Best Money Tips I Learned From My Depression Era Grandparents

I was lucky as a teenager. For several years I had the opportunity to live with my father's parents, who survived the Great Depression. Living with them, I had the opportunity to learn many things that have helped make my adult life easier and more productive. 

The following are the top 3 best money lessons that I've learned from my Great Depression era grandparents.

Don't Spend Money You Don't Already Have

My grandparents avoided acquiring debt as though it was an actual, physical, visible disease such as the plague or leprosy. My grandparents were teenagers in rural Appalachia when the Great Depression began. They saw many of their family and friends loose everything they had and be forced into bankruptcy when they could no longer make their payments when they lost their jobs. So, my grandparents were strongly against going into debt for anything, and they were quite vocal about their opinion. One of their constant refrains from my childhood was, "don't spend money you don't already have."

In high school, most of my friends were driving cars that their parents had happily co-signed loans for and hanging out at the area mall on the weekends going shopping with their mom and her credit card. In stark contrast, I was lucky if I was allowed to drive my grandmother into town on Saturdays in the old farm truck to pick up a few necessities: toilet paper, tea, coffee, flour and sugar. Yes, at times I did feel bad, awkward, and out of place for not getting to wear the latest fads or getting to hang out with my friends wasting money. I even got teased a bit, but it also forced me, at an early age, to grow a bit thicker skin and learn who my real friends were and were not. These lessons in resiliency and breaking away from the pack have served me just as well as adult as the money lesson that I learned from their example.

Of course, I didn't follow my grandparent's example to the letter once I became an adult and moved out on my own. I did end up obtaining and using a few credit cards when I left home. I even got in a bit over my head with them by using them to pay for medical expenses. Because of grandparents' example, however, I never acquired the habit of using credit cards to just "shop" and put things like clothes, jewelry or even vacations on credit. I am very thankful for this money lesson. If it had not been for their example, I probably would have been more like my friends, and charged my cards with frivolous things like so many others still do. Then, I would have been in even more debt and been forced to file bankruptcy when I lost my job in the "Great Recession."

What You Have Saved Matters More than What You Have

As an adult, I've found that my grandmother's old saying of "what you have saved matters more than what you have," is very true. In fact, I've found that making a point to save, rather than spend, and creating a realistic budget that enables me to build an emergency savings fund, has been the key to getting my financial house in order after my job loss. Without savings, it's impossible to avoid debt, and it is impossible to save if you are more concerned with spending and consuming rather than saving.

Reduce, Reuse, Re-purpose, Recycle 
Having successfully survived the Great Depression, I think my grandparents and people of their generation were actually the first true conservationists and were "green" well before the buzz words associated with sustainable living became popular. In addition to avoiding debt, and not treating the act of buying or consumption as an activity, my grandparents bought very few items new.

Both of my grandparents were inventive and practical. They were constantly tinkering with things to either fix something themselves or to turn it into something else that could be reused in another way. They bought well made items used when they could. This saved them thousands of dollars over the years, and has saved me a great deal of money as well.

When I could no longer fix my appliances, I followed their example. I ended up turning to sites such as Craigslist and Freecycle to buy a used, but working, refrigerator, stove, washing machine and dryer that saved me hundreds of dollars on each appliance. Together, I spent less than $200 on all four of these items. This is hundreds of dollars less than what just one of these appliances would have cost new at a traditional home improvement store. I also do things like reuse empty containers for other purposes, swap out unwanted clothing with family and friends, and change my own oil and make many of my own repairs and alterations based on their example.

By learning and applying these top 3 best money lessons from my depression era grandparents, I've been able to avoid debt, reduce my spending, increase my savings and survive my own generation's widespread financial crisis that many have called, The Great Recession. I hope others will learn and profit from their example.

I love receiving feedback from my readers! Let me know in the comments section below if you have any tips from the Great Depression era that have helped you weather your own financial difficulties.