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Living on a budget.

I grew up in the early ’50’s . Our family survived in the income from a small farm.

My  parents grew up in the Great Depression in the late 20s.. when money and goods were extremely in short supply, and I believe that is where they would have gained this insight into survival on living within their means.

We only ever had items on the farm that were a necessity.

Our father handed out the meagre portion for our mother to buy what we couldn’t produce for ourselves. He was paying the farm off on a loan from the bank, but if any major item was a purchase requirement, we saved up for the item until we had sufficient funds.

Fortunately, we could grow a lot of our own produce to eat and for our livestock to eat. Apart from going to church and school, we rarely left the farm. 

Any groceries that were required were delivered through a system similar to today’s way of shopping.

My mother would phone up the local grocery store and read off a list of items. The grocery store would deliver them a few days later, where our mother would diligently check the list and the amounts before handing over the cash.

We didn’t own a vehicle and relied on the local bus to convey us to our destination.

So budgeting has always been a tool of survival, and living within one’s means was all we had and heard of whilst growing up.

A good incentive for anyone wanting to get a grip on life.