Penny pincher or big spender?

Talked with a colleague about this subject two days ago. Both me and him agree that having a small amount of savings is fine in case there's some emergency, but otherwise, there's really no sense to saving every last penny of our paycheck just so we can have an easier time when we get 'old'.

What's your take on this?

Do you tend to save the larger part of your disposable income? Do you usually spend almost all of it? Perhaps your stance is somewhere inbetween?

Why is it that you do one, or the other?

My take is that, well, one should really enjoy life while possible. It may sound very negative, but ... I think that life is unpredictable, and you simply can't know when 'the' time comes. I can name quite a few examples of people who've worked their arses off all their lives, only to end up passing away at 50, or less. Not much sense in that, except when one's sole intention was to leave copious amounts of cash to the kids and wife.

My view on saving is if there is something that you want save up for it rather than using credit. You can save for a rainy day or tomorrow but it rains a lot in Britain and tomorrow never comes. MY father saved all his life and denied himself pleasure so that he could have money for later on in his life. He died with alot of money in his bank account but never had any enjoyment out of it. The trick is be sensible. You can stick money in a pension fun and get screwed or stick it in a bank account and get more screwed due to means testing. Save up to the point when you are not denying yourself too much.