Although many households put together a budget, the important thing is managing it: setting financial goals and a plan to take you there. Which, as one Redditthreadshows us, can make some family members unhappy.
And it took off. From toilet paper rations to dating only rich people, here are some of the most upvoted entries from the 4,500 entries the question has received.
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I’ve been getting re-gifted present for Christmas since I was a kid. And not like presents from other people that were then given to me. No. We’re talking my favorite jacket goes missing for 6 months only to be found under the tree as one of my presents. Just had my 30th birthday- gifted a Swiss Army knife I had when I was a kid.
However, we should mention that for every one of these entries, there could probably be another one about children’s questionable spending sprees.In fact, a 2023surveyof 2,000 parents of kids aged 5-17 showed that more than a third of them worry their child does not understand the value of a dollar (38%).“Financial skills should be taught at school (as well as at home),” Vicki Broadbent, the woman behind the family and lifestyle blogHonest Mum, toldBored Panda. “I feel yet that’s rarely the case.”
However, we should mention that for every one of these entries, there could probably be another one about children’s questionable spending sprees.
In fact, a 2023surveyof 2,000 parents of kids aged 5-17 showed that more than a third of them worry their child does not understand the value of a dollar (38%).
“Financial skills should be taught at school (as well as at home),” Vicki Broadbent, the woman behind the family and lifestyle blogHonest Mum, toldBored Panda. “I feel yet that’s rarely the case.”
My parents don’t understand the “invest a few more dollars for a much better quality product” thing, so when I was in high school or just starting uni and they bought me clothing, it would be a $20 pair of jeans from JayJays that would last just a few weeks because of thunder thighs wearing them down as I wore them daily, and then we’d have to buy another pair. They’d buy one pair of $5 shoes from Kmart because they were the cheapest, but they were also the most uncomfortable and - again - I’d wear them on a daily basis so they wore down within a month and we had to buy more.I’m in my early 20s now and teaching myself the concept of “bigger price tag is better quality” - I bought myself a pair of Dr Martens in 2015, and my parents almost fell out of their chairs when I said they cost $180. Except I’ve worn them practically every single day since I bought them - whether to uni or work (hospitality), and they’re still solid and in good shape. Best investment of my life tbh.(Edit:) yes yes yes, I know, a bigger price tag doesn’t always mean better quality. I mean this in terms of what I have talked about in this post - good quality, comfortable shoes and clothing.
My ex step-mother was like every Disney step mother ever. She was loaded but was super stingy, when we all stayed at her house she made my dad bring our own food every time. One time we forgot, and she fed us 65c tinned tomatoes.
Broadbent, the author ofMumboss(UK) andThe Working Mom(US and Canada), believes that parents can and should educate their children about financial responsibility from an early age, even when they’re still toddlers. However, it should start in the simplest terms. “I explain [to my little one] that when I’m on my laptop I’m usually writing and this gives me money and how I spend it to buy things,” she said.With time, the mom also starts to include her kids in some money decisions. “I take my children around the supermarket/store with me and involve them in the selection process of items. We look at different prices, brands, and weights and make decisions based on these factors.”
Broadbent, the author ofMumboss(UK) andThe Working Mom(US and Canada), believes that parents can and should educate their children about financial responsibility from an early age, even when they’re still toddlers. However, it should start in the simplest terms. “I explain [to my little one] that when I’m on my laptop I’m usually writing and this gives me money and how I spend it to buy things,” she said.
With time, the mom also starts to include her kids in some money decisions. “I take my children around the supermarket/store with me and involve them in the selection process of items. We look at different prices, brands, and weights and make decisions based on these factors.”
My parents taught me never to buy drinks or dessert or snacks when going out. Those things are much cheaper at the grocery store in bulk, and you just have to wait until you get home to enjoy them.I miss my parents.Bonus: uncle would put drumsticks in shrink wrap and hide them in his pockets to take to the movies. Then again, our family still has a picture of him from college in the 1960s, a new immigrant to the US, holding a bag of coins at the pay phone, with a huge smile on his face. His dorm mates surprised him at Christmas with the bag of coins so he could call his parents overseas, just for a few minutes. Thank you, Baylor University.
Mom would date richer guys around the holidays so we could have Christmas presents to open.
“My older children at 11 and 14 also have bank accounts so they can save birthday gifts and money from chores, choosing what to spend,” Broadbent added.“It’s important to show and tell but also to allow children to take responsibility too. If they make mistakes, that’s fine. It’s the only way they’ll learn.”
“My older children at 11 and 14 also have bank accounts so they can save birthday gifts and money from chores, choosing what to spend,” Broadbent added.
“It’s important to show and tell but also to allow children to take responsibility too. If they make mistakes, that’s fine. It’s the only way they’ll learn.”
My mother tried to convince ticket seller that I was 6 years old (actually 12) and my brother 12 years old (actually 19) to save 6 bucks for a hop in hop off bus ticket. Needless to say my mother did not get the reduced price. Especially because of the reason my brother was smoking a cigarette.
my mom used to tell me that peanut butter and tortillas are what jesus ate
My dad wouldn’t let us eat on Sundays, we had to fill up on free samples from Sam’s Club. It was humiliating. He isn’t even hurting for money, he’s just selfish with it and spends hundreds on himself (computer parts, games, in-game purchasing.. Ect)
However, only 51% have important financial discussions with their children. If this figure was higher, maybe families could strengthen their financial resilience collaboratively, and not separately.
When my parents had the family home refurbished, Pa would carefully extract the nails from the ripped-out woodwork with a claw hammer, and then hammer them straight again and put them in tins for re-use along with unused nails.For years afterwards, every third or fourth nail you used from his workshop would bend like a banana on first wallop from a hammer and you’d hit your thumb.
My mom would (and still does) strategically pick a fight with me 2 days before my birthday giving her the perfect excuse not to buy me a gift.
When my dad moved into his house, he had a guy come over to do a free demonstration for a water filter that goes under a sink. The guy used a bar of soap for his demonstration and left it when he was done. My dad called at least 4 other companies for a free demonstration just to keep the free bar of soap, and never intended to have a water filter installed.He does things like this, and it gets worse as he gets older. But I just let him do his thing.
Parents would pick a place when going out that had some sort of “Kids under X years old are free” and I had to be 3-4 years younger than I am for the day
My mum would wait up to an hour for the bus that cost 5 pence less. She lived in a house worth nearly a million pounds.
My father would drive literally across town, several miles out of the way to save 2 or 3 cents per gallon of gas.He would also drive 60 miles to the casinos for a “free” meal but was too cheap to go a restaurant and buy one.
Ex-wife was a frugal spender and always tried to save money or make extra money where she could. After our divorce, my family would still gift our children clothes on the holidays and their birthdays, until I found her selling the clothes on Craigslist and then go to the goodwill to get cheaper clothes for them.Now my family makes sure I get the clothes. They go stay with her with what they were sent with.
My dad would always go under the speed limit on the highway. Going around 80-90kph maximized fuel efficiency so that’s how fast he would go.We also drove a car until it was literally falling apart from rust. Had about 400k kilometres on it and just about everything was breaking or had broken. Constant check engine light, bad breaks, no horn or emergency break. It took a cop pulling him over and deeming the car non roadworthy.
I got a Twinkie with a candle instead of a birthday cake one year.
someday my kids will be in this post, talking about their old cheapskate mom lol, I make my own laundry soap.. can make 8 gallons for like $2.50 a batch…. when my bath towels get holes, I cut them up and use them in the kitchen…. buy meats on clearance. when they are on the last day they can be sold… yep, my kids will be traumatized
My grandma would try and buy me second hand underwear from value village.. put a stop to that pretty quick.
One time I wanted to buy this girl a bouquet of flowers to show that I cared for her. My mother said that the shop was shut (I knew it wasn’t) and she went to the supermarket and bought her a sandwich instead.F*****g absurd present really, but she did like it at least. It was ham and mustard.
Share bathwater. My brother would get in first, then me and then mum or dad would be last. It’s pretty gross thinking about it now but at the time my parents did it to save money on the water bill and gas bill because they were on really low incomes.
My dad returned a video game i got on my bday so he could buy it cheaper from the middle east (there was arabic language option). So after playing a little bit on my birthday i had to wait another week until it was delivered.
My mother put strict rations on toilet paper.Yes, she was an a*****e.
When my Grandmother and Grandfather got married they did their gift registry with Sears; that was back in the day (Late 1940’s) when they had a ‘lifetime guarantee’ on almost everything they sold. My Grandmother has moved house almost 10 times since then, but she has kept every single flattened box and warranty for every appliance she got when she was married.About two years ago I drove her to Sears to get her iron replaced, she brought all of the boxing, and paperwork from all the way back in the 1940’s to get a new one. They actually did fulfil the guarantee and gave her a new iron!I think it’s hilarious, but she literally hasn’t had to pay for a new appliance in over 60 years because she’s so cheap! She’s a Ukrainian immigrant to Canada, and she always insists ‘Lifetime guarantee means lifetime guarantee’ I kind of feel bad for Sears because our family are notoriously long lived (her father lived until 104). I sometimes think that maybe this is the reason why Sears is doing so poorly, a ton of cheap old women cashing in on their lifetime guarantees.
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My girlfriend’s parents went to McDonalds on their first date and used a coupon.
When I was in high school, I took Taekwondo classes a couple times a week. My folks had instilled in me never start something I cannot finish. I worked up to the belt before a black belt, but the black belt test was about $300. They convinced me to stop Taekwondo.
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When I was in the thrid grade I accidentally threw a shovel at my older sister like a javelin. Unfortunately for her it hit right between the eyes and went down to the bone. Instead of going to the hospital my parents decided they were could do it themselves (both have PhDs btw) to save money. So me and my dad went to Walgreens to pick up supplies and when we got back my mom stitched up my sister. Ten years later and her scar is almost completely gone, no lasting damage, and I have a great story to tell so I guess it worked.
My mom would shove salad into an “empty” salad dressing bottle, shake it up, then fish out the slightly dressed salad.
Water in my cereal instead of milk.. I honestly don’t know if we were that poor or if she was lazy and didn’t want to load up 4 kids in a vehicle and take them to the store.
I remember my mum would fill up the name branded cereal box with a cheap alternative every week
I used to get ants in my cereal boxes and my mom would still make me eat it. They don’t do that anymore but it made me realize how financially stressed my parents were until 10 years ago, because now they waste more food than I do.
This happened last summer when I visited my dad. My glasses broke and on the account of me being blind without them, he bought a cheap plastic eye frame and got a new pair of glasses made that were too big for my head. They would keep sliding down to the tip of my nose every 30 seconds and when I asked him for a new pair, he proceeded to perform a rather hilarious looking yet ingenious hack. He pulled his lighter out of his pocket and lit the flame, and with his other hand he bent the glasses at the center where the small hyphen that connects the two lenses is situated and held it above the flame. As it melted he formed a pronounced U-shape out of the joint so that the width between the lenses shortens, hence making the glasses fit relatively more snug. The plastic did not look burnt because it was of a deep mahogany color to begin with. I wonder how he thought of that so fast.
I posted this before and eventually had people telling me that I’ll never have money because I’m not this crazy frugal:My grandmother found out that the late fee on her water bill was less than the cost of a stamp. For years and years she would skip every other water bill and just pay both bills at once. It wasn’t that she didn’t have the money, it was that once she found out about the slight difference her cheapness took over.
The worst was my aunt. She was driving to see us and within my family is known as aunt cheapness. She drove with her husband (now ex) for 12 hours. Normally the trip should’ve taken 6-7, but she drove extra slow to “save gas.” The crazy thing was keeping all but the front windows shut and no AC the entire ride. It was the start of a heat wave and when they pulled into our driveway it was over 100 degrees. My 3 cousins were drenched with sweat when I saw them climb out of the car, and I rushed them into the house for water and air conditioning stat. I think my dad had a talk with her later because that’s the sort of thing that gets kids killed. She has gotten much better since then, but I will never forget that story.
Oh I might be able to win this thread, but it wasn’t my parents, it was an SO’s dad. He would only let them run hot water from the kitchen sink because the water heater was closest to the kitchen, so it would have taken a few extra seconds of wasted water for it to get hot in other rooms. No showers, and if you wanted hot water in your bath, you had to run it into a pot in the kitchen sink and fill the tub with multiple trips.Edit: additional info: It was both wasted water and wasted energy to heat it. I said that the bathtub part really didn’t make sense to me, because you’re not wasting any water. The response was that there was leftover heated water left in the pipes.
My dad once sent me a raccoon skull and an old had that he got off a friend as a Christmas present. The skull still had some flesh on it.
My dad strains cereal milk back in the bottle. It’s disgusting. My mom hates it, but he still does it when she’s not around and there’s milk left in our bowls.
In 6th grade, I went to magnet school (kids with high test scores get bussed to inner city schools). On “dress like a scientist” day I wanted to be Michio Kaku.Instead of buying me a wig, we cut up a white pillowcase and I wore it on my head. I was asked to remove my “hair” because I looked like a Klan member.
My mom once gave me a little pillow for my birthday with a sausage print.I was like uhhh thanks that’s interesting.She said yea well, I actually bought it for the cat, but you know she got run over, so now you get it.
My SO’s dad is hilariously tight in weird ways. He taped a button over on their $900 vacuum so you couldn’t use it on the max setting…it’s got a full rechargeable battery, but you can’t use it on MAX because it will…use more power to charge?
Snowing outside? You don’t need snow boots- take these used bread loaf bags, slide them over your socks, and slide another pair of socks over that. You can wear any shoes you want!Confession- I may or may not still do this even wearing my snow boots…
My dad hoards his paper towels. To this day he still expects me ask permission to use them (I’m 21) because, he doesn’t want me wasting them. I remember growing up thinking that it was a $100 bucks for a roll because he was so concerned about me wasting them. He is a cheapskate and spends twice as much money on everything because he only gets the cheapest thing that breaks or doesn’t work as well.Side note: While my girlfriend and I were at his house, I dropped a gallon of milk and it went everywhere. She immediately grabbed paper towels and began using the whole roll to soak up the mess. I felt so sinful helping her but the look on my dad’s face when he found out we used a whole roll was priceless. I knew he wouldn’t yell at us because he is to polite to yell in front of my gf. But, he was visibly holding back his pain, anger, and heart break over the “wasted” roll.
My parents weren’t really cheap. They were just frugal. They’d spend money on nice things; but couldn’t stand the idea of wasting any.We had a pool, plenty of electronics, and typical middle-class luxuries–but cut our own hair and made our own toothpaste. That sort of situation. My dad would spend 2 hours fixing a $5 pizza cutter, but we had a boat.Anyway, when I was in middle school, a few friends and I built a fort in my backyard. We mostly used cardboard but also tarps and whatever we could find. We held it all together with duct tape.My dad thought it was great, but when we were done, my friends went home, and it was time to take down the fort, my dad says, “make sure you save all the tape that’s still sticky.“He seriously had me make a “role” of used duct tape that he would suggest I “use first” before using any new duct tape. Not too long after that, the battery cover to my electronic football game broke and I made it stay on using used duct tape.
Oh my god, dads are terrible. Mine hates paying for electricity, so he hangs his clothes up outside, which would be fine if he didn’t do it year round even when it’s below freezing.Whenever my sisters or I would clean our rooms he would go through our trash looking for “valuables” we had thrown away (money or recyclables).He’s obsessed with gas prices and I once sat in the car with him as he drove around town for half an hour searching for the cheapest gas.When he wants to drive down a hill he literally puts his car in neutral, opens the door, and pushes himself down the hill with his foot.One time we went to a Burger King and I was only allowed chicken fries because a burger was “too expensive .”
My grandfather Bulk ordered some apple bins in 1970. There was about 2000. The Bussiness is still going through them I don’t think half of them have been used. They’re still wrapped in the plastic they came in on a pallet outside the factory.He doesn’t like spending money so he goes to those cheap bulk stores and buys his groceries from there. So each week is different.
When using a pay phone I had to call my folks collect and tell them what I wanted really fast during the “Say your name” thing.
This thread turned into stories of abusive parents very quickly… I can stop being mad at my parents for never buying me video games now.
My mom adds water to condiments to make them last longer. It gets to the point where you’re eating vaguely ketchupy water
Stopped insuring me and taking me to the doctor because I was a hypochondriac and it was expensive. Actually had ulcers.After those got diagnosed she made me tell the doctor the meds were great because they were the cheapest on the market. Actually were killing people. (Propulsid)Also refused to bring me to the dentist. Ever.
My parents, and especially my dad, were frugal, but I wouldn’t call them cheapskates.However they were always advocating forgoing pleasures in the now for future pleasure/security. While I don’t completely disagree with this philosophy, my dad developed a debilitating (but non-life-threatening) illness so he’s unable to really enjoy the fruits of his frugality.This lead me to moderate my own saving habits - I do save, but I also make it a point to enjoy life as it comes too.
My parents find the cheapest meal out possible and then gloat about it later. I don’t understand, they’re just eating s**t.
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