Not me. Sigh. IT's always something. Now my home owner's insurance says I have to get a new hot water heater and of course they say I can't just buy a new one cause it won't fit in the closet. I have to get a home remodel or a $2000 instanteous hot water heater and gas permits and inspections and gas piping work.

and my 11 year old needs braces and I had to fork out $1000 for her class trip to Washington DC for safety patrol.

Bye bye savings.

But I have no debt. Just no savings. As soon as I get it, something happens. But if I want or need something, I have to save up for it. I have a mortgage too.

Good job. The key word is "goals" and sticking to them, which is easier said than accomplished. Two years prior to my retirement, my goals were to begin saving more and curb my spending habits.I was able to do both.

Our goals: we would not retire with any mortgage or major payments, would always pay our credit card each month, in full; would save at least 10% of our income and add extra anytime we could. We stayed true to our goals and ourselves; we are retired comfortable with a savings as well. It is difficult, because we don't take expensive vacations, go out to eat at expensive places, and we watch our pennies. We are on a fixed income and expenses go up every year; therefore, our spending habits play a very large part in being able to save.

Keep up the good work. You didn't say your age; but you are on the right track.

My DH and I decided when we got married that every penny we did not spend would go into savings. It was very fair since we had the same job and made the same  money . He had a house he wanted to stay in and I wanted renovations so I paid for all the renovations and we put equal money into the house. Every penny we did not spend wound up in savings unless we were spending it on something that needed spending on. When we thought we had too much we would invest it. I'm in my 70s and all of the savings and investments are healthy. We carry no debt /or rather now I carry no debt. 
 

We had one rule:  if you can't pay it off the month you buy it don't spend it. Save for it and Then buy it. It worked very well. (I cannot say that our two daughters his BG my BD Are as frugal/when they see something they want they buy it and then they pay it off Over time no matter how many times we explain to them you're paying interest)

We have been to that point a couple of times in our marriage and careers.   Due to economic market adjustments we have twice had to do a major recovery and rebuild effort.

The first was after the semiconductor bubble burst in the early 00s.  That took years for us to recover from.  Even with a notable severence package a full year of losing ~65% of marital income adds a ton of debt. We did that on purpose to avoid selling investments.  We had paid for DW's MBA until 2wks before she gradauted when I lost my job to a RIF.  We maxed out school loans while she was still a student and used that low interest money as contingency money until I returned to full time work.  DW worked through that event.

We did not lose our home or vehicles but we did add multiple 5 figures of debt. 

SS was a huge help when he enlisted in the USAF. We were ready willing and able to fully fund his undergraduate education. He let us off the hook for probably $200K in cost when he enlisted and the USAF took on paying for his education. Thank you fellow tax payers.  

As a launch gift we gave him a brand new car.  Nothing high end. A Ford Focus.  He just sold it after 12yrs of reliable service and bought his own vehicle for the first time.

We developed parity and were debt free except for our home until we returned from 8yrs as Expats.  We bought DW a new car at that point, we had sold both of our cars before we moved overseas.  Since car loans are low interest we borrowed to buy her car rather than dumping a boadload of invested cash on her first car in 8yrs.  My job came with a company car..... Then..... Covid and an executive Re-org at my then employer.  We had to buy a second vehicle when my job was re-orged out of existance.  It took 2yrs, 26mos actually, for me to return to full time employment.  After 19mos of be bing back to work we are just about to zero debt, except for our home and now.... two cars...... again.  We will have both cars paid off by EOY 2023.  

This time, no more borrowing.... We drive our cars until the wheels fall off and if we end up back overseas, we will keep the cars in managed storage where they are serviced and driven periodically to ensure functionality upon our return to the US.  

We have never had to take money our of 401Ks, IRAs or investment accounts.  Our retirement investments are intact, other than the current economic disaster influences on those investments driven by our Gov't.  

That... is another story.

Congratulations on your great accomplishment.  Keep up the smart work.

I feel VERY fortunate that DH and I both survived a divorce from HC ex's without going into debt. So a big F U to the ex's for trying to destroy us.  We're not rich but we have everything we need and are rebuilding for retirement. I am very grateful.