I suppose I am a little bit stingy

When I was growing up my parents were very frugal: They had to be. They had 4 kids and only one parent worked and my Dad wasn't a powerful executive - he was a mid-tier manager at a telecom company. We were not rich but we never went hungry or anything. I remember that there were certain luxuries that my family didn't have such as juice boxes or candy bars as snacks etc. My mother would home-make all of our snacks and while I remember complaining about this I now realize that the home-made stuff is MUCH better than the mass-produced garbage anyway - so I wanna go back in time and slap me if I was too vocal about it... I was a pretty good kid, so I doubt that happened.

I think growing up this way accidentally instilled me with a sense of budgeting that accidentally does good things for me. You see, my parents, unbeknownst to me at the time, were saving and investing most of the money they made. The only lavish purchase that my parents made was on our housing; we always had a really big house and later in life my father told me something that seems so obvious to me now: "This is the only thing we buy that is almost certainly going to GROW in value, so it is worth it to get a quality one."

This is how my parents were and a lot of this attitude carried on to me: I never concern myself with being involved in expensive frivolity like fashion and the latest electronics. I almost NEVER get involved in anything when it just came out because everything is more expensive when it is first released. A phone that was made a year ago costs half as much a mere year later and while I am a bit jealous when I see what the latest and greatest is capable of, I am more along the school of though of "do I really need that?" I owe this money-saving attitude to my upbringing.

This attitude of mine extends to most other parts of my life. I very rarely can enjoy myself at an expensive dinner with friends because all I can think of while I am there is "I can't believe we are spending this much on some food that will be gone in 2 hours." I shop for clothes at places like Tesco and will rarely buy anything at the clothing stores in shopping malls. I can't believe the incredible price difference between two shirts that look almost exactly the same but one of them costs 500% the other. If this means that I am considered to be unfashionable or even unattractive then that is just fine with me. I don't want to be friends with people that would judge me based on whether or not I have a shirt that costs a couple hundred dollars and find the very notion that people would buy things like that to be completely absurd.

I have everything that I need, but very rarely spend money on things that are definitely going to be worth much less later - this extends in to every aspect of my life including food. I eat when I am hungry, but much like the dinner with pals I had last night, I can't justify spending 5x what I normally would on some chow.

Does this make me stingy or does this make me smart? I think it makes me smart but I can see how it would be off-putting to some people. However, I feel as though those people that would look down on me because of this are likely the kind of folks that are materialistic and likely aren't my real pals anyway.... so that is just fine with me.

tl;dr

When I was growing up my parents cut costs wherever they could: this included 2nd hand clothes, packing school lunches instead of buying them at school, and going on camping vacations instead of Disneyland ones (we eventually went to Disneyland much later in life and I have to say that the lines are much longer at DW than at any Campground I ever attended. This used to get on my nerves but it instilled a sense of budget and sensibility in me that has extended into my adult life. I simply don't spend money on extravagances.

Because of this aspect of my personality, I am much more financially secure than most of the people I know. I still go on vacations and I eat any time I am hungry. I may not have the most flash outfits but I have a pretty fulfilling life and I never go without things that I need. While I complained about this as a kid I now realize that my parents were completely right, and I am very happy that they accidentally instilled me with the same, very important values.