"Waste not, want not...."

Boy, did I hear that saying a lot when I was growing up! Being a child of parents who grew up during the Great Depression, who had to squeeze every penny until it cried, I was schooled intensely on frugality. As a result, I do have a tendency to do without a lot of 'nice to haves' with very little difficulty. And because of that, even though our recent and current financial roller-coaster has been unsettling to say the least, I am probably not as stressed about it as a lot of folks who have followed "spend like there's no tomorrow" practices. While I was growing up, we had a lot of instances where if I wanted something, often I would have to sacrifice something else in order to get it, or do odd jobs to earn extra spending money. So that taught me that my time was worth something, but that I couldn't always have everything I wanted. Boy, has that been a valuable lesson! I drive a 13 year old car that probably gets better gas mileage than most cars half its age; I don't own an ipod or an i-anything... as a matter of fact, my car only has a radio! I have bypassed getting caught up in the trap of thinking I had to have something because everyone else did, so while I'm not totally debt-free, the debt I owe is manageable and represents purchases or services to cover needs, and very little in the 'wants' category. Do I feel sorry for myself? Not even close! I can sleep at night, not having to toss and turn wondering how I'm going to keep from having this reposessed, or that foreclosed on. I am not bragging here... but I continue to feel a great deal of gratitude for the lessons my parents taught me early on... they have been very beneficial to me, which is probably why I am trying to document them here, in the hopes that others may benefit as well.