Great post Cherry. People of your Grandparents generation always kept putting a little bit of money away "for a rainy day".
I think that in this country that this may have been a result of the potato famine and it was drummed into future generations to always have enough money put away to be able to support yourself in an emergency.
My own parents would never have dreamt of taking out a mortgage, they would have seen this as a milestone.
And again they too would have put a little bit away but unlike your Grandparents they didn't cut out "luxuries" like ice cream but still didn't do anything extravagant-no foreign holidays for instance.
I know that whatever time I leave this mortal coil I will have enjoyed myself with as many "luxuries" as I could afford.
And I won't be leaving much money behind me so nothing to fight over !