Yep.
It's not even really lifestyle inflation, it's just that now I can afford some of the things that I need to spend money on.
Really, the only difference in lifestyle I have now compared to what I had ten years ago is that an unexpected expense now isn't the crisis that it was back then. Flat tire? That sucks, but our insurance includes roadside assistance, so just sit tight. Washing machine shit the bed? Let's go buy a new one (although, that money has to come from somewhere, so now we're not going out to eat for the next two months). Wake up in the middle of the night puking my guts out? Good thing I still have a few days of PTO left this year, because there's no such thing as picking up an extra shift when you have a 9-5 office job.
That security is certainly not insignificant, but it's a far cry from what people think of when they hear the term "lifestyle inflation." I'm not driving a BMW, or living in a 5-bedroom house, or taking a vacation every year, or drinking $40 bottles of wine, or anything like that. My kids don't go to private school, we don't own a summer cabin, and we don't have a housekeeper. Hell, I'm still rocking a PS3 as my gaming console.
I mean, could I cut back on small indulgences, like going out to eat? Yes, but that's just a drop in the bucket, and even when my wife and I had a combined income of $45k per year, we still managed to go out to eat a couple times a month (although, we didn't have kids back then). And we don't splurge on the kinds of stuff that other people do -- I brew Folgers coffee at home every morning; we bring lunch from home every day; I do a lot of the maintenance/repair work on our cars and on the appliances (limped that washing machine along for years before it finally gave up the ghost); I mow my own lawn, shovel my own driveway, paint my own house, etc.
Meanwhile, I need to eat and pay medical bills and survive somehow once I'm retired, and unless I plan to be a cat food connoisseur, I need to save now.
Similarly, I could just screw my kids over and make them pay for their own college, but it kind of sucks a lot being saddled with all the student debt I'm carrying now, and I'd rather not force that on my kids if I can help it. Since I don't expect to be able to come up with money for college all at once, I need to start saving now, little by little.
Saving for the future isn't an indulgence. It's literally just finding a way to pay your bills right now without planning to starve once I'm too old to work. It's a necessity, and just because some people can't afford it doesn't mean anyone who can is living high on the hog.