Great post, SJ. I wonder if your dad's attitude to money was formed by his own parents. As you say, very difficult sometimes to overcome ways of thinking ingrained in us from birth.
One thing I remember my dad saying to me, which he no doubt considered to be a pearl of wisdom: "Don't ever tell anyone your opinions - nobody's interested." I was quite an opinionated kid, so this was a bit of a dilemma, lol. And my mum always said "Don't get involved." In other words, stay out of difficult situations, keep people at arm's length. I didn't take that advice either. But I'm not as socially at ease as many people who were brought up by gregarious, outgoing parents.
By the way, I did frown when my son drank the £8 bottle of water from a mini bar once, as he said the bottled water we'd bought wasn't so nice. He still reminds me of that from time to time, and he's 30 now, lol.
I love this post SJ! And it resonates. Not so penny pinching but in my late teens my Dad was earning enough money to take us on some great road trips around the US. They were amazing BUT my dad was obsessed with collecting points from a hotel chain that was always located on the outskirts of cities. He wouldn't consider staying anywhere else. Or have any extras the hotel offered - definitely not the mini bar! So we would spend our holidays driving into the city, spending ages looking for free parking and then heading back to our hotel which was usually off a freeway next to a Dairy Queen. When I booked the first road trip of my own I automatically started looking at that same chain but then realised NO! I can book where I like. So I booked city centre hotels where we could walk to all the sights. Not only that we paid for the extravagance of valet parking. Yes we spent a lot but I still get joy thinking about the experience now.
Insightful as always! My maternal grandparents (we lived with them growing up), came of age in the Depression era. My grandmother in particular had an aversion for throwing away/giving away anything that might have the slightest chance of being reused. Flash forward to my sadly overstuffed home - some of which I think can be attributed to that early exposure (most of it is on me, though - inertia plus the 'someday I'll get around to using 'x' magical thinking).
Funny how taking donations to our local charities always. ALWAYS feels great once accomplished. That gives me hope that the holdover habits from days of yore can be overcome with effort and intention. Onward!
The funny thing is my parents were tight with money when I was growing up (we did have a soda stream, but purely because they thought it was cheaper), but totally changed later in life! Went on trips to America (we camped in Europe) and had nice cars.
But I'm not the same, but my brother is. but that might be just because he has a young family and I have the mythical pink pound!
Great post, SJ. I wonder if your dad's attitude to money was formed by his own parents. As you say, very difficult sometimes to overcome ways of thinking ingrained in us from birth.
One thing I remember my dad saying to me, which he no doubt considered to be a pearl of wisdom: "Don't ever tell anyone your opinions - nobody's interested." I was quite an opinionated kid, so this was a bit of a dilemma, lol. And my mum always said "Don't get involved." In other words, stay out of difficult situations, keep people at arm's length. I didn't take that advice either. But I'm not as socially at ease as many people who were brought up by gregarious, outgoing parents.
By the way, I did frown when my son drank the £8 bottle of water from a mini bar once, as he said the bottled water we'd bought wasn't so nice. He still reminds me of that from time to time, and he's 30 now, lol.
I love this post SJ! And it resonates. Not so penny pinching but in my late teens my Dad was earning enough money to take us on some great road trips around the US. They were amazing BUT my dad was obsessed with collecting points from a hotel chain that was always located on the outskirts of cities. He wouldn't consider staying anywhere else. Or have any extras the hotel offered - definitely not the mini bar! So we would spend our holidays driving into the city, spending ages looking for free parking and then heading back to our hotel which was usually off a freeway next to a Dairy Queen. When I booked the first road trip of my own I automatically started looking at that same chain but then realised NO! I can book where I like. So I booked city centre hotels where we could walk to all the sights. Not only that we paid for the extravagance of valet parking. Yes we spent a lot but I still get joy thinking about the experience now.
Insightful as always! My maternal grandparents (we lived with them growing up), came of age in the Depression era. My grandmother in particular had an aversion for throwing away/giving away anything that might have the slightest chance of being reused. Flash forward to my sadly overstuffed home - some of which I think can be attributed to that early exposure (most of it is on me, though - inertia plus the 'someday I'll get around to using 'x' magical thinking).
Funny how taking donations to our local charities always. ALWAYS feels great once accomplished. That gives me hope that the holdover habits from days of yore can be overcome with effort and intention. Onward!
The funny thing is my parents were tight with money when I was growing up (we did have a soda stream, but purely because they thought it was cheaper), but totally changed later in life! Went on trips to America (we camped in Europe) and had nice cars.
But I'm not the same, but my brother is. but that might be just because he has a young family and I have the mythical pink pound!