The Great 'best money lessons from your grandparents' Hunt

oochable

Be as self sufficient as possible - both sets of grandparents grew their own fruit and veg and kept pigs and chickens too.

Some phrases they used to use include : "Never look a gift horse in the mouth" - if somebody offers you something for nowt / as a gift just graciously accept it. If it is not what you are looking for you can always offer it to your friends / family.

"Don't put off until tomorrow what can be done today" don't bury your head in the sand might as well get on with sorting things out financially asap.

"There is more than one way to skin a cat" - if there is something you really want but can't afford it think creatively and try and find a way to save / earn the money.

"Only a fool and his money are easily parted" hang on to your money - think do you really need something.

"Even donkeys on the beach get a rest" don't forget to take a break from all your hard work from time to time.

And lastly " he who works for nothing or f***s for nothing will always be very busy"!!!!

Will probably think of loads more - my grandparents were all from deepest Lincolnshire and were all strong characters - they always had a saying for any situation!!

margaretclare

All the preceding advice is very good and mostly, grown from bitter experience of a time when there were no benefits. They didn't automatically think 'what can I claim, what am I entitled to?'

My grandfather hadn't the money pay for my granny's funeral in 1938. A proud man, one of what was then called the 'respectable working class', he had to pay it in bits at a time. He is said to have growled to my mother 'Get that bairn insured'. Because children did die in those times, as well as others.

I grew up in a desperately-poor family but one of my abiding memories is of being given a few pennies to take to school each Monday morning to the school savings-bank - the school acted as sub-branch of a bank. This was when the Battle of Britain was still raging but they still thought it was worth starting me on the habit of saving. It's something I've never forgotten.

For myself, if I'd saved a shilling out of every pound I earned over the years I'd be very comfortably-off today. That's 5% of every pound over almost 50 years, plus interest...you can see where I'm going. It's possible to waste an awful lot on just rubbish, and never more so than in the present day.

So my advice would be: always save! Even if you can't afford to save much, then save something.

DH, by contrast, says 'don't save if you have debts because what you're paying on interest on a debt is always going to be more than you're earning in interest on savings'. So, always always always pay off any debts at the earliest possible opportunity. He's very good at negotiating the best deal!

miss_independent

"Cut your cloth accordingly",

Meaning, don't buy things you can't afford (I.e on "tick") and buy what fits into your lifestyle and income. My parents generation (baby boomers) could afford bigger houses than they ever imagined and I know of single people living in large three (or more) bedroomed detached properties which they bought in the yuppie days and they are now struggling to heat them and pay for energy and water bills. Meanwhile, my generation (20's) are struggling to get on the property ladder and, if they can, the ones I know are going for flats, terraced houses, or modest semis that they know they can afford in the long run. Would I like a huge, detached 5 bedroomed house with a massive garden? Sure, it's what I dreamed of as a child. But even if I had the money for the mortgage, I know that in the long run the maintenance and bills are extortionate, so what's the point?!

"Neither a borrower or a lender be."

This has served me well, mainly the first bit that is. I've never had a credit or store card. I didn't even take a student loan for uni, choosing instead to live at home and work almost full time alongside my course. Sure, there were things I missed out on but I'm in a better financial position than alot of people my age, being in credit rather debt. Peace of mind is worth a lot and in unfortunate periods of unemployment (grrrrr!) it was reassuring to know I had some savings.

"One third of your income should go on the house."

Nice clear rules here. For adult children living at home, they knew exactly how much board they would have to pay. Lots of my generation can't afford a place of their own yet but there seems to be alot of confusion as to how much board, if any, they should be expected to pay. Also, its a good guideline for people who are in their own home or even renting i.e 1/3rd of your income is the maximum you should aim to spend on rent and bills, so you should look for a place that fits into that budget. For homeowners, it could help you avoid just paying the interest on the mortgage (I know a baby boomer who has only paid the interest and still has a pretty big mortgage for a 60 year old), so you figure out 1/3rd of your income, pay the bills and the rest goes on the mortgage. If its a large amount each month, you could save a small amount each month for household repairs/replacement. If 1/3rd isn't enough to cover the household expenses it you musn't have "cut your cloth accordingly" and in my grandparents day they would have taken on more work, taken in a lodger (or two) or downsized.

"One thing at a time! Rome wasn't built in a day!"

It can seem like you need every gadget or household appliance and, especially when moving into a first home, you might be tempted to get everything at once (which inevitably ends up going on credit cards or having to take out a loan) and I know couples who have wanted everything to be perfect at once. My grandparents saved money every month for what it was that they wanted, choosing only one thing at a time. They would save for a new sofa and once they had that they would immediately start saving for a television or a room to be decorated. They would only have one goal at a time and they would easily achieve it before setting there sights on a new one. As long as they had a roof over their head and things were kept clean and tidy, they could put up with their home not being perfect straight away.

"Save your pennies for a rainy day."

Aim to save at least 10% of your income right from the very start. As in your first paper round or waiting on job. Even loose change would go into a penny jar (though it was often given to charity). As a child, it was drummed into me to save some of my pocket money so I would save half and spend half. My grandparents would join a Christmas savings club, putting money away throughout the year, so they didn't have to panic or scrimp later on. My grandparents were incredibly poor (lots of mouths to feed and Grandad was so injured in the war he didn't ever manage to work again and they had LOTS of mouths to feed, 8!) but they always made do somehow and they were never in a situation where the cupboard was bare or they didn't have a penny to their name. I believe a lot of this was because they saved whatever they had left over, no matter how little.

nixta

miss_independent wrote: »

"One third of your income should go on the house."

Nice clear rules here. For adult children living at home, they knew exactly how much board they would have to pay. Lots of my generation can't afford a place of their own yet but there seems to be alot of confusion as to how much board, if any, they should be expected to pay. Also, its a good guideline for people who are in their own home or even renting i.e 1/3rd of your income is the maximum you should aim to spend on rent and bills, so you should look for a place that fits into that budget. For homeowners, it could help you avoid just paying the interest on the mortgage (I know a baby boomer who has only paid the interest and still has a pretty big mortgage for a 60 year old), so you figure out 1/3rd of your income, pay the bills and the rest goes on the mortgage. If its a large amount each month, you could save a small amount each month for household repairs/replacement. If 1/3rd isn't enough to cover the household expenses it you musn't have "cut your cloth accordingly" and in my grandparents day they would have taken on more work, taken in a lodger (or two) or downsized.

It's a sensible theory that given the disproportionate rise in house prices since your grandparents' day is easier said than done.

Tiglath

My Nan collected her pension from the Post Office and kept it in a purse plus split some stuff into jars. I don't think she ever had a bank account or card of any kind. I'm going to follow her example and have a separate physical groceries purse and personal spend purse. My Dad was strictly cash-only - he never wrote a cheque or used a card. I think the last time he went into a bank was in 1957 to get their first and only mortgage. He left Mum to handle the bank account and she gave him pocket money every week. When he died, we found odd stashes of tenners tucked in sock drawers and wardrobes. He never did get his head round decimalisation; everything was shillings and farthings to him right up till the end.

j.e.j.

pleasedelete wrote: »

My granny had a great phrase about people

Fur coat and no knickers

I imagine that all those who borrow to buy luxury items fall into the fur coat and no knickers category.

I like that interpretation, but I thought the phrase 'fur coat and no knickers' actually had a different meaning..

SailorSam

My Grandad always use to say the only HP he wanted was a bottle of sauce.
He told us we should always save up until we could afford to buy it. I remember him saying when he was young man he won and lost his wages regularly but after he met my Nan realized there were no poor bookies and never went again.

Primrose

My grandmother bought up 6 children during the first world war and afterwards during the recession and not a penny was ever wasted. As a a teenager she used to embarrass me with her penny pinching ways yet she was never in debt & knew just about every frugal tip in the book (which in my maturing years I have slowly adopted for my own). But her prime object was to keep the roof over her head and even if it meant only eating bread & potatoes for a week when times were hard, she would do this rather than miss a mortgage payment.

kayannie

MSE_Debs wrote: »

The Great 'best money lessons from your grandparents' Hunt

We're now firmly ensconced in the 21st century. But as the old saying goes, "there's nowt new under t'sun". So we thought we'd tap MoneySavers' collective knowledge to find out the money wisdom of the ages. Do include what age you were when you got the advice and feel free to include a bit about your grandparents.

I never knew my Welsh grannie as she died before I was born, but as the hard working wife of a smallholder as well as the mother of 9 children, she had to know how to make her money stretch. To anyone tempted to skip paying the rent, she would say 'If you can't afford one week's rent, you certainly won't be able to afford two'.

lurcherone

My, much loved, Granny said that she didn't want me to marry for money but to "love where there is a bit"..........................