I squeeze pennies so hard they need therapy and always have. I remember loaning money to my older siblings to buy game systems and fund dates.

Ever since I saw a documentary on the great depression and spoke to my grandmother about what it was like to live through it I started noticing that we as a country we're not doing so great. I've been working and saving most of my money since I was in first grade, but by middle school I just decided to abstain from almost every kind of expense I could.

I've never struggled financially but that's because I learned that you don't need to buy much stuff if you make your own, can live on less, and have a pervasive crippling anxiety about the collapse of western civilization.

So yeah I've been running on the vibe "The Great depression is coming again and there's no way I can save enough to be prepared"

This has earned me a meager modest lifestyle, but my family eats very well, has a clean home, and has plenty of modern luxuries and toys even if some of them might be a bit worn, rough around the edges, or unfashionable.

I didn't have to learn to live on lentils but I did have to give up on things my parents found very accessible like restaurants, travel, new things, packaged food, college, free time, bars, weekends, my own room, cars, movie theaters, most museums and non-critical medical care.

So yeah, I guess compared to my peers I'm crushing it because in all of my frugality I managed to avoid racking up six figures of college debt! I'll never own a house though.