Poll: Did you learn frugality from your parents?

By mominga (Guest Post)

After we first got married, I had to cut corners. I looked in books and realized that my parents had taught me how to do everything, so I could scrape no more. It was good to know that I was doing everything I could to save money and resources, but then I also knew that it would be hard to find a place to cut the budget.

By

meoowmom

My family consisted of Mom, Dad, 4 daughters.
We learned that eating out was fun and a brake for mom! Her cooking was and still is better than what
you can get anywhere else. We were able to to
"help' make school lunches we got to pick our
fruit and choice of homeade cookies. We would go to
zoo,beaches or the bay and took our lunch. This was
always fun being the one who got to pick our flavor
of koolaid. I think by taking our lunches we were able to go more places. My parents always put us first and we flet the love and never felt lacking
for anything. We did our chores first then play.
It seems that today kids just "expect" and
find it too easy to 'get' .

By

camo_angels

My mother stayed at home most of the time, and then when she became single, had to raise 4 kids on her own and try to get a better job (she managed to get two associate's degree, but with working I learned to take care of housework and cooking/baking.) It was very hard but we managed. My grandmother helped alot, and being German descent and raised during the Depression, taught us the ULTIMATE in frugality! Compared to how I have lived before, I am better off, but still struggle to make ends meet. Luckily, I am proud of my roots so I don't mind answering to people I got my clothes from a thrift store (I am very careful and get lots of compliments when I do venture out of the home); I also take alot of time and research with nutrition and cleaning, kind of like "preventative maintanance" I am not good at crafts esp. sewing, but I love to bake, so we rarely have "junk" stuff around. I have to thank both my mom and mom-in-law for giving me the knowledge and courage to go against the norm and stay home with my kids!