I have a pretty well paying job, both myself and my wife run a small computer IT business and I'm making a lot more than I used to when I was employed.
Money really isn't an issue, but I don't go nuts, I have many other important things to take care of first (mortgage, two young children, etc) and as long as that's all sorted first, then I can spend some of what's remaining on fun stuff!
I only buy the CE's of games I want to play, this year especially was costly. Too many must haves released in a really short space of time. I can understand how some people had trouble affording everything.
The only CE I preordered, then cancelled was Skyrim. I have too many other games that I haven't played yet and was only really going to get it because I thought I might be missing out on something. I thought afterwards that I probably will never get around to playing it (time is precious atm) and after getting bored with Oblivion & Fallout 3, I decided to give it a miss. Don't really regret it either.
I'm also dead set against credit cards. I use a debit card (ie. my own money) and don't plan on changing.