What’s your earliest financial memory?

squirrelchops2

I think my earliest memory is my Mum collecting Coop stamps (pretty sure it was Coop) and putting them in books and having a huge amount that we then went to our nearest big town and she bought new furniture!

When I was a little older but still a child I also remember having a friend who wanted for nothing and being quite envious - until it was in the local newspaper that her father had gone bankrupt - my Mother used that as a learning lesson for although what people may show they have might not be what they actually own.

A kind of negative early memory is being reinforced a message that all lending was bad. I grew up with a family that owned property outright, no credit cards etc and I found this actually a very unhelpful attitude when I had to get a mortgage etc. However we weren't well off when I was very small, asset rich, cash poor and of course my single Mother wasnt going to borrow money as saw this as wrong. 

rosewilson

Earliest memory: I must have been around 8 years old, back in the late '90s. It was a chilly autumn day, and I was eagerly waiting for my birthday. I remember seeing my older cousin walk in wearing this cool leather jacket, the kind that made him look like a rockstar. I couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy as I watched him strut in with that jacket on. Little did I know, my own birthday surprise would involve a leather jacket too. It turned out to be the best gift ever, and I wore it proudly, just like my cousin did with his. Funny how memories like that stick with you, isn't it?

badmemory

My second financial memory was 1951/2 which was still meat rationing.  Being taken to the butchers, I realised later it was as protection for my mother, being told to smile at him & be nice & we'd get better meat.  She daren't take my sister in as she was a bit of a screamer.  It did work.  We may have only really got the same but the quality was worth the effort.

Sixpence49

My earliest financial memory was the change in the amount of pocket money I received from my Grandad when decimalisation came about (1971 or 2?). It went from sixpence (2 and a half pence in new money?) to 3 shiny new 10 pence coins. So I did rather well! Made up for the constant queries from the oldies about “what’s that in old money?” I recall I had 3 empty coffee jars under my bed and I would put a 10p in each to save up for something - mostly Famous Five books!

BungalowBel

My first memory is watching my mum putting money into envelopes with 'milkman', 'rates', 'provident' etc on them.   I still base my budgeting system on this to this day (except it is bank accounts instead of envelopes). 

The first major  financial decision I remember making myself was not to go with the 'married women's stamp' when I got married, but to keep paying the full one.  This meant I got a full pension in my own right when I retired.  So many women my age didn't because they carried on with the 'small stamp'.

BungalowBel

Tiger_Tony said:

Two financial memories from the late 1950s. The first was my mum's coop divi number - 26852. The second was my father telling me that due to the budget, an ice cream had gone up in price from 3d to 4d.

I remember my mum's Co-op number too! 61647 

Suffolksue

My mums Co-op number was 137520 and woe betide you if you didn’t bring back a receipt to prove you’d given it .

Nearlyold

Early Financial memories -

Grandad giving me money when I was around 10 to go to the "little shop" to get him an ounce of Golden Virginia and a packet of Green Papers and the occasional copy of the Racing Post.

Handing over my 'Dinner Money" to the teacher on a Monday morning to pay for the weeks school dinners.

Mum reciting her divi number in the Co-Op

Most exciting of all was finding a 10 bob note in the ditch at the bottom of our lane. Mum reported it to the police (or said she did) but I was allowed to keep it. Think I spent it on a Scalextric car.

Brambling

My dad sitting at the table on a Friday night with a long rectangular gold colour tin split into sections I think there were slots in the lid and he would budget out his wages into rent etc. He never had a bank account or credit card, nothing was put on HP it had to be saved for and he would try to squirrel a little away for emergencies in a jam jar which was hidden in the loft.

My gran lived at the end of our road and hated decimalisation and if I took her bread in on a Saturday she would give me the half pence change as she found them too tiny and fiddly 

ouraggie

Primary school; buying the Post offfice savings stamps. 10p, and when your book was full you had a whole £1!
Sticking dozens of Green Shield stamps in a book for my mum. The gum tasted horrible. You could put 40 little stamps on a page, or just one Big 40 stamp. We then would go to Nottingham to the GSS shop to redeem them. I remember her getting a new iron one time, when I’d pestered unsuccessfully for a doll’s pushchair.
One Christmas, when i was about 10, i desperately wanted a typewriter. My dad had a mate at work whose daughter had one she’d outgrown. We went over there to see it. It was a Petite Super International and I still own it. I remember my dad asking how much he wanted. The workmate said £25. My dad quietly said to him “she loves it, look at her face, but I can only run to 20. Will you take that?” I can still hear the embarrassment in my dad’s voice. I pretended i hadn’t heard. The workmate agreed. On the way home my dad said to me “you know that’s all you’ll be getting this year, don’t you”. I said “ don’t worry, dad. This is all i want”. I woke up on Christmas morning to find i still had the Bunty Annual and a few other small presents.
I am definitely my mother’s daughter when it comes to food shopping etc. She would trek me and my sister round lord knows how many shops on a Saturday morning, buying this thing in one shop but that thing in another because it was cheaper or better value. She had a range of sayings which she quoted regularly: “ always shop where there’s a queue”, “its only a bargain if you need it “; “ you’ll live to want, wasting money on that” etc etc. 

How I miss her and my dad.