Well, the only reason I have a big garden is that it goes down to the railway line, houses over the other side of the road have much smaller ones, the downside is that it comes with a little house, and no way could I afford something bigger with same size garden locally, in fact most houses have much smaller ones. Having space outside has made up for it, and in lockdown being able to garden has been good for my mental health.
As for things I possess, I will try and find something good quality on eBay, ends of lines,sales or from a charity shop rather than something cheap and cheerful sometimes, so I do have some reasonable quality clothes, when 've bought new sometimes I do resent it, if you buy something secondhand then all the bobbling on a jumper for example has been done, I've been disappointed sometimes when buying new, so I really don't have much that is fashionable, but things are only fashionable for a year or so
This helps me buy things that are worth investing in that will last me a while, which will last. As part of redoing my garden I have invested in groundworks that will make it easier for me as I get older, and some items that have enabled me to do things that I might have needed to get someone else in to do, so not only have I had the things done but I have the tools for another time. I've been lucky to have had free labour too , if I'd had to pay, couldn't have done all that. I've been lucky.
I've never had a new car, but that's fine by me, getting low mileage second hand has worked well. I hope eventually when I get the pension that I got as part of the divorce settlement I might be able to go on holiday somewhere a bit more exotic and maybe do some short breaks to parts of the country i would like to get to see. I have to do some work on my house, again out of my divorce settlement, when that's done I should be ok for a long time
I do know people IRL who drop into conversation about their next holiday or how they went on a cruise, or etc, to boast, and that doesn't make me think better of them, but if it's just talking about it to share interesting things they saw, or wonderful places, that's ok, I like to see them
We all spend on different things, I don't smoke or do lottery, and rarely drink, so sometimes splash out a bit on other things, and I don't criticise anyone who does those things.