I ‘m starting a new series of posts today about where this Common Cents Mom comes from and how I got my common sense ways. I look at my history and how at each stage I learned very unique lessons, some were lessons worth learning and well some were better thrown out with the bath water.

When I was young one of my very favorite things to do was build a fort under the kitchen table. I would do this often and then in my fort I would sit, read and mostly obeserve and sometimes it was even my hiding place. It was here I first learned my mom hid money from my alcholic stepfather what lesson did this teach me?

#1. Hide money, stash it away, don’t talk about it. Well stashing money away is very important especially when you may live in not the best of circumstances and may want a quick escape. An emergency fund is important. You must be prepared, I have learned this time and time again.

Now the don’t talk about it where I think my mom got it wrong, I think it is important to have at least one other person you talk to about money. Someone who knows where things are in case of an emergency.

#2. A lesson I wish I didn’t learn. Don’t pay bills on time if you pay at all. Many times my mother would get calls from bill collectors, she would literally rob Peter to pay Paul. I was taught it was okay to hide debt. How wrong this that? Many times debts went unpaid. I had this bad habit for a long time.

#3. Hand me downs are a good thing. I am glad I learned this lesson, and remembered it in my adult years. Second hand, vintage, whatever you want to call it. Reusing is a very good thing! Everything I used for my fort was an item I was reusing.

I learned all these things even before I was allowed to handle money but that is a story for another day.