Does MoneySaving run in the family? 8 October 2021 at 10:28AM in Marriage, relationships & families 21 replies 2.4K views

MSE_Laura_F

Is MoneySaving a family trait?

Or are you the outlier?

annabanana82

Nope, my parents are good with money and I like to think I am. 

My siblings are pretty shocking with money, one does try but the other is exceptionally poor with any kind of finances 

Silvertabby

My parents lived from weekly paypacket to weekly paypacket, and seemed to have no idea of how to save money.  If toilet rolls were £1 for 2 rolls or £2 for 12 rolls they would buy 2 rolls and congratulate themselves on 'saving' £1.  

My sister believed that money was to be enjoyed, ie only to be spent on something nice.  Paying bills was a 'waste' of her hard earned money, hence her inevitable bankruptcy.

I've no idea where I got my money skills from!

JennyJukes

I got my moneysaving from my mum!  Single mother of 3 kids who worked 3 jobs to keep us afloat and still treat us.  She instilled the importance of saving to me.  Somehow my brothers didn't learn that?? 

DairyQueen

Grandparents never earned enough to save.

Parents have always spent within their means but have never been savers or investors. They were lucky with property so supplemented minimal pensions by downsizing. 

Sibling is terrible managing finances despite working hard throughout life. Incapable of planning and of delaying gratification. Thank the Lord he has a DB pension and full SP entitlement. People like my bro are entirely dependent on others (government/employer/parents/spouse) 'saving on their behalf'. 

I have always been a saver so definitely no savings trait in our clan.

Brie

We're a mix - my parents were quite good at saving, investing, spending when they had the money but not otherwise.  Hence my mom is sitting on a pretty pile.  I think by older siblings are better than us younger ones but one of the older admits that he has no idea about finance.  But for him that means he simply doesn't spend, which is good.  And his spouse is incredibly practical so that helps.  

I do think the best thing my parents ever said to us is "if you think you want to buy something, big or small, go home and think about it overnight.  If it's still a good idea in the morning then think about it and plan how you can get it."   They had a number of wonderful offers over the years but walked away from a lot of them.  Lots of time share properties or "getting something for free" or "too good to be missed" most of which would have been absolute sink holes.

elsien

It does now, but in reverse.

Currently training parent in the use of all things MSE. 

squirrelchops2

Growing up as a very young child we were hard up but my mum budgeted so well and taught me to save from an early age. She prides herself that 'if everyone in the country was given a fiver, she would have more left than most' lol. On the down side she is risk averse and her money could work better for her but I have learned more about planned risk investing so to speak.

Maternal grandparents also literally built their home brick by brick - buying a pallet each week once paid. Please bear in mind grandmother was born in 1900.

Paternal family started with little, great great grandfather was a tailor but moved to the country and somehow managed to amass a farm with 160 acres and 3 houses over the years.

So i definitely come from a family where working and saving hard to get what you want is encouraged. 

I am very comfortably off BUT i hate waste and I hate just being frivolous. My partner has got used to me over the years but I think carefully about what I spend my money and sometimes actually have to be encouraged to have a treat. However, one thing money has given me is freedom - freedom to leave a job that broke me, freedom to not be stuck in a bad relationship etc. My mum to this day asks if I have an 'emergency fund' squirrelled away just in case lol.

DD265

Not a family trait.

Dad was always a high earner, so Mom was able to stay at home. She did some self employed/flexible work around looking after us so she had some income. Dad always spent up to his means, and he'd go beyond them knowing he had the money coming in, so he was often borrowing from his future self. It was never an issue (that I was aware of, anyway) but I think it's come back to bite at least him a bit in later life after they separated/divorced.

I would say they made some big financial decisions that I wouldn't do myself, and whilst it was nice to have 'everything' as we were growing up, it's also easy to expect instant gratification all of the time and I think that's a negative. I definitely still have some old habits that I'm working on changing (like borrowing from future self). I want to genuinely be financially stable/comfortable/secure, not just have the appearance of it.

YBR

I have no idea how my mother balanced the household books while we were young. When I was about 10 my father left a company and set up by himself, and for years "didn't know where the next order was coming from". I do remember delivering telephone directories one holiday, and with their mortgage rates at 12% it was very tight. We didn't have many interesting holidays but they still managed to keep us in independent schools!
I remember wanting to go on a youth group holiday and never asking them, but assuming that I had to fund it myself.

I now consider myself relatively well off - I am able to save and my husband has been able to "stay home" while the kids were little. He started a part-time job last month by choice. I've kept the attitude I grew up with - instinctively hate waste and rarely spend large amounts on stuff I don't need but would enjoy. I grow vegetables and fruit because I enjoy it, whereas my mother probably did it to feed us. 

Dizzy_Ditzy

elsien said:

It does now, but in reverse.

Currently training parent in the use of all things MSE. 

Same. I learnt to be better with my money through necessity. I got myself in a situation that only I could get out of. I will never be in that situation again. I’m slowly training my parents in the MSE way which is starting to work well. My brother has debts coming out of every orifice and won’t do anything to help himself. I’ve had to bail him out more times than I care to remember and every time I tell myself it’s the last time but it never is 🙄