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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Do I resent my parents for it?

I'm the DC c/o 2000 poster.

I used to resent my mother, but I had to learn to forgive. I used to fill out my own school forms each year, so I knew from the free lunch application that she brought home about $3k a month after taxes. She had money, she just spent it on herself. She had an A/C unit in her room. She'd close the door "to keep the air in" and I'd burn up. For a while I slept in the living room on the floor because I didn't have a bed and we only had a loveseat which was too small to lie on. She had a queen. In high school I stole deodorant, toothpaste, and mouthwash from the goodie bags they gave out in gym class. During that same time, she went on trips with her boyfriend and ate out a few times a week. Whenever I asked for money for stuff she'd tell me to get a job. When I started failing classes because I was working 35 hours a week after school, she accused me of being on drugs.

A large part of my childhood was spent writing out what I was going to do differently when I grew up. I'm very good with money. Actually I'm extremely paranoid and cheap, because I'm always afraid of ending up back where I started. [b]I'm unemployed now, but I have enough saved up to pay my rent and expenses for another three years. [/b]So in that regard I guess I have my mom to thank. [/quote]

Does your childhood experience help you with respect to your current situation in that you know you can survive no matter what? Or does it cause more anxiety than others who are going through the same thing because you know what it is like to really not have enough money?[/quote]

It's a little of both. 
I have a lot of self confidence because of all of the things that I went through. Being poor was like being in a war of constant survival. I earned my stripes and I wear them like a badge of honor, but because I've seen the horrors of it, I'm more terrified of going back than someone who has never experienced it.

It shows up in how I spend (or don't spend) money. It drives my friends nuts, but I calculate everything before I buy something: How many individual sheets are in jumbo, mega and big rolls of toilet paper relative to the price. I noticed right away when Utz potato chips went from 10 oz to 9.5 even though the price remained the same. I can't buy anything on impulse and I always have to check my bank account everyday just out of an irrational fear. I have money hidden all around my house and car just in case something happens and I can't get into my bank account. It's sad now that I think about it. [/quote]

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