Money Lessons from My Dad | brokeGIRLrich
I don’t know about your family, but in my house my mom was always the pushover and my dad was the really strict parent. If you asked my mom for a candy bar at the grocery store you got two. If you asked my dad for a candy bar at the grocery store, he threatened to never take you shopping with him again.
Nonetheless, my dad actually taught me two money lessons that have always stayed with me.
The Godspell Lesson
When I was 16, I saw a production of Godspell and asked my dad if he could take me to the mall so I could pick up the CD. We went into the music store and I realized there were two different recordings, the movie recording and the Broadway recording. The movie soundtrack cost about $12 and the Broadway recording was $25.
You wouldn’t think picking a soundtrack was rocket science, but I stared down both of those CDs for quite awhile. You see, back then, I had a job as a cashier at Walgreens, which was essentially hell on earth, so I had come to appreciate that one of those CDs was two hours of work and the other was four.
On the one hand, the Godspell movie recording is totally fine. If you want to get your Day by Day groove on, that recording is peachy.
$12 was definitely the better price and in the pre-YouTube days of the late 90’s, I wasn’t going to find that recording anywhere else. My friends and I hadn’t even totally mastered how to copy each other’s CDs yet.
On the other hand, what it didn’t have though was Learn Your Lessons Well or, my favorite song in the show, We Beseech Thee. It didn’t feel complete to me.
It felt to me like if you were going to buy something, do it right, and doing it right to me meant the original Broadway recording (amusingly enough, this was years before I got really interested in theater… because, duh, of course the original Broadway recording is the gold standard now).
My dad patiently wandered the store as I compared the two. I would literally pick up a CD, take a step away and then change my mind. I knew what I really wanted was the Broadway recording, but the price tag kept pushing me to the movie recording. Finally I sighed, committed to the movie recording and took my purchase up to the register.
Out of nowhere my dad appeared and paid for the CD. Like your average ungrateful brat, I told him, “geez, if I knew you were going to pay for it, I would’ve picked the one I really wanted. Can I switch them?” (He was aware I’d been debating the merits of more desired recording versus twice the price the whole time.)
“No.”
What else would I expect from the man who only got you a candy bar at the store when you didn’t ask for one?
“If you want the other recording, you can pay for it. But I’m happy to buy this one that you were going to buy yourself for you. Sometimes it’s not best to just make the cheapest choice.”
And I can tell you, I literally felt like an ungrateful brat as we had that conversation. And I remember thinking long and hard about the incident.
I realized that in a weird way, I would’ve rather paid for the purchase, because the CD only costing me $12 made the decision to buy the movie one worth it. Now that both would’ve cost me $0, I felt cheated.
I realized that when someone offers to do something nice to you, either accept it or don’t, don’t push the terms of the offer. Especially with family. It’s rude.
I learned that if your heart is set on something, just pay the extra money for it. I knew that if I’d really been okay with my movie recording decision, I just would’ve been excited my dad offered to pay. In reality, I’d given in and picked something less than what I wanted, so I just wound up regretting everything about the decision.
Good golly, who knew the lasting impact my dad would have just because I really wanted to listen to We Beseech Thee.
What money lessons did you learn from your dad?
And with Father’s Day coming up this Sunday, check out these posts that have some great, frugal gift ideas for the guys in your lives:
*Part of Financially Savvy Saturdays on Femme Frugality and The Thrifty Issue*
Wow, I absolutely LOVE Godspell and I’m totally going to have “We Beseech Thee” stuck in my head for the rest of the day (week?) That’s an interesting lesson. My father has always been frugal and a saver. I think I inherited those traits from him. He encouraged me to open a Roth IRA at 18 and start saving as early as I could. I was always working restaurants jobs, so I squirreled away as much as I could.
Addison @ Cashville Skyline recently posted…Who Wants to Be a Better Digital Marketer?
My dad had always been frugal too (I think being youngest of 9 in an immigrant family left him with little choice), which I think it part of why the lesson about when it’s worth it to spend a little more stuck with me so long.
Incidentally, he is also the person who taught me it’s always better to spend the extra .50 for quality when buying ketchup, since no other brand tastes even close to Heinz. …it’s really the weirdest little things that stay with you.
Nice Job brokedadrich! My dad taught me the value of hard work. I’m the youngest of five children. I heard stories about my dad working two jobs before I was born to help support the family. When I was older he had some side hustler to bring in extra money and often worked overtime as his regular job to provide extra during the holidays.
Brian@ Debt Discipline recently posted…First Time Job Hunter
Wow, your dad definitely was a hard worker!
Ha! Great story! My Dad has always been a penny pincher. I admire that quality in him much more now since we’ve started our debt recovery journey. 😉
debt debs recently posted…Debt Deliberations
My dad too, that’s why it really stuck when he taught me that it’s better to buy what you actually want sometimes.
Yup, my dad was definitely the strict one as I shared today, but there is definitely value in the harshness. And I LOVE Godspell!! My school performed it in high school and I recently downloaded the soundtrack via i-tunes. Boom-chicka-boom-chicka-boom-chick-chick
Shannon @ Financially Blonde recently posted…Music Mondays – Father and Daughter
Haha “We Beseech Thee” is on my running mix- musical theatre nerd alert 😉
Stefanie @ The Broke and Beautiful Life recently posted…Save Money, Break Up Your Friends: The Cost of a Failed Marriage
My dad was a very strict person too, he always told me that I need to study hard to achieve my goals in life. He was a frugal type of person and I really owe him a lot that I’m good when it comes to budgeting because he told me that I need to watch carefully with my expenses and that I need to live within my means.
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I hope I’m as strict as he was if I ever have kids. I may have moaned about it a lot as a kid, but most of my success as an adult comes from those crummy lessons he drilled into me as a kid.
Ouch! What a great lesson, though. I feel like I need to go burn a friend’s Godspell CD now.
femmefrugality recently posted…Financially Savvy Saturdays: Forty-Second Edition
Wow, I love this story! Your dad and my dad would get along quite well. I’m just like you and would’ve sat there contemplating it for hours before settling on the cheaper one and feeling cranky about the decision. OR just talked a friend into buying it and then borrowing it to record on tape (remember when people did that?!).
Broke Millennial recently posted…When Working for Free Makes Sense
Oh my gosh, you’re totally right. I probably could’ve recorded it onto tape. I sure did with enough other CDs… I have no idea why this one didn’t make that cut.
Love this story! My dad taught me to budget when I was five and other than the importance of having a budget I think one of the biggest things I learned from my dad is that it’s worth it to spend a little extra money on experiences with people than on things. Some years instead of random stuff for Christmas our parents got us family vacations…and those are my best memories!
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Wow, Mel – what a story, and what a terrific lesson. Your dad sounds like a wise man. The thing my dad taught me most too was indeed the value of hard work: that, and integrity. Those are the two take-aways that all three of us kids have ingrained deep in us to this day, and I’m so glad my dad modeled them for us so well. Have a great weekend!
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Great lesson! I’m only now getting to the point where I err on the side of getting what I really wanted even though it costs more. If I really don’t care either way, then I go for the bargain! Thanks for linking up to Motivational Monday!
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