My family never owned a car, went on vacation or went out eating much (only on very fancy occasions). We stayed as 6 of us in a 2 bedroom apartment. And pocket money was never a thing. I especially remember that even gift money from others was something you handed over to mom for daily expenses.
But, it was all a conscious choice by my parents to allow us to have solid nutrition, good education and avoid debt.
They were always fully transparent about expenses in the house and what each rupee meant to them. Even when I asked for any money, it was always contextualized in number of meals or how many clothes that bought us.
I am doing well now, but it really does teach you to be mindful of money. It has had some adverse effects too, where it took a long time for me to stop being so visibly stingy.
Growing up knowing how much things cost and that we were still in the 90th percentile of our country (India in the 90s), helped me a lot in gaining empathy for those that I knew earned a lot less, and the hard decisions they might've had to make on a day to day basis.
My family never owned a car, went on vacation or went out eating much (only on very fancy occasions). We stayed as 6 of us in a 2 bedroom apartment. And pocket money was never a thing. I especially remember that even gift money from others was something you handed over to mom for daily expenses.
But, it was all a conscious choice by my parents to allow us to have solid nutrition, good education and avoid debt.
They were always fully transparent about expenses in the house and what each rupee meant to them. Even when I asked for any money, it was always contextualized in number of meals or how many clothes that bought us.
I am doing well now, but it really does teach you to be mindful of money. It has had some adverse effects too, where it took a long time for me to stop being so visibly stingy.
Growing up knowing how much things cost and that we were still in the 90th percentile of our country (India in the 90s), helped me a lot in gaining empathy for those that I knew earned a lot less, and the hard decisions they might've had to make on a day to day basis.