class. I much prefer middle class.
When poor, there were three things I didn't scrimp on:
* Good coffee (cheap to buy good coffee and grind it in the Bay Area).
* Two ply toilet paper
* My cat - I once paid $600 in vet bills while still in college. I worked extra hours to recoup the $$. My mom said I should have let him die. He was a great companion cat for another 13 years after that incident.
Sandi