Not that this subforum is really the place for it, but I'm pretty sure the economies of nation-states aren't really analagous to personal finances...

I'm beginning to think that this mindset is the root of so many of our problems.

As for NASA, they've never been cost conscious. In the Apollo years when their budget (adjusted for inflation) was roughly twice what it is today, their operating motto was "waste anything but time." After that, the idea that you can't just spend money hand over fist is hard to come by.

It isn't just NASA that's having trouble with space development overruns. The Department of Defense has had this problem for many years. Programs like SBIRS, TSAT, and AEHF* have had a lot of budget issues.

*In fairness, some of AEHF's overrun came when Congress mandated they buy another satellite after production had finished on the earlier vehicles.