I'm working at a startup right now and plan to use most of the proceeds from the other project to float myself along as needed. My company is in the middle of a capital raise that is going fairly well, albeit not for a lot of capital ... best case, these proceeds will be there for a rainy day, worst case it helps us close the round.
I definitely follow your mindset: I really don't purchase a lot of stuff and when I do I need to have a lot of justification for it.