Quirks from a poorer childhood that have followed you through life.

[Motorwayview]

Inspired by the tight people thread.
No matter how much underwear I have I am always slightly panicked that I'll run out of clean underwear so have been known to handwash and leave overnight to dry. Ive got draws and draws of the stuff now - BUT growing up for a while I had just enough to get by on but only if DM washed them every night. ( 3 pairs knickers) Sometimes we didn't have the 50p for the meter to use the emersion heater or boil a kettle (this was the '70's).
The one that drives DH mad is that I have to use every last drop out of a bottle even if Ive got 3 more of the same in the cupboard ( shampoo ect) .
Anyone else ?

She also used to cut used sheets in half and then sew the outside edges together. I think this is going too far.

My mother did this - I don’t think it is going too far, at least not with good quality linen which is very expensive these days. It doesn’t take long with a sewing machine.
It’s not ideal with a single bed or a single person who sleeps in the middle of a double bed as you can feel the seam.

I thought FHB was an us thing! Mum said it to me recently but 1. It was a family party, 2. people always feel self conscious about going first and 3. I’m the only one with young kids!

😂Thats brilliant! I wonder if that's similar to in our house when I'm always aghast at how my husband dollops spoonfuls of jam or marmalade on his toast while I scrape a small sliver across mine. I always just thought he was greedy but now wonder if we are products of our childhoods growing up on opposite sides of the tracks. I mean it was a rarity to get to the bottom of a pot of jam in our house growing up which I just took as normal. You were more likely to find mould before you got the bottom. No chance of that now - my husband is always buying marmalade which feels very decadent.

"sides to middling" of sheets was very common and not just for poor people.

She also used to cut used sheets in half and then sew the outside edges together.
You can't really do sides-to-middle any more. It doesn't work with fitted sheets!

I hate debt, and have never had anything like a store-card/car on credit. I am very happy to accept hand-me-downs (obviously I clean them, and check safety), and offer them on to other people. I won't borrow money or accept treats from friends unless I'm sure I can pay them back quickly.

Thank God!

I have had some tight times in life and actually turned collars and cuffs on my husbands shirts at one point. I haven't turned sheets in to out but I have mended them. I have also mended blankets (needle felted wool blankets) and made head towels from old towels, bought sheeting material and hemmed up, made duvet and pillow cases and usually made all my curtains as well - although Dunelm is now my haunt and it feels decadent

Dad grew veg and we had an apple and a plum tree. Mum pickled and jammed everything. Even grew lettuce. We would have the veg with varieties of sausages, mince, chicken, pork chops and occasionally lamb from dad's farmer mate. I still make chutney and jam from my own garden!

Never had my own clothes as my cousin was a year older and everything got passed down. I was about 10 when I grew taller than her!!

T-shirts cut in to dusters. We also had to save old clothes for holidays - we had an old camper van that leaked! Mum said we took old clothes away so we could wear 'em and wing 'em! I still take wing 'ems on holiday now! Old knickers with holes, t shirts for knocking around in that have seen better days ...

I still feel the shame of being in primary school and another girl in my class recognising the kickers I was wearing as ones her mum had put in the jumble sale - I still remember them to this day 50+ years later .

I must have 60 pairs of knickers and socks , and still cant resist buying more . And I won't wear them when they are thinning or they arent as white as they should be - my undies have to be pristine

I still hate clothes shopping. I was 13 before I was given money to go buy something from a shop, a neighbour came with me , Chelsea Girl, I didnt have a clue , totally overwhelmed me , all my clothes till then were jumble sales, hand made or hand me downs from the girls up the street. I still struggle with fashion

The joy of having control of the heating and hot water. Being able to wash my hair, have a shower daily - twice a day if I need/want. Grew up with once a week bath night and hair wash - as a teen with greasy hair - didnt go down too well with my peers

And shoes, not having to wear the same pair every day. Having shoes, boots, sandals, trainers - all at once

Im past the stage of saving for best, I did once upon a time but stopped when my best friend who lived so frugally, stretching every penny, wearing clothes till they fell to bits, cut own hair etc, died in a RTA, aged 45 . Now I know I deserve the best. I still find it hard to " waste money on frivolous things" but when I need something I buy the best we can afford, my days of rummaging around markets looking for the cheapest price are at an end

Sunday bath night for going back to school on Mon 70s.
I would pretend not to hear mum shouting me in when I was out playing.

Most dads where I lived in the 70s - Northern town - got paid on a Thursday in cash.
My mum used to buy 1 pack of chocolate digestives and then a pack of Orange clubs.
We would sit waiting for Top of the Pops to come on. The chocolate digestives would be gone by the time by the show had finished.
We often had no shampoo so had to use Fairy liquid so nice shampoo is my thing now.
No clean knickers? Wear bikini bottoms or gym shorts. I can remember having to get changed in school wearing the bikini bottoms and getting laughed at.
Meals were the same - egg and chips, corned beef hash.
We got central heating when I was 18 - before then we had a single fire.
As soon as I could start working - I was 14, I bought knickers and shampoo.
Was I unhappy then? No. But I did feel it when friends who had more than me took it for granted. I also had friends who had a lot, lot less.
My mum went back to studying when I was 11 and never stopped, got a career which changed our lives. It wasn’t a fortune but it meant a foreign holiday every year, better clothes, a house extension.
That made a huge impression - I realised the power of a woman studying and having a great job. It was lovely to see her have money to spend on herself.
I still love egg and chips though. Can’t beat it.

My parents were children in the war, so their whole childhood was lived in rationing. I can still see my dad taking the butter paper and scraping every last atom from it. Then saving it to use as greaseproof paper. We are perfectly comfortable now, but I will still look for the best deals when shopping. And I always cut open hand creams etc to get the last week or so out of it.

Butter was so precious to my parents.

Is having fruit trees a bad thing? Or making jam and pickle. I do both, and make my own bread. Yes, it's cheaper but the bread and fruit have fewer additives, and the preserves have lower sugar. Even if I had a bottomless wallet, I'd still make them. The quality is so much better and I want to give my ds the best diet possible.

We also used to get the broken biscuits but also the Bulgarian jam that was cheaper than ordinary jam but had pips made out of wood .

Also whole family including cousins and aunts went blackberrying and granny made industrial quantities of jam for all of us .

Dusters made out of old underpants and vests .

Not buying anything frivolous, even now when I can afford to. The in-built 'you have to buy something you can sell or take to a pawn shop, when you are in need again.

I'm curious, does he cut them up before throwing them away to stop you retrieving them from the bin? Or is that just one of his quirks he's always done?

Like others here the common themes were absolutely no waste, hand me downs (saving anything “new” as best). Growing up in an overcrowded and unheated/damp home without a bathroom until I was older - then we had an actual bath but sharing bathwater was the norm. I have a life long weakness chest wise and spent much of my childhood visiting the Brompton regularly along with most of my classmates.

We did well, not least because when my parents had money they used it to help us and taught us that education and hard work was our ticket ot better things. Many of my peers had to leave school and start earning at the earliest opportunity.

As a better off parent I over cater, always have a well stocked cupboard and still struggle to throw away anything which can be “finished off”. My children had a mix of second hand and new stuff but that was by choice as we circulated baby stuff around the family. I had friends who just couldn’t bring themselves to use SH due to their childhood experiences.

I’m a boundary baby - Gen X/Boomer boundary. I think its hard to grasp just how dramatically living standards have improved if you never experienced the realities of life, especially low income life at that time and earlier.

Making sure the kids have the right clothes - that's me and MIL both having little and hand me downs which weren't quite right.

Plus spending money on trips. Made sure kids could go on at least one trip abroad and school trips generally - I couldn't go but DH could and doesn't see it as such a big deal.

We mend things now - and re-use items - so kids see that - we also buy second hand our parents have much more hangups with that than we or our kids do.

One thing we do almost obessively that my parents didn't plan/smear out payments - if I know school uniform was coming up or birthdays or hoilday or christmas - we'd get things early - months bit by bit and save all year for hoilday funds. Putting things away slowly for years for when they left - for uni so far. My parents seems to get blind sided by forseeable expenses and then fret and guilt us about thing like needing new school shoes at start of the year.

The one that drives DH mad is that I have to use every last drop out of a bottle even if Ive got 3 more of the same in the cupboard ( shampoo ect) .

I do that too! 😂

Not at all, I was just commenting on the fact he grew everything (potatoes, carrots, peas, beans, tomatoes etc) and mum pickled (beetroot, onions, cabbage etc) and that I still make chutney and jam. It's great that I still do it. I can't eat beetroot to this day as the smell of it boiling was horrendous and stank the house out.

If toiletries are on offer I buy them and have them in a basked under the sink for when money is tight, incase I run out of my moisturiser and can’t replace it. It makes me feel looked after but also I get overwhelmed by having too much, then worry I am wasteful. But have to get the last bit out of every bottle, so the stock can last all year- which then overwhelms me! It’s very odd.

i also save string from packages , bubble wrap or what I deem to be a good box/envelope, then try to reuse them. I’m not really sure why as it creates clutter which makes me feel stressed! I have a pendulum swing between not being wasteful and not living in scarcity mindset/fear- but can’t get it right!

my parents grew up with literally nothing and would tell me how lucky I was to have clothes and food. My dad can get 3 cups of tea out of one teabag.

Thank you for sharing your experience. I had similar. Mum died when I was 11 and I never felt comfortable with asking dad for the money for sanitary products even though I know he would have sought it. We were financially poor and if I ever went food shopping for dad, I would keep some coins back from the change in an attempt to get money for sanitary towels.
There was rarely enough and I frequently stuffed toilet roll in my knickers. I remember feeling jealous of my friends who had big packets of sanitary towels bought by their mums.
I too will never take for granted that there is plentiful food and snacks available at home and the joys of central heating. We used to pile coats on the bed to keep us warm.
All these experiences have made me grateful and appreciative of what I have now.
I so appreciate what my parents did for me.

Not me but my mil. She has an obsession with saving energy and water etc. she does the following:

if she runs tap water to get it hot for dish washing (it’s usually cold / tepid to start), she runs it in to a jug then uses that water for drinking or the kettle;

if she boils in the kettle more water than she needs (by accident), she puts the hot water in a flask to use later;

she turns the shower on to get her body wet, turns it off again to apply shower gel / shampoo then turns the shower back on for a rinse (have asked her not to make teenage dsd do this when she stays);

she doesn’t have a tumble and gets her clothes dry naturally all year round, apparently if the clothes freeze on the line and you knock the ice out then they are dry quickly;

her biggest thing is she eats her dinner at my house a minimum of 3 times a week, at her step daughter’s house once a week and my auntie’s house once a week then tells me how little she spends on food (find this one a little annoying);

she is a lovely woman and a legend at minimising her outgoings. She also goes on holiday most months so she does use her money for fun and I don’t begrudge her.