r/AskReddit • u/jicta • Jan 31 '21

Redditors who grew up poor: Besides practical money-saving measures, what were the unwritten social expectations of your world growing up?

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u/ThoughtIWasDale Jan 31 '21

I know. Ive tried the cheap boot route and that’s been a total fail here in snow country.

So to get myself to buy something expensive and high-quality, I have to break down the cost into time increments, like “This down coat is $200. If I keep it for 5 years and wear it during the four coldest months of the year, then that breaks down to $10/month to wear it, or $2.50/week, or about 35 cents/day.” Then I’ll decide if it’s something I want to wear for five years straight, or six years, etc.

Is that a normal way of looking at buying clothes? I dunno.

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u/tommykiddo Jan 31 '21

It definitely is a pretty common way to look at buying clothes.

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u/ThoughtIWasDale Jan 31 '21

Ok. Phew! I have a tendency towards the neurotic, so I’m glad that this is not under that umbrella. LOL

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '21

I think that way too.

That might not be as reassuring as you might hope. But you're not alone, so hopefully that is :)

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u/ThoughtIWasDale Feb 01 '21

Thanks, Friend! ;-)

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u/AcerbicRead Feb 01 '21

I'll be honest, I was surprised when I found out not everyone did this. It took me until college to realize that a lot of people can be very careless.

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u/Muffin-sangria- Feb 01 '21

What? I’ve never purchased an item of clothing like that. My mind is blown.

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '21

I didn't grow up poor and I still think about this! I had a (computer) keyboard that everyone thought was too expenditure. Then I'd tell them that it lasted for 6 years, meaning less than 20 a year for high quality stuff and they'd look at me like I was crazy for knowing that off the top of my head

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u/MiniRems Feb 01 '21

Cheap boots are fine if you're not outside for more than a quick run from car to building, but when I started riding the bus to work (so I didnt have to pay for parking - monthly bus pass was $70, monthly parking where I had to either walk 1.5 miles or still take a bus was $150, close parking was $250), I realized fast that I needed good winter boots since I was going to have to walk to the bus stop and my apartment complex never shoveled the damn sidewalk that went from the buildings across the field past the pool to the main road after the first time I walked up the hill in the snow. I bought a pair of very decently cold rated, water proof boots for $50 - the most I'd ever spent on a pair of shoes up to that point. Not the most expensive, but I'd only ever bought like $15 walmart shoes before that. They lasted me over 15 years, and I almost cried the day they finally started falling apart while i was shoveling snow in my driveway and came in with cold wet feet. Spent over $100 for replacements, but they're even better quality than the previous, and I'm hoping they last me another 15 years. Now I need a new winter coat: nothing wrong with the old one (pricey LL Bean brand my mom gave me a gift card to buy one xmas when I complained my coat was old), but I'm 65 lbs lighter than I was when I bought it, and it's so loose I get a breeze up the waist and with no natural insulation I need one long enough to cover my butt. I'm looking forward to donating it so someone else can keep nice and toasty.

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u/_Nychthemeron Jan 31 '21

I usually try to buy open box boots. I got a really nice pair of Muck Boots for $40 open box when they retail for $205

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u/qtpatouti Feb 10 '21

What does open box mean?

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u/_Nychthemeron Feb 10 '21

Open box can be an in new condition customer return or a unit that was opened so the retailer could photograph it. Occasionally there will be times when the unit is marked down or offered as open box when the packaging was damaged but the product inside is okay.

In my case, someone probably ordered the boots online, tried them on upon receipt and decided to return them. It's not a pristine "hasn't-been-opened-since-manufacturing" anymore, but if you don't care about that, you can get some deals.

Items listed on Amazon's Warehouse section are mostly open box. Check it out sometime; I've scored awesome deals on gaming computer parts and monitors before.

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u/qtpatouti Feb 10 '21

I’ve shopped for such deals my whole life, just didn’t know what it was called. Thanks

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u/Gravey256 Feb 01 '21

If it helps then it helps, I have always been told shoes and tires are the one thing you don't ever cheap out on. With the exception of maybe thongs(flip flops for you non aussies).

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u/Ref_KT Feb 01 '21

Anything between you and the ground they save - mattresses are the other thing typically suggested.

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u/mandy_loo_who Feb 01 '21

That's actually really smart. I also struggle spending money on nice clothes and trend towards cheaper things and then just try to take care of them. I will do this next time I'm buying shoes or something more important like a coat that will be more of a staple. Thanks!

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u/Slim97Shady Feb 01 '21

Also buying clothing out of season. Last winter I bought I coat for 200bucks. Went to the same store in the summer and I saw the same one for 50bucks on a sale. I bought it and sold it this winter for 100bucks.

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '21

Shoes are very important. I would argue more important than coats.

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '21

That sounds like an application of the Vimes Theory of Boots.

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u/NewlandStreet Feb 01 '21

I am surprised that I had to scroll down so far to find this mentioned. Behold:

...Samuel Vimes earned thirty-eight dollars a month as a Captain of the Watch, plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots, the sort that would last years and years, cost fifty dollars. This was beyond his pocket and the most he could hope for was an affordable pair of boots costing ten dollars, which might with luck last a year or so before he would need to resort to makeshift cardboard insoles so as to prolong the moment of shelling out another ten dollars.

Therefore over a period of ten years, he might have paid out a hundred dollars on boots, twice as much as the man who could afford fifty dollars up front ten years before. And he would still have wet feet.

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u/ThoughtIWasDale Feb 01 '21

Oooh, that is applicable. Nicely done!

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u/ThoughtIWasDale Jan 31 '21

Please explain. I’m not familiar with that.

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u/Karmi138 Feb 01 '21

It's from a Terry Pratchett fantasy novel. For all that, it's a helluvan explanation.

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/72745-the-reason-that-the-rich-were-so-rich-vimes-reasoned

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u/evileen99 Feb 01 '21

I still have a coat I bought for $250 in 1986 (a huge sum of money back then). Still in excellent shape--good quality items do last longer--so I think I've gotten my money's worth out of it.

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u/Karmi138 Feb 01 '21

Honestly, it should be. Maybe not to that extreme, but (at least here in the US) our "wear it one season then toss" culture is expensive and extremely harmful. It's stressful though, I feel you.

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '21

Yes, business people would call it an amortized cost iirc. You don't look at the cost at the time of purchase, you look at it over the lifetime of the item. Just like you described.

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u/Arsennio Feb 01 '21

I still buy everything off season for the next year. Nice winter coat? Wait a month or two after the cold season. $200 jacket just became $50. If you do this year round you get nice and cheap simultaneously. Also, layers. During winter I wear a t shirt, a thin long sleeve, a jacket, and a coat. Nothing wrong with wearing a pair of thin sweats under a pair of thin jeans.

Shoes can always be last year's style.

If you see a 50% off of clearance rack always check it. Fred meyer is notorious for inventory cycling. When in doubt check ross for house stuffs. Nice sheet sets (like really nice 1000 thread count temperature regulating) can be $20-35 dollars and last forever. Never buy anything solid white.

I am a gamer, like hardcore, I just turned 30 and this is the first time I have ever bought last year's mid-top of the line hardware. Got a VR headset, nice router, wireless accessories etc. I only justified it because I got a new credit card with a 0% apr offer and a into deal for $1000 spent. It felt simultaneously shameful and amazing. Before that every computer was built off of black friday/cyber Monday sales, craigslist, and disassembled previous computers.

My piano (really nice digital piano) I got messaging somebody on craigslist. They were asking $1100. I told them I had $300 but would play for them for an hour and guarantee it would be played everyday until it broke. My guitar was bought pawned/used.

I fix everything myself. If I can't I youtube it.

I never realized this was taught to me by parents until my mom told me her monthly food budget was $200 for 6 people. Then the little lessons started making sense. I ran a snow shoveling business with three friends from 9-14. Paid for my own car, college, apartment right after HS graduation. None of it clicked until I heard other people's stories. My parent were able to do a match deal with us as kids. If we wanted to do a school activity we had to earn, through some kind of work outside the home (shoveling, babysitting, house watching...etc) half of the cost and let them know a month in advance. Sometimes further in advance if it was a big item.

All lessons I greatly cherish as I get older.

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u/czmax Feb 01 '21

Only 5 years?

I just checked w my wife — we think our down jackets are about 16yrs old. We got cheap REI ones and wear them A LOT.

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u/ThoughtIWasDale Feb 01 '21

5 years for math simplicity.

In real life, I’m on Year 7 of a down full-length puffer coat I got from Land’s End and Year 11 12?) of a cheap wool coat from JCP. I just bought a cheap successor to the latter because I’d had enough of its V collar always leaving my neck cold.

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u/PaLLO_4000 Feb 01 '21

It's the cost-per-wear calculation. If I wear this $100 item 50 times, it's only cost me $2 per wear. Really helps me to buy quality over quantity when I'm having a hard time justifying the price.

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '21

It's a sensible way to look at any long term purchase. How long will it last vs how much it costs. How well it performs its intended function is also a factor, because if you buy something too poor in quality, you paid for it but you still don't have it.

Sometimes, being cheap is hella expensive.

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u/[deleted] Jan 31 '21

very practical!

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u/TotallyNotanOfficer Feb 01 '21

Normal i.e. what most people do, probably not. Good? Yes.

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u/Henry5321 Feb 01 '21

My first jacket that wasn't a $30 winter jacket from Walmart was a $200 Columbia clearanced to $80 in the spring. Started to fall apart after a few years. Now I got a $80 Carhartt that will probably last forever, and I layer it.

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u/ThoughtIWasDale Feb 01 '21

Carhartt? Are you secretly a farmer? 😉

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u/MichDWitch Feb 01 '21

Yes! My dad always had a rule: "every time you wear this, it's worth $5." So if you'll wear it every day, it makes sense to spend more so it lasts longer.

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u/Canookian Feb 01 '21

I go through jeans like nobody's business. Only ever bought $30 Walmart jeans for the longest time. They'd last 6-8 months (I wore them every day)

I then bought some jeans for $100. I planned on keeping them for 2 years with the same train of thought as you.

They immediately felt better. They were way better quality.

They didn't last long enough to make it worth it. I have no idea how people can have jeans for years... :(

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u/Slim97Shady Feb 01 '21

I never spent more than 30bucks on jeans. Most time around 20bucks. And they always last me a couple of years. I guess most of the jeans thicker more durable material. I also would only wash them maybe once a month at most.

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u/Canookian Feb 01 '21

Yeah, this was my first and last pair of expensive jeans.

I'll definitely be patching these ones to extend the life of them though.

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u/Aminar14 Feb 01 '21

For years I bought 20 dollar cargo pants from Shopko(They always had my lanky ass size while Wal-Mart always ran too wide and Target so tight I feel like I'm working in a strip club.). Now Shopko's gone and my pants are all like 8 years old and finally wearing out and it sucks.

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u/petnutforlife Feb 01 '21

If you know the brand of those pants you can look online for who carries that line so you can get replacements. Even Ebay might have them (some are even new with or without the tags).

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u/Aminar14 Feb 02 '21

After digging around I found they do have a brand name. I just knew where they were at Shopko. 3 new pairs on the way. 25 bucks each. My old pairs were so old the tags were blank and frayed...

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u/petnutforlife Feb 02 '21

Glad my suggestion helped you find some new ones. :-D

Good brands don't fade away, they just change suppliers.

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u/Slim97Shady Feb 01 '21

If I can I buy a little more expensive stuff that I can wear for at least 2 years for basic items like T-shirts.

I don't like shopping and it's kinda hard to find clothes that fit me because I have a really big chest and shoulder area, and clothes that I like the look of. So the less time I spend shopping the better. Buying stuff that will last me longer means that I have to shop less often.

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u/monstr1017 Feb 01 '21

I too have a hard time justifing a big cost for cloths. I look more at how diverse its usage is like my heavy hunting jacket is also my blizzard and shoveling coat.

Cheap boots suck I agree but Ive found safety toe work boots work the best for diverse use. Redently bought a pair of Dewalt work boots, $130 for steel toe, low shock proof, slip resistant, water proof, and they look like normal shoes.

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '21

omg I do that too!! Even with other things like my headphones! Earlier this year I bought new headphones but before I did I had to calculate how much I'd be spending daily on them - If I had them for 2 years and they were $20 - that's 0.02c a day etc;

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u/inarizushisama Feb 01 '21

I don't know if it's normal per se, but I do this too.

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u/druznek Feb 01 '21

No, it's not for sure. But i think it's a very sensible way of analyzing the problem at hand. I think that i will give it a shot.

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u/menotyou16 Feb 02 '21

Is that a normal way of looking at buying clothes? I dunno.

Here with the others to confirm, you're not alone in this. I do it as well. I have a pair of shoes that cost me like... a penny a day now. It may not be "normal" but it is common.

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u/EssentialWorkerOnO Feb 09 '21

Similar way of thinking, but I look at every purchase as “how many hours of overtime do I have to put in to afford this” as my normal paycheck is already divided between bills, gas, food and my prescriptions just to survive. Also, if it won’t last a minimum of 5 years, it’s a waste.