I was reading something the other day that had me thinking that I'm very fortunate in that I have everything I really need. Then I thought that all my life I've always had all the material things I've needed. I've never felt materially deprived. I've been lucky.
Then I thought a little harder, and remembered that there were many times in my life when I had next to nothing.
My entire wardrobe when I was in college took up maybe 14 inches of closet space. I wore bedroom slippers all summer one year (they were straw) because I couldn't afford to buy sandals. One Pennsylvania winter I wore a rubber raincoat over a sweater because I didn't have a coat.
Then after I graduated and began teaching, I bought my first sewing machine (used) with my first savings, and my wardrobe grew. I had to resign 2 months into my second year because pregnant women in 1966 weren't allowed to teach. I had like $200 in savings, and a husband who was away in the army. The army took $125 out of his paycheck every month and sent it to me - but he never sent another cent. Rent was $125 a month. I ate dinner every evening at the diner around the corner from my apartment because they had a $.80 "blue plate special". That and a glass of diet shake in the morning was all I had to eat every day. I did my laundry in the bathtub because I couldn't afford the laundromat. Then, just a few weeks before the baby was due, there was a fire in the store below my apartment. Everything I owned suffered smoke damage, almost nothing could be saved, my bird died, and the day after the fire I lost the baby.
In 1968 I left husband #1. I had $500 squirreled away in a secret savings account, in my own name, to use to move away. I got a job in a different state, and when I went to the bank to get the money, I found that my husband had gone to the bank and demanded the money, and they had given it to him. That was normal in those days - a woman's money belonged to her husband. I left with what I had in my pocket and what I could fit in my tiny car (a rear-motor Volkswagon Karmann Ghia (sp?) which meant almost no trunk and a tiny back seat, and the mice, birds, and Smokey cat took up most of that).
The new employer gave me a"per diem" allowance for six weeks while I looked for someplace to live. From that, by moving into a cheaper motel and eating in the company cafeteria, I was able to save enough for the first month's rent on a little 4-room cabin in the woods. The landlady lent me a little lamp, which I carried from room to room at night. I slept on the floor until I could afford a sofa. I slept on the sofa until I could afford a bed. I ate standing at the sink until I could afford a little table and chairs.
Then I married husband #2, who was a tightwad. In the 70's, a working wife turned her salary over to the husband to manage. The average woman had no idea what was where moneywise. I would have had to beg for things, and I wouldn't beg, so we had no livingroom or diningroom furniture for the first 9 years. When Daughter was born, I made her bassinet out of a laundry basket, and sewed all her baby clothes. In 1979, my monthly budget for food was $70, and I fed two adults and a child quite well on that.
When I finally left him, even though next to no money had been spent on goodies, there was strangely little to be split. I left with $19,000 (half the equity in the house, for downpayment on a small house for Daughter and me), a few shares of computer company stock, my car, and $1,500 cash. (There should have been a LOT more stock, but I didn't want to fight, so I didn't push it.) I'd picked the absolute worst time to leave - I think it was 1981 or 82 - mortgage rates were through the roof. The best I could do was 17.5% and 3 points, for a 30-year mortgage. (Honest! That was a real rate for an adjustable mortgage.)
Nonetheless, living the way same way I had been living before, and now on a low starting salary, after the first ten months I had over $10,000 in savings, almost half my salary. (The ex was paying support - we had agreed on 40% of the difference in our salaries, but I put all of that money into a separate account for my daughter and for emergencies.)
That was when I realized the ex must have cheated me. There should have been more when we split, given his larger salary (over twice mine) and the way we had been living for so long.
That was the first time in my entire life that I felt that I had been deprived. Up until then, no matter how little I had, I just figured that was the way it was, and I took pride in managing with what I had. I coped. Besides, in college and in my 20's, most of my friends were in the same boat. One of my friends in college had to sell her 15-years-uncut hair to buy textbooks. I didn't even feel deprived when my visiting mother looked around my kitchen in 1979, and said "You don't have a microwave?" I didn't figure I needed one.
About the same time I was starting to look back and feel like I'd been missing something (about 1984ish), that there should have been more, there was a young woman interviewed on TV - her home had been broken into, and the thieves had taken everything. Her list included a large color TV (I had a small black-and-white), a stereo with all the goodies (I had an old one-piece hi-fi), a fox coat (my only coat was cloth), a microwave oven, a VCR (what's a VCR?), etc. The kicker was that she was about 20 years old, childless, and on welfare! I decided then and there that I was going to be deprived no longer. I had worked hard all my life, and by darn I was going to have at least what a 20-year-old on welfare has!
I put a reasonable amount into savings every month, and then the rest I spent. For the past 22 years I have treated myself well. Daughter and I took the first "luxury" vacations I had ever taken in my life - to England and Wales (3 weeks! Two of them on a houseboat on the canals), Disneyworld, Puerto Vallarta (sp?), Barbados, a dude ranch. I bought shoes. I wore store-bought clothes. I bought books!!!
My first 38 years had taught me how to be shrewd about money. I still think beauty parlors are a waste of money, still cut my own hair. I've still never been to a spa. I happen to like cheap food and inexpensive restaurants. Brand names are all pronounced "ripoff". Not that I buy cheap stuff - I just don't pay for cachet.
When Jay and I got married, he was pretty well strapped. His ex had taken everything, literally everything, they had acquiredin their entire relationship, even things she couldn't possibly keep or use. She threw things away rather than let him have them. She left him with a 20-year-old car (it was his first car, and he had an emotional attachment to it), and a lawn tractor, and he had to buy "her" half of the house (she'd "shopped around" for the highest appraisal). She took half the savings and checking accounts, and half the stock. She had been teaching, and all of her salary through the years had been going into a saving account in her name, untouched except for vacations. Naturally, that was all "hers". Jay just lay there and took it. I don't know why he felt guilty - this was a woman who allowed sex maybe three times a year, and had banished him to the guest bedroom because his snoring kept her awake. (It didn't take me long to realize that he had a severe case of sleep apnea, and that was when I really started to hate her. How could she not have realized that he was struggling to breathe - the sleep center clocked him at 70 episodes per hour - especially if it "kept her awake"? I don't think she cared enough.)
Anyhow, Jay was pretty much starting over when we got married, and then he lost his job 4 months later and was out of work for 9 months. We lived on my savings that year. My hard-earned money-squeezing skills came in handy, especially since Daughter had just started college - out-of-state Ivy League, no financial aid because her father was too well off, no matter that he was contributing nothing to her costs, them's the rules durn it. When Jay went back to work, his pay was significantly higher, but he had no benefits. No problem, because he could be on my health plan.
That was enough to scare me a little. I went back into save mode. Within the next four years, we had more than tripled our savings and investments. Then he got sick. Then he died.
I still don't understand the numbers during the three years he was ill. The costs, even with health insurance, were enormous. We had my retirement check, his disability check (40% of his salary), and our investment income coming in. We had the bills going out. No matter how I run the numbers, more went out than came in,but we were never hurting to pay the bills. I can't figure it out. The only time I had to dip into capital was when I sold $20,000 of my stock to buy the handicap van. (I also borrowed $20,000 from Jay's father for the van, which I paid back at $500/month, and then in full from the life insurance.) I don't understand it. That must have been some kind of super-saving mode?!? That $500/month loan payment is the kicker. How?!?
So now I'm sitting on all that financial history. And I don't at all feel bad buying oriental rugs and fox coats. I saved for it. I earned it. I have been deprived so that now I can be indulged.
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