How much of your frugality comes from your parents (sale, old, money)

[harry chickpea]

I remember being about two years old and instructed by my mother to only use four sheets of toilet paper. (seriously!) I remember "making do" with cardboard boxes for toys, and comic books went through my older brothers, then me, then to my cousins. If something like a toy was no longer useable, I salvaged parts off it.

What do you remember from early childhood that influenced you?

[VTsnowbird]

I remember my parents instilling the saving habit in me. I had a savings account as far back as I can remember. I can't wrap my brain around not having ANY savings.

Other than that I had a fairly normal middle class upbringing. Dad always had a good job and money was not tight, but was not wasted either. Both parents were children of the depression and children of immigrants.

[mizzourah2006]

None. Both my parents are spenders. They ended up doing fine because they both have nice pensions, but I don't really know where the desire to save a lot came from. Not anyone in my family.

[Pat Answers]

I personally think some of our handling of money might come from our personalities. Do happy-go-lucky people tend to spend more? Do people with whatever side of the brain dominance causes them to be more organized tend to save more? Would be interesting to find that out too.

I grew up in a very frugal household. We didn't have new furniture, new cars, etc. I do think I didn't have enough clothes and tended to wear the same old stuff over and over. I am a very organized person and like to keep track of accounts, etc. to the penny and save what I can. I think it all goes hand in hand.

My sister, on the other hand, grew up in the same household and is not so good with money. She's also not very organized. So there you are.

[AlaskaErik]

Neither. My father would the most expensive thing while my mother would buy the absolute cheapest thing . If we're talking a socket set, my father would by an SK set while my mother would get the cheapest thing from China. Me, I buy a Craftsman set on sale.

[TabulaRasa]

Lots of behavior is learned through family (obviously). My frugal living approaches differ somewhat from my parents' (mostly, in regard to what types of things I'm willing to spend more on that they aren't and vice versa, that sort of thing), but my basic degree of frugality mirrors theirs.

[MinivanDriver]

Mine is the opposite. My parents were spendthrifts.

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by MinivanDriver

Mine is the opposite. My parents were spendthrifts.

Interesting. Was that a factor for you?

[cat1116]

I try to be more of a saver than a spender. Not much into expensive cars, jewelry, eating in super fancy restaurants. I think I picked up the savings gene from my Dad. My other half, um., well, his philosophy, "you can't take it when you die, so might as well spend it now". I'm trying to get him to at least set aside some money, rather than be cash strapped at the most inconvenient of times. A work in progress.

[NoMoreSnowForMe]

My folks were good about teaching me to be self-sufficient, but they got lazy after me - I was the oldest.

But, for me, really, I think it was mostly about necessity. I left home at 18 and was self-sufficient, not relying on anyone else for the most part from then on. There was no such thing as a credit card in my life until way later in life, so I just really had no choice but to live within my means.

My mother made our clothes and was very thrifty with meals, doing her own decorating, gardening, etc. My father was a gambler, so with that and his blue collar salary and four kids, my mother was really good at stretching a dime. So, I probably did learn by osmosis to do that, too.