Raise your savings every time you get a raise
You get a raise, and a few months later you’re living exactly as tight as before it. Nothing strange happened: you changed cars, eat out a bit more, the flat is “nicer” now. Each new expense made sense on its own. The problem is that, added up, they swallowed the whole raise, and your savings are still the same number as before.
The tip: raise your savings, not your spending
It’s called lifestyle inflation: the more you earn, the more you spend, in the same proportion, without ever deciding it consciously. It’s not a character flaw — it’s what happens by default if you don’t do anything: the new money lands in the same account as always and quietly splits itself among things you were already itching to upgrade.