Frugality

[Mia]

All of this is a little rant to gloat and compare to people including relatives and others I know who are still paying for things near their retirement, loans, car payments, two mortgages. These are the same people who made comments such as 'just throw it away and buy a new one, why would you fix that? Or asked me to fix their computers, stereo's, put up curtains/pictures/paintings for them, helped with their gardens because the landscaper did it wrong, who are in a great deal of debt. To them I say HA!

Much of my knowledge of thrift and economy comes from my spouse and I am rather thankful for it. It's likely that I would have never learned how to save, if it wasn't for him.

Is being frugal a common trait among Aspies or NT's? Or is it simply a common trait among people who grew up with minimal resources.

 

[Maelstrom]

My spouse and I have lived like students our entire lives. We repair things, reuse things, make things, live frugally. We can buy pretty much anything we want, but we don't, we save our money. We live well but are not buyers of things, unless its something we 'really' want. I don't know if this is common among Aspies?

My spouse recently bought the gibson les paul that he's wanted since he was a teenager. He has a couple of guitars, classical, electric, but this one is his favourite. I too have several things that I've wanted and bought that I enjoy, a special watch, several beautiful coats, books, a big maple easel.
All of this is a little rant to gloat and compare to people including relatives and others I know who are still paying for things near their retirement, loans, car payments, two mortgages. These are the same people who made comments such as 'just throw it away and buy a new one, why would you fix that? Or asked me to fix their computers, stereo's, put up curtains/pictures/paintings for them, helped with their gardens because the landscaper did it wrong, who are in a great deal of debt. To them I say HA!

Much of my knowledge of thrift and economy comes from my Aspie spouse and I am rather thankful for it. It's likely that I would have never learned how to save, if it wasn't for him.

Is being frugal a common trait among Aspies or NT's? Or is it simply a common trait among people of scottish extraction?

I am Mia ,I always have some put away, my younger brother makes tons of more money than me and is always almost broke. The quickest way to have money is to stop spending it. Once in a blue moon I buy something nice.

My motto is why buy it if I can make it or grow it.

Anyways keep saving the pennies you never know when you may need them.

 

[AsheSkyler]

Hrm, good question. I'm Aspie and a good bit of my ancestry originates from the northern UK. Even before it became vital that I learn how to scavenge, I was good with money. Opened up my first checking account with $1000 cash when I was eighteen from working sporadically at part-time jobs since I was 15 and bought little pleasures along the way like my PS2, my first cell phone, and I've never had to ask my parents for gas money except that for first week to work. Paid my own car insurance during that time too. And this was during that "great recession". Back when I could actually get a job. The "great recession" had a much better job market than now, I can't get hired anywhere.

But I also grew up poor. Didn't know it until I got grown, but I was raised to be ingenuitive and thrifty.

 

[Spiller]

Ashe sums it up for me - I was born into - and grew up in - a poor, hard working family. I learned to reuse, repair, make do.. I learned the skills I needed to be thrifty along the way - carpentry, electrics, plumbing, mechanics, gardening..
I recently realised that I never got into the habit of buying nice things for myself.. beyond the odd CD/DVD, or whatever, I'd baulk at buying anything expensive due to my upbringing.
I buy what I need and replace what's broken when I have to. I did start buying newer cars, but eventually figured that buying and fixing cheaper cars was more cost-effective than repairing the damage that occurred in supermarket carparks and paying the higher insurance premiums incurred by other, careless drivers.