Advice From Mom

     I have a special guest blogger today, my mom!  My mom and dad did a great job of managing money and I can learn a lot from mom.  So this morning we talked about the ways that she saved money in her lifetime.
     The first thing that she said is that her generation did not shop as a hobby.  She goes to the store because she is looking for something specific.  She doesn't just go to the store as entertainment.  If you go to the store with nothing particular in mind you will undoubtedly find something to buy.  I can't help but think of all the times I have stopped at the outlet mall on my way between Grand Rapids and Detroit with nothing particular in mind but just shopping for shopping sake.
     My mom also brought up eating.  She remembers planning out meals and sticking to that plan.  Today we are so spoiled with so many food choices.  We may have something planned for a meal but then we are just "not in mood" for that particular choice or too tired to fix it.  She talked about how little food went to waste, if you bought it....you served it.  That piece of advice sure hit home, often I will decide not to fix something that I have all the supplies for because I just don't feel like cooking it or am not craving that particular item.
     When I think of my parents I think of people who were able to fore go small splurges in the present  to save up for bigger things they wanted to buy or do in the future.  They did a lot of traveling for example.  At first it was camping, hiking and camp stove food.  We crisscrossed this country many times and saw most of the highlights this country has to offer.  Later in life they saved for some very special trips to Europe, Israel and even Russia.  My mom has such fond memories of those trips.
    My mom was a child of the depression, growing up in poverty with 12 siblings.  She remembers being one of the older siblings and buying Christmas presents for her younger siblings because otherwise they would not have had gifts.  Mom tells a story of working at her first job and buying her mom a new couch.  She laughs today thinking that she did not even have her mom pick it out, she just bought it and surprised her mom. She wonders if it matched anything else in the living room!  I bet it didn't matter, it was probably one of the few "new" things her mom ever had.
    There is something special about the generation who lived through the depression.  They do not take money and belongings for granted.  I love hearing her stories and learning from her perspective.  I am so thankful that I still have mom to get some advice from.  I hear it way better than when I was 20!