I guess one of the reasons the whole "encouraging others to spend" thing seems so strange to me is that there are just so few material things that I'd value more than the financial independance to get out of the work force 20 years early!
I honestly can't view ANY purchase without doing a mental calculation of how much time away from home it would take to earn the money to pay for it.
If part of what I was saving for was material things of various sorts, I guess things like really good boots, perfume, or another new book would be things that I'd spend some "mental shopping time" considering. I still actually do that a bit, but in the past year or so I've started giving myself 1 - 3 months to indulge in the mental shopping time part of it before I even start the real shopping part.
Very few items still hold their attraction for me after I cool my heels for 3 months, but so far the pleasure of being financially independant hasn't lost any of it's shine.
And the more times I go through a 1 - 3 month mental shopping exercise, the faster I get to the point where I really don't feel any desire to buy a new something or other.
Lynda