If you grew up poor, what frugal habits have you kept now you're more comfortable?

[OhamIreally]

Mine is that I always buy in the sale. I bought dresses from Monsoon a couple of years ago and paid full price as they were for a wedding DD and I were going to. Saw them in the sale a short while later and returned them and bought them again in the sale (we hadn't yet worn them and the labels were still on) as I couldn't bear to "waste" the difference.
My luxury is that I (pre-Covid) eat out quite a bit but even then I make sure I use vouchers/gourmet society.

I boil up the leftover bones from roast dinners with vege ends and scraps and make stock and soups. And my mum told me recently I needed to keep the 'drippings' just in case too!

I come from a working class background, council house that parents managed to buy.
Pa was incredibly stingy with things like heating / hot water, in winter we could see our breath in the house, hot water was rationed and once the tank was empty that would be it for a few days. He would also go round the house switching everything off.
In his defence, he lived through ww2 and rationing. He helped me out through uni, and bought me a Rolex for my 21st as they last forever. Also paid for our first house deposit and its refurb many moons ago.

I'm now obsessive about switching things off and only having the heating on when it's freezing. I only ever have showers not baths. Always have at least 12 months income in savings, and we paid cash for our last 2 houses. I realise we are fortunate to own outright.

Things I spend on - children's education, holidays, quality food and drink, and decent beds and bedding.

"I have one actual designer bag (a gift) that I’ve only used a handful of times because I cannot bear walking past a homeless person holding an object that costs the same as a deposit on studio flat in this area."

I mean this nicely, i really do, but I think that's not a healthy way to feel. Surely its better to use it or sell it than leave it languishing in a wardrobe just because you have a guilty conscience everytime you walk past a homeless person. They will neither notice nor care about your bag.

I grew up very working class. We lived on a shithole council estate in a run-down ex mining town in Derbyshire. We had free school meals but no car or phone. I am now comfortably off.

I’m still generally prudent & frugal, and I cannot bear waste but two things stand out.

I will not replace things until they break, wear out or become unserviceable. Shoes are worn until they disintegrate. Electrical goods are never replaced until they die. Furniture is used until it collapses.

I am far, far too risk averse when it comes to finance. I just couldn’t bring myself to invest in financial products the value of which ‘could go down as well as up’. My money just sits in ISAs, earning nothing. If I had invested in property from the point at which I started to have some spare cash each month I would now be wealthy & retired .

Although, my little frugal habits do not stop me from treating myself. I prefer to pay a lot of money for things like bags and shoes which will last forever. I also like to eat out lots, and treat my family (most of whom are still in the dead end town I grew up in).

Not me but DH grew up in real poverty, not much food and handed down clothes from outside the family which already had holes in. MIL had a drink problem which caused the money issues. PIL, DH and two younger SIL would often sleep in one room with a heater as they couldn't afford to heat the whole house. DH has worked hard all his life and now earns reasonable money. He insists DC have new clothes each season, food cupboards are always well stocked and the house is always as hot as an oven, no argument.

I have guilt about buying anything at all. I deliberate for ages and research a lot. Then I think on it for a few more days to see if I really need it.
I got a freezer aged 30 when my.1st child was 1. A TV at 33 when I had 2 kids. A dishwasher and tumble dryer at 36 when I had 3 kids. We still don't have Netflix or anything similar.
My kids have swimming lessons and drama lessons but that's it. And for holidays we organise them ourselves and would never do AI.
I would never buy a new car, pay for a cleaner, have the latest technology. That just isn't me. Even houses, we do them up, and don't pay for tradesmen if we can do the work ourselves.
My sister, who grew up with me, has all the new stuff, a cleaner, expensive holidays, subscriptions, gym... but I just feel such anxiety about spending.

I struggle with spending money on myself, (apart from pringles but only on offer)

I struggle to eat the nice food in the house as I save it for the children. (apart from the pringles which are mine!)

Ther eis enough money now, but as I am a carer for disabled children what I do have has to last until I can go out to work. I will struggle to work full time as I have disabilities myself that are getting worse with age.

I do almost everything previously mentioned, I do like to buy good quality items, however they are usually on sale or second hand.

I’m the same! I hate paying full price for clothes, if I see something I like I just wait till the sale comes on if I can’t get it half price then it was not meant to be.
I never pay full price for anything, just love a bargain!! Or wait till it’s on special offer.
I do get my hair and nails done.
Always buy nice food but mostly in ALDI and Lidl and just a few special food items at M&S

I bargain shop for anything and everything!

I managed to redo my kitchen for £3500 including cabinets, doors, appliances, sink/taps/plumbing, tiles and replastering.

I try to buy from eBay/bargain sites like groupon or buy through cash back sites

I'm teaching DD too and she's catching on fast! 😂 we are comfortable financially now but I want her to have habits that help her should she find herself in a situation where she has to pull her belt in. Plus I hate waste if it's unneeded so I want her to appreciate the value of things and not be wasteful/throw things away if they can be rehomed/still have use left in them.

I put an extra jumper on
I turn off lights
I don't book expensive holidays
I keep my cars for years

I cut up Christmas cards for tags the next year. I also buy the Bigga peas that you soak overnight to make mushy peas, because they are about 40p and make loads. I always check for discount codes on stuff as well when buying online.

I save. I Don’t buy what I can’t afford. I cook from scratch.

DH grew up much poorer than me, and every year would go overboard on Christmas presents and lights and decorations, because he never had any of that growing up. I looked in our decorations box last Christmas and the daft bugger had bought boxes of lights that had never even been opened.

I grew up in poverty and when I buy anything I look around for what exactly I need from the item. I look at the reviews then I look for the exact make and model that is the best for what I want for the cheapest price with best returns policy and longest insurance.

Other than that I prefer to spend my money doing nice things for my children
Eg Paying for loads of ECA. Some of the things I would have loved to do but there was never any money.
Before this virus we ate out at least 3 times per week.
I really can’t cook. I also loved the idea of eating out when I was younger.
I never ate out with my family even when we weren’t poor anymore. Even if we went on holiday

We always brought our own food and a camping stove was packed as well.

I don’t think my mother ever bought as much as a cup of coffee when out.

I think I have gone the complete opposite to how I grew up

If I see something I want and I have money in the bank I buy it.

Spending money makes me anxious.

I do a lot of the things mentioned above. I am an expert in denying myself things. I don’t have a credit card and have never been overdrawn.

I have only bought a new mattress for myself once, and twice for DS

I go on holidays to youth hostels, walk everywhere, get most things in charity shops.

Like you, I only buy stuff in the sale. Buying stuff full price seems crazy to me.

Always have to have a freezer full of food, I'm terrified of not having enough food.

Buy everything second hand if possible.

Not having any debt. Credit cards are paid off in full every month (we only have them as we get good points on them - otherwise I wouldn't have them at all.)

@Oliversmumsarmy Oh yes like you we never ate out growing up, so we eat out constantly now (but live in Asia where it's cheap enough that it makes no difference - in the UK, it might be a different story.)

Despite memories of ice on the inside of windows, I still get a blanket or extra jumper instead of putting the heating on.
Cook from scratch and make economical meals, nothing wasted.
If the oven goes on, it has to be full.
Home made soft furnishings & some clothes.
Sewing up holes in tights

I grew up in poverty on a council estate, my parents always tried very hard for us not feel poor but my siblings and I always knew.
We lived in a really cramped tiny house, never heated enough, no pantry of food, mostly hand me down clothes and at least 4 in a bed.
Which truly was awful, I always ended up on the edge. Still to this day and even as I type, I still sleep on the edge on my bed(which is queen size).
We never had books or even just plain paper to colour or draw, we didn't have much but were well loved.

I worked hard at school, was the first in my family to go to uni and had a lot of luck in career/business. I am now in a position where I am comfortably off but feel a fraud/underserving.

I alway vowed that when i grew up I would always have food in my house, and now I have a really well stocked pantry, which gets rotated.
I also have more than 1 bathroom, because years of relying on just 1 with lots of people in a house really left a lasting impression(just think periods).

It was super important to me to become mortgage free as soon as possible, as the idea of debt really terrifies me.
We used to have bailiffs visit my house as a child and they were always seriously nasty people(some would laugh,talk directly to us children and say they were going to takeaway our house!).
I paid off my mortgage in my late 20s early 30s, I don't use credit cards but do have them.

I really don't feel very comfortable buying myself stuff, I rarely do and even then shop in the sale. I do buy things which are meant to last, and seldom change things which are still working.

I do like to always have savings, the thought being poor again still causes me anxiety.

I did however take on some children in my family (parents were disinterested) who would have grown up like me, under my wings and raised them. Sent them all to private school, took them holidays, gave them swimming/sailing/flying lessons and books.
In a way it was a cathartic experience for me because I gave them the childhood that I has always wanted.
And it was eye opening for me, I had preconceived ideas of the type of people that sent their children to private schools. I was shocked at how normal people were and how much no cared about money or status as such.
Before the first child started school we got the welcome pack, inside was information about the schools secondhand uniform sale.
I was incredibly shocked because that concept of wearing secondhand clothing, in my inner London sink school would have been totally alien.
If I had worn secondhand clothes, my god the bullying in my schools would have been atrocious. And I got bullied anyway, for never having deodorant or perfume.
Sorry I am rambling, but the fact that secondhand uniform was a totally normal part of school life, was a moment that really made me see my childhood in adult eyes.

I guess certain things stay with you, our anxieties and that sense of needing security. One thing i will say is that having financial means, does not equate to happiness. Outwardly people see me as someone who has (for want of a better word )'made it', but my childhood left a scaring impression on me.
So now i'm nearly 40, retired and reinventing myself.

I eat every single bit of food on my plate (including gravy using bread if at home) back to it looking clean, in about half the time it takes the rest of my household to finish their meal. I don't think I rush and I do chew, I just seen massively more efficient at getting it in!
I am a healthy weight and happy to share food (if asked, I do not like people helping themselves to my portion), but if I eat out with other people I have to deliberately stop eating and put my cutlery down for a while in the middle of the plateful and chat or I get comments about it :-/

I like nice doing things and having things which bring me pleasure but I don’t like waste.
I dislike high fashion and excess clothing, preferring fewer simple, good quality items. In general, I don’t spend huge amounts on ‘things’ - makeup, jewellery, toiletries, clothes, bags, or things for the house. We have good quality bedding, towels etc but they’re quite old.
I won’t buy things because they are branded unless I think they are genuinely better (It has to be Heinz beans). I dislike ‘flashiness’ and ostentation.
I’m happy to fly economy within Europe and to use second class on trains. I often prefer good gastropub type accommodation or self catering to smarter hotels.

Just reading some of the posts.

I do the exact opposite of how I was brought up.
My mother who had become very rich just by penny pinching and saving fanatically would say I wouldn’t have anything when I was older because as soon as I went to work I spent like there was no tomorrow.

I bought with Dp our first property with a mortgage. Everyday whilst we were doing it up, she would get me on my own and berate me about how much debt I was in. Then get aunties and uncles to come round and tell me I would go bankrupt because I had spent more than I could afford on a house that needed work and wasn’t worth what I paid for it. I made a small profit. It cost me £9k to buy and I sold for £13k about 6 months later.
My extended family who all lived under the same roof had saved up to buy their first property. They thought mortgages and debt were bad.

I look on money as numbers on a piece of paper.
Sometimes they are minus figures and sometimes they are plus.

If I have a mortgage I have never worried about the size of it. If it was a btl mortgage then as long as the rent covered the expenses plus a little extra the fact it was in 7 figures wasn’t a problem.

The heating goes on full blast if there is a slight chill.

I wash everything everyday.

If someone uses a towel it is washed after one use.

If my children want anything they get it.

I can’t remember a single nice thing that happened to me growing up.

Even holidays were a chore. Even when we had a bit of money.

My children remember a lot of the places we went to when they were younger and they know there childhood was a blast.

Days out at Legoland with a picnic every few days in the summer and a bag of chips in the car on the way home.
The Science museum. Days out in the countryside walking the dog. Days out at the park and after school everyday dancing, singing, gymnastics and martial arts lessons.

All I did was do the exact opposite to what my parents did.

Overall though I am probably going to be worth more financially as the level of miserliness broke the family apart and rather than look for things that would bring in income each month they would panic when the cash wasn’t in the bank.

Problem is as they got older the less they did and the more money was spent on living frugally than was coming in so their cash just got depleted more and more.

It really is no existence if even when you have the money you don’t spend it on making your life easier