Does MoneySaving run in the family?

TBagpuss

I think it can run in the family in that we tend to assume that what our families do as we are growing up is normal / the way to do things - and I think if your family has actively tried to teach you about budgeting / saving then you at least have the choice as to whether to use that knowledge.  That said, I think people are also influenced by others and there's often a reaction against your parents, so someone who grew up being very frugal may splash out when they get the chance.

When my elder sister and I were small, my parents were living on a very tight budget - my mum still has notebooks where they literally wrote down every penny they spent , so they knew where the money was going and could keep to their budget. 

Later on thing were not so tight but we grew up with the example that you live within your means, and you save up for things you want. We were given pocket money and while we would sometimes get extra treats, generally we had to save up for things we wanted, and then when we got to about 11 or so we each started to get a clothing allowance instead, which covered everything except school clothes - it was a really effectively way of letting up least about budgeting and planning - if you spend your whole allowance  on a single paid of fashionable jeans then that's your look out, but you don't then get to buy anything else until pay day - no other new clothes, no hair cut, no make up, no cinema trip, no sweets..

It also mean it that we really appreciated the extras we were given

I think all of us made mistakes but mostly when we were in our teens and it was a 'no cinema or sweets for 3 months because you blew the quarter's allowance in the first week' rather than 'massive credit card debt when you first leave home', so I've always been grateful that they did things that way

I recall them also talking to us about things like shopping around for quotes for insurance, when each of us left home and started needing to buy cars etc.