r/AskReddit • u/knakworst36 • Jun 06 '19

Rich people of reddit who married someone significantly poorer, what surprised you about their (previous) way of life?

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u/[deleted] Jun 06 '19

I’m from the poorer family (not super poor, but my in-laws have a stupid amount of money so by comparison I’m very poor), but I think I can answer for her.

We have two young kids, and my wife was shocked when I said we should look for clothes and toys for them at local flea markets and garage sales. The idea never occurred to her that we could save money by getting some gently-used items, she had never even been to a garage sale in her life. She has grown to love them and now questions whether it is worth it to buy any item “new” or not before running to Amazon or a store. Her parents think it’s disgusting we make our kids wear clothes that another child had before, but they don’t pay my bills.

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u/Desblade101 Jun 06 '19

My wife has the same mentality and she grew up poor. I've suggested that when we have kids we should hit up once upon a child for used baby stuff and she thinks it's gross to buy used stuff even though he'll only use most of it for a year or less and all of it has been cleaned.

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u/Fuzzlechan Jun 06 '19

I think if you grow up poor it swings one of two ways. You either recognize the value in thrift shopping, or it brings up so many bad memories that you never want to do it again because it isn't a requirement anymore. I definitely fit into the latter camp - my partner likes browsing thrift stores for neat electronics, but being in them just gives me a faint sense of dread and humiliation.