askchapo

Yes, no.

I did grow up poor, though, so it's pretty hard for me to understand that I'm not poor anymore. I'm actually doing pretty well as a welding press operator, I have savings and stuff, but yet still I'm so afraid all the time that I'm not using my money the most efficient way possible. It's like there's a part of me that just knows this won't last and I'll fall back down the income ladder.

Math helps, though. If I can assign numerical values to cost and benefit, I feel a lot more comfortable about spending money or disposing of things that I don't need.

My dad does, and no he hasn't exactly. His parents were (and still are) well-off, but they were always... thrifty, I guess. Spent as little as they could except a few big vacations. So Dad now will always try to go without for himself while giving bigly to the rest of us (his family). He is aware now that we live comfortably and he doesn't need to go without, but he still chooses to out of, I dunno, habit? Trauma? Anyway, he is doing better, but he still has a ways to go.

yes, no

it's actually probably the #1 anxiety thing I struggle with and i have no idea how to fight it

I have a little brake in the back of my head that squeaks whenever I spend anything over $25 at once, or anything that's not rent or groceries. I've gotten better at silencing it though.

The one thing I have consistently been spending money on is small edible treats, often baked goods and stuff. And when I'm employed I can easily buy a $15-30 game without thinking twice, because I know I'll get at least 10 hours out of it.

Weirdly enough, most of my big expenses over the past few years have been direct transfers to other people, to the point where I'll send $200 in c/mutual_aid but be really reluctant to spend $100 on my own bike.

I was not raised in poverty but I never really had access to my own money until adulthood.

Yes, but they were literally poor and as a child.

Never really occurred to me that we were poor until after I was making my own money. Even though my dad didn't get warm water fixed for almost a year and we were eating gruel pretty often.

I guess my scarcity mindset is that I don't heat for comfort. I'll reluctantly turn up the thermostat when there's too much condensation on the windows.

I don’t think scarcity mindset is anything to avoid, as it is simply the reality of the world.

I grew up in rural Ohio and AFAIK my family was financially ‘middle of the pack’, so some of it did come from being in an environment where the poor live and having poorer friends.

Of course, my adulthood has been riddled with poverty and I can’t even get a basic job because I’m seen as unemployable for whatever reason.

When the rich are such sticklers for perfection that they need only the world’s greatest JUST to stock shelved and they’re scared shitless of spending any money, you know scarcity mindset is just the reality.

I'm going in the opposite direction, I grew up middle class and have slipped down the ladder ever since then, hitting my face on every rung on the way down. I am significantly poorer than my family by a wide margin, even though I have been working my entire life. Scarcity is a reality for me in a way it has not been for anyone else in my family, and becomes more dominant in my life as time goes on.

Not to your extreme, no, but I had something similar. Somehow always lacking money despite owning land, going to vacations, building family homes

i also tought we were poor until i started seeing my sibling get expensive toys.