I don't know about budget culture, but I do think savings first culture is relatively beneficial. Agree that under median household income (geo adjusted, retirement benefits included) you've probably got a lot more mileage to gain out of finding a route to more pay than nickel and diming everything, but you're also going to get a lot of value out of avoiding frivolous debt.

So many people seem to live by balancing income with debts and not saving in higher income (upper middle class dual income households) rather than saving.