What was your biggest misconception about money when you were a child?

cheeky-peach

Again, not a misconception but I always thought that people picked if they wanted to work or not. I remember asking my dad why he was always working whilst some of my friends dad's didn't and why he was always coming home tired when he could have 'easily' picked to stay home too and sit about doing nothing. 

My mother used to go shopping with a calculate and a list, we didn't have many holidays but I do remember having some time away, we always had enough to eat and were warm and clothed. I did share a room with my sister (5 years apart) and resented them for a long time growing up about it but obviously I understand what's what now.

I don't think we are what would be counted as poor. My parents had a small mortgaged property, now paid off but I remember feeling sorry for myself because I had to share that bedroom.  My husband grew up in a council house and has a different memory of having a holiday each year to a seaside resort for a week, poor quality food and describes his family as poor. Just puts a different lense on things. 

Silvertabby

Different times.  I grew up in what would be described as 'poverty' today, but was normal back then.

5 of us (mum, dad, granny, sister and me) in a 2 up 2 down with an outside loo and no central heating or hot water on tap.  Most of our clothes came from jumble sales, and Thursday night tea was bread and jam because dad didn't get paid until the following day.  But we can't have been officially 'poor', as we didn't even qualify for free school meals.  Cue more jam butties.

My parents owned our home, with mum's wages from working in a supermarket just covering the mortgage, but there was very little left over for 'luxuries'.  Our summer holiday was just a coach day trip - or 2 trips if we were really lucky (ie, mum had won at bingo).

I do remember that my best friend lived around the corner in a council house, with 3 bedrooms, fitted kitchen, indoor bathroom and lovely  garden, and I asked my mum why we couldn't live in a house like that.  "Don't be silly" she said.  "It's a council house - they are only for poor people".

MovingForwards

I've debated whether to post since this thread went up and how to word it, but no matter how many times I've tried it's still very blunt!

I grew up in a single parent home.
Benefits fed and watered us all. Free school means meant we got pudding.
Hand me downs and jumble sales clothed us.
Numerous fights with the mortgage lender and threats to repossess; even though the interest was paid by the DSS, when they weren't (allegedly) messing it up. The capital element had to be found within the income support / child benefit received and paid to the lender.
- I'm sure if smoking was knocked on the head that would have covered it or at least made it easier to pay the remaining bit.
Shared bedroom with middle sibling, eldest had the box room. 

One gas fire to heat the whole house.
An emersion heater on once a week for a bath.
Electric and gas on prepayment, felt like it was permanently on emergency.

Christmas was via a catalogue, taking a year to pay off, then repeat the cycle. Something breaks, order it from the catalogue, by the time it's paid off a new one is needed.

School trips I always declined, no point saying I wanted to go as the money couldn't be magicked out of thin air. 

Of all the uncles and aunts, most married and had kids, only the one who moved away worked.

I left school in the 90s and the family home shortly after.  

BellaLasagna2018

For me money was a taboo subject. My mum stayed at home and my dad worked in a factory. Money was never discussed beyond making us understand we weren’t rich. We weren’t allowed to know how much my father earned, how much the bills were etc in case we told other people (small village mentality). We were well looked after, fed and dressed and kept warm so I won’t complain but it might have helped me as an adult if they had taught me about budgeting. My mum would keep a budget in a small notebook, assiduously writing down all expenses and bills ( I presume as I was never allowed to see it). We never got pocket money. I still find it difficult to talk about money. 

Primrose

We lived in a mortgaged house but money was tight as a child as my dad was helping to fund his elderly parent who had no pension.  There were constant domestic arguments as my mum thought my dad's financial priority should be to fund his children. As an only child he found himself between a rock and a hard place.

I feel sorry for today,s young children where financial understanding of miney is concerned as we would save iur pennies or sixpences in a money box and had the ihywical experience of learning how to stretch it shops when spending it or saving up for something coveted.  How will today's children  learn that same skill in an increasingly cashless society ?

MaryNB

Primrose said:

We lived in a mortgaged house but money was tight as a child as my dad was helping to fund his elderly parent who had no pension.  There were constant domestic arguments as my mum thought my dad's financial priority should be to fund his children. As an only child he found himself between a rock and a hard place.

I feel sorry for today,s young children where financial understanding of miney is concerned as we would save iur pennies or sixpences in a money box and had the ihywical experience of learning how to stretch it shops when spending it or saving up for something coveted.  How will today's children  learn that same skill in an increasingly cashless society ?

I disagree. I much prefer the modern systems. I started earning a few years before I got online banking and I'm embarrassed at how bad I was at tracking my spending back then. 

Now I can check all my balances (current account, credit card, savings) in seconds so I always know how much I have left. I pay everything by card so everything I spend is automatically logged online. I export it all to a spreadsheet each month so I can track where it's going and where I need to cut back (this massively helped me save for a deposit). If I take money out from an ATM all it says is "cash" and I rarely remember what I spent it on. All my bills are by DD to be paid the day after I get paid. I've never missed a payment. I have a standing order to put a few hundred pounds in my savings account as soon as I get paid. Once my savings and bills have gone out what I'm left with is my spending limit for the month. I have notifications set up so I get a text from my bank when my current account balance is lower than a certain amount. 

My dad is very much a man of cash. When I was growing up he always paid everything by cash because he hated direct debits - he likes to physically handover money so he can see where it's going. All the bills were paid at the post office. However he is also disorganised (a trait I've unfortunately inherited), he was always incurring late payment fines and we even once had our phone cut off - we were never stuck for money he just kept forgetting to pay it. He now pays all his bills over the phone by card, still no DDs. He's so lucky credit history wasn't a thing when he was buying a house, his report would have been atrocious.

Greenqueen_2

I remember Mum refusing to buy us things (probably sweets/toys) saying she had to make ends meet.
 I was disappointed because I thought she meant she preferred to buy meat for the weekend.
 I would happily have not bothered with the meat.

RuthnJasper

When I was little I didn't understand the concept of cheques.  I thought you literally wrote the cheque, handed it over and that was that.  I could never understand why my Dad worried about money when all he had to do was give them a piece of paper from his little book instead of actual money for things.

Primrose

A bit of naughty "reverse thinking here".  As an adult I,ve found it difficult to understand why older children never write to say "thank you" for birthday or Christmas  cheques sent to them.    Forgetting to sign the cheques sometimes  produced a marvellous response !

silvercar

My adult kids still don't understand cheques. They usually end up with me having to bank them into their accounts. They can't understand why someone would go to the effort of writing a cheque and then posting it to them, when they could transfer money online.