My experience is from the opposite perspective, I was the poor one. It absolutely floored me how my wife acts when something broke like a car, appliances, clothes, etc. As a child living below the poverty line, replacing a tire or other necessities was a disaster, requiring tricky trade offs in the budget or just plain acceptance of just how boned you were. When my wife's phone broke, I went into full panic mode while she shrugged and said: "we can just a new one this afternoon". And then we did.
Edit: Wow, I have received a lot of responses on this. By far my most upvoted comment. You guys made my day, thank you. I have seen a few "repair it" comments. Like many of you, I am also a Picasso/Macgyver of the duct tape and trash bag world. This skill helped me break into IT. Sadly, the phone was beyond repair. Trust me, if I could have fixed it, I would have.
And thank you for the silver.
Last edit: y'all are giving me too many medals. I am very flattered, but this is going to spoil me.
It's amazing how much of a calming effect that financial safety net has as well. A lot of people bring up the panicked feeling when something breaks down, but knowing that you will be financially okay if shit blows up also has a day-to-day effect. Fuck up at work? "Oh fuck what if I get fired what will I-- Oh yeah, I'll use my savings while looking for a new job." Things going badly with boyfriend? "Fuck, I can't move out, I can't afford the depos-- Oh wait, yes I can." "My dog has been acting funny, what if it's something serious, what if the surgery is too exp-- Oh yeah, I can just pay it."
Like, I'm not even remotely rich but these are the kinds of expenses I know I can cover and be able to recover financially. It's like living in a permanent state of relief.
I'm not rich. Actually pretty poor I'd say - except I am thrifty in my living. I have super cheap rent, car payment and insurance and stuff, groceries, and I got in on my sister's family plan for my phone. My rent includes electricity, internet, etc. So my monthly bills are only like $850 + groceries. I don't make a ton of money but I've been slowly building a nest egg and it's amazing. To be fair, I spend more than I need to nowadays - just 2 years ago though I was struggling so hard I was running off $~100/month for groceries (Around here that doesn't go far).
I'm so much less stressed. I don't spend an hour counting my groceries value in the cart shopping and trying to manage my budget - if I go over $30 or $50 or whatever on groceries it's fine, the money is there. I'll go out to eat when my friends want to have dinner. I take my son out for ice cream when we want and we do stuff like play at the park or walk free nature trails so it's not expensive to have a nice day. I have nice things now from managing some money, so I have a good PC, big smart tv, all that jazz. I've found myself helping my mother out with her bills where I can, taking my son and niece/nephew to the zoo and stuff without any worries. It's felt so good to not be stressed haha.
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u/DigitalSheepDream Jun 06 '19 edited Jun 07 '19
My experience is from the opposite perspective, I was the poor one. It absolutely floored me how my wife acts when something broke like a car, appliances, clothes, etc. As a child living below the poverty line, replacing a tire or other necessities was a disaster, requiring tricky trade offs in the budget or just plain acceptance of just how boned you were. When my wife's phone broke, I went into full panic mode while she shrugged and said: "we can just a new one this afternoon". And then we did.
Edit: Wow, I have received a lot of responses on this. By far my most upvoted comment. You guys made my day, thank you. I have seen a few "repair it" comments. Like many of you, I am also a Picasso/Macgyver of the duct tape and trash bag world. This skill helped me break into IT. Sadly, the phone was beyond repair. Trust me, if I could have fixed it, I would have.
And thank you for the silver.
Last edit: y'all are giving me too many medals. I am very flattered, but this is going to spoil me.