Nicely, @Meadowfinch I think that you are falling into that ridiculous trap of "oh, people these days just want lattes and netflix and if they didn't have those things, they'd be fine".
There's actually research somewhere out there that shows the line at which people born pre a certain year - I think it's something like 1974 - are intrinsically wealthier (on average, not always, of course). And it's to do with being able to afford to purchase property on relatively low incomes pre 2000 or something like that.
So you talk about having a nice life and all these things you don't have. But let me compare this to me:
I am 46. I have always worked and also had good jobs and good salaries, relatively speaking, although DH has always worked in much more low paying roles and so was also a SAHD for a while so our finances have largely been driven by one main earner - me.
I was lucky enough to be able to buy a cheap property in another country in my early 20s because I split the cost with my then BF (I couldn't have done it by myself). When I moved to the UK and DH and I wanted to buy, we were just about able to get a 10% deposit on a house by bringing my share of the profit I'd made on that original house to the UK. We moved out of London to afford a 3 bedroom semi-detached house with a small garden on the Surrey-London border. That house cost us the princely sum of £250k 15 years or so ago. We have never been able to afford to move but have remortgaged and released equity in order to do some significant improvements to the house such as a loft and a new kitchen (when the original one fell apart. Literally).
Although I have mostly earned well, I have been freelancing for over 10 years so income has also been erratic and there have been a couple of very dry spells. I worry a lot about my pension. Our costs have also been high as I've had to pay privately for things like life insurance as my biggest fear is that something happens to me and DH and the DC are in trouble as his earning potential is limited.
Like you, we do not have lots of foreign holidays. In fact, since Covid we have visited our home country once, and I have taken the DC away for a city break each (in Europe), as a family we have had a mid-week Centre Parcs break and we also spent a few days in Bath. That's it. Since 2020.
We do, I concede, have Netflix, Sky and amazing broadband which costs a lot - but we dn't go out much, we almost never have takeaways, we certainly aren't at the movies on a regular basis etc so Dh and I feel this is one thing that is worth spending on. I do not get coffee or drinks out that often and if I am in the City for work, I usually try to get a cheap M&S sandwich or similar. I can't remember when last I got my nails done. I get a hair cut every 6-8 weeks but colour it myself. the vast bulk of my skincare and hair products are cheap high street stuff, and the few expensive items are usually gifted to me and hoarded and used carefully. DH drives a 11 year old car, paid off, and I drive a 7 year old car that I'm still paying off after I purchased it 3 years ago.
Our children are at state school so we dont' have school fees, but we do pay for them to do activities. That is probably our biggest "non-essential" cost but it doens't feel non essential. Another cost we will probably have to meet is braces as neither of our DC's teeth are likely to meet the threshold for NHS care but we feel they should have them. If you think I'm spoiling them, so be it.
Our mortgage went up by £500 to £1800 2 years ago when interest rates went up. Our council tax has more than doubled in the time we've lived here, never mind the increased cost of gas, water and electricity. DS has ADHD and SPD and we have had to pay for all the support he's had privately, including meds - which cost us £350 per quarter plus an additional £500 a year in appointments with the doctor. I would love to pay for weight loss drugs - I've been struggling with my weight with menopause and PCOS for years, my doctor is sympathetic but there is nothing she can do and I certainly don't have the money for them. Similarly, I have a long term mild disability for which I have to have ad hoc but reglar treatement - all of which has been paid for by me since I became an adult (and was paid for by my parents before that) as I can't access long-term treatment on the NHS.
Our food bills are higher now than pre-Covid and yet I am much more careful about what we buy than I was then (admittedly, a teenage boy who does a lot sport also increases our costs! ) DH hasn't had a new phone in 4 years. I recently got a new phone as mine simply stopped working but it certainly isn't a fancy one. We DID treat DS to a new phone and that is our biggest phone expense.
So no, people like me aren't struggling because we're eating out all the time and have too much Netflix.
Edited to add: I'm also conscious that things like activities for our DC, braces for them etc are, arguably luxuries. But the point is that it's not weird for someone like me who is on a good salary to want to pay for those things. We're not throwing money around willy nilly. But I earn the same today as I did 15 years ago. And my options to increase my earnings are limited - my freelance fees are not sigifnciatnyl higher than they were and my clients certainly aren't receptive to increased costs.