I heard a good talk about the differences in spending habits between poor people, normal people, and the rich. The gist was something like:
Poor people spend all the money they have. Once they've paid bills and bought food, etc., any money they have left over gets wasted on frivolous purchases like excess toys, magazines, and general cheap tat. This is easy to see: go to any council estate on any day of the week and you'll see discarded plastic rubbish all over the place.
Normal people spend their money on liabilities like loans for cars, thus when they get some extra money they just spend it on getting more expensive things instead of getting wealthier.
The rich spend their money on assets, so any extra money compounds into extra wealth and increases at an increasing rate.
Poor people who would save the extra £10 here and there instead of spending it on frivolities would eventually not be poor any more. But, for whatever reason, many poor people don't see the utility in saving up small amounts of money to make large amounts. A lot of good could be done if more people understood the power of compound interest