If you grew up poor...

[mbjerkness]

My Mom saved dimes for 3 years and bought herself a dishwasher. I didn't know we were poor. Grandma sewed our dresses. I just thought it was because Grandma loved us

. Mom had a huge garden and greenhouse. Dad hunted, we all fished to fill the freezer .We were brought up not to waste anything. We didn't have a lot of toys and clothes , but we had a lot of great family time. I was telling my kids this morning. We didn't have a tobboggan for sliding. We grabbed a cardboard box and went. There are so many things we can easily do with out. I think being a good employee is so important. They will get rid of the lazy, unreliable person first.

 

[gailc]

While we weren't poor growing up mom sewed the majority of our clothes up to 7th grade!!
We had a huge veg garden ( and I still do) and canned/froze much of veg. Big root cellar too. While we had oil heat dad put in a wood stove and cut his own wood (like us today).
He didn't hunt but we had fish and would buy 1/4 beef for the big freezer which they would cut/wrap themselves.
We had enough land that dad grew christmas trees for sale which paid for our weddings.
Hung the clothes on the line outside to dry in the summer instead of using the dryer.
I had their last clothes dryer-from the last 70's and used for another 20+ years after they gave it to me.

 

[libby74]

Second hand/thrift shops are fabulous places to shop. In fact, I just came from the Salvation Army store where I bought 7 cross stitch magazines for a quarter each (newstand price? $5.95 each!)

Yard sales are also great.

I sewed my own clothes all thru high school. Not only could I have a new outfit/dress every week for just a couple of dollars, I could also make it as short as I wanted (this was in the 70s---dresses had to be short

)

Gardens aren't just for growing flowers. It's amazing to go into your own yard and pick strawberries for breakfast, and lettuce & tomoatoes for a salad.

If someone wants to give you something take it, even if you don't need it. Odds are you'll be able to pass it along to someone who can use it. Don't throw away anything that is still usable.

 

[kittieshasme]

Make a list before you go to the grocery store. Stick to it. It's very easy to overspend on impulse buys without a list to keep you on budget. Keep a running total in your head to avoid surprises at the check out stand.

Use coupons as much as possible.

Learn to cook from scratch.

 

[momofmany]

See if your community has a "freecycle" program. Great stuff for free when you take the time to look thru the online postings.

Google "freecycle" and your cities name to find it.

 

[cruisermaiden]

Lessons I learned from my parents:
- If you aren’t going to die (or be physically harmed by) not having it, you (probably) don’t really need it.
- Eat all of your food at mealtime. Snacks are expensive.
- Take care of your things. Repair when possible. Its cheaper to take a little care than to buy new.
- If it still works, you don’t need a new one yet.
- Thrift Stores/Flea Markets/Garage Sales are like treasure hunts. There is nothing wrong with buying things there.
- Make a list before going shopping for anything (not just groceries). Don’t buy anything that isn’t on the list.
- Pay with cash. Bring only as much money as you need and leave your checkbook/debit/credit card at home.
- Avoid impulse buys by writing it down and going home to sleep on it. If you really need it you can go get it tomorrow.

Things my parents did growing up:
Bought all of us Jansport (lifetime warranty) backpacks when I was in elementary school for $35 each. This way they didn’t have to buy us new $8-12 bags every year. If something went wrong with them, we sent them back for warranty repair. I still have that backpack.

Saved money on kids’ allowance (up until our teens anyway…). Instead of giving us actual money every week as a reward they gave us poker chips which we kept in a jar. Then they made a ‘shopping’ list of what you could buy with chips that you saved up over time. Toys, trip to the $1 movie, etc. It took 3months of great behavior to earn something that might cost my parents $15 and we had no problem with it. If they had given us all $5/week they would have spent $60/month for all of us, but this way they still taught us to save our ‘money’ without having to spend that.

Things I do now:
I swap clothes with one of my friends that wears the same size. We both take great care of our clothes so every few months we go ‘shopping’ in each other’s closet. We each get something ‘new’ and different to wear, but its free! Things that are originally ours become new again since they are gone for awhile. Sometimes we go to the thrift store and split the cost since we will share and each take ½ the find home!

I trade my time with friends and family. I do for them and they for me in turn. My dad does all the work on my car in return for me petsitting when he goes out of town, my accountant brother does my taxes for free in return for me babysitting occasionally, etc.

I created my budget by starting with how much I wanted to save and calculating my expenses around that, rather than looking at what I needed to spend and calculating what I could save out of that.

I 'freecycle' and check Craigslist for furniture/small electronics before buying new.

I’m sure there’s more. A few sacrifices go a long way!

 

[tari]

I don't know that we were poor, necessarily. We certainly had our share of economic downturns, but there were people who had it worse.

And that's my big thing right now...be grateful for what you have. It's easy to complain about your house, your car, your job, but try to remember that there are people out there who would be thrilled to live in even your modest house, who would love to have any car at all, and would kill to have a job like yours.