Today the PF Blogger Network is doing a group writing project about family Financial History.  So please check out other PF bloggers writing about their Family Financial History.

So what’s my financial history? I think I was born to never overspend.  From pretty much from birth it was drilled into my head we don’t buy what we can’t afford.  That means no charging on the credit card what you cannot pay cash for. But realize that poor people didn’t get credit back then.  At least that’s what my mom told me.

The day my mom became a single mom, I a couple months old, the credit cards we put into a box under the bed and not pulled out until she could pay cash in full.  That isn’t to say my mom is against credit, offer her 10% on her furniture for opening a credit card she’d do it.  But she’d walk over to the desk the next day or week (however long it took to post) and pay it off with the cash she’d already have saved up.  The extra 10% we saved she’d put to buying something else we needed, because we always needed money.

So being thrifty, frugal, and debt averse was just something I grew up with.  My grandmother used to be very frugal as well, washing saran wrap and reusing everything.

The other thing I grew up knowing is gambling is a sin.  Yep a sin.  Unfortunately my mom saw the inside of a jail before her 6th birthday because my grandfather ran in-out gambling games in their house.  It also was one of the reasons she threw out my biological dad finally.  He gambled and she wasn’t about to lose everything for him.  He needed to go.   So I don’t gamble ever.  I’d never hear the end of it.  I have been to Las Vegas as an adult once and even then I didn’t gamble.  I think it might be fun and DH appears to be interested, but it’s a very thin line I feel I walk.

All bills are paid immediately.  My mom taught me when bills come in the money is gone.  Write the check the day it comes in and mail it off.  Always have a lot of buffer in the checking and never wait for the due date.  I can’t break the habit so my checking account always has a few thousand in it earning 0% interest because I’m worrried about being broke.  The fear of not having enough is still there.  I like seeing cash in the bank because it means we have security, and yes it’s not the wisest financial decision but there is more to finance than math.

But what didn’t I learn from my parents?  I had no idea what a stock, mutual fund, bond, or CD was.  Basically I knew nothing about investing.  I didn’t learn anything about IRAs, 401ks, etc from them either.  Everything I had to learn from friends, DH, and reading. 

But the good habits set the foundation for a solid financial future.  I didn’t have to unlearn any bad habits, I just had to learn new habits. 

I was fortunate that from early on I was told, “We can’t afford that, buy what you can afford, and if you don’t have cash for it, it’s unaffordable.”  Sure it’s made me a rather “frugal/cheap” person, but the reality is how many parents tell their kids at age 5, we can’t afford it?  We don’t have enough money? Not many from what I can tell.  So I learned my lessons well.