For almost my entire life so far I have operated on relatively limited finances (I have had enough to live quite comfortably by general standards, but never enough to do many of the things I would have liked to have done) and so have been forced into a mindset of very stringent fiscal rationalism, a self imposed reality that at many times I have found myself violently resenting.
With the end of exams looming I have taken to rewarding myself for my study efforts by buying a present for myself after each exam (a CD or a book or some such thing).
I think that my actions represent something of a fiscal kneejerk reaction against the feelings that I was investing so much time, money and effort in my education to better myself and ultimately my society, but that I was recieving little in the way of encouragement, support or reward from government, faculty or family/friends/associates for my percieved scarifices. Now this is of course a quite selfish feeling, but none-the-less this was how I often felt, and when you consider that I get less support from the government and society as a medical student than I would if I were unemployed, it is perhaps not an entirely unjustified reaction on my part.
Of course it is going to be very bad next year when I am in a position to properly react against the years of consumer repression and buy (within reason) pretty much anything that I want.