For me, similar to many here, I was barely 21. I was an E3, getting ready to sew on E4. I owned half of a condo I couldn't afford, so I had a renter in it and I was living in a spare bedroom at a friend's doublewide. That was only 1 mile from the firehouse where I was running as a volunteer between my full-time swingshift Active Duty and part-time gas station clerk jobs. I remember floating checks to get bills paid, nearly never eating or getting friends in the dorms to sneak me food from the chow hall.

I remember being stressed out about money all the time. Realistically, though I was upside down in my pickup, I probably only owed about $5,000. I was juggling a $1,500 credit limit card, only one, that I never seemed able to get below a $500 balance. I didn't have any money left after getting paid every 2 weeks, and routinely had to wait until the next payday to finish paying bills from the previous. Crazy. Just crazy. Luckily my wife had little more financial sense than me at the time. She had no debt, but she also had no credit and drove a car that I had to fix all the time. I remember the trunk was always full of mold and the whole thing smelled awful. I remember the day she said yes to marrying me, I figured I was the luckiest man on Earth, and nothing else mattered with exception of my dog...who quickly disowned me and took up with my wife.

Been about 23 years or so. Crazy ride.

Well, it was 53 years and 4 months ago. I was trying to finish college. Luckily, she just got her RN, so we weren't totally broke. Actually, doing fairly well considering. It wasn't all that hard. We didn't have the money so we discovered something to do with each other. But then she got herself knocked up. I don't remember having anything to do with it...

But we had a new car and enough to eat. I "gradualated" and got a good job with one of the the "big 8" accounting firms and was accepted into law school. It was a struggle for a while, but it seems that everyone struggled.

So I kept the same wife for all these years.

I was 20 and my (then) husband was 27 and owned a business that was never quite making it. I drove 120 miles round trip a day to work. We bought land early/mid 80s when interest rate was 15%. It was damn hard. When he finally had to declare bankruptcy the bank agreed to take the equipment and eat the loan, but that made us owe the IRS a bunch. Ironic to owe a bunch of taxes when you’ve damn near been starving for years

Pretty dang. I was a wrangler on a dude ranch and my bride was a waitress at the ranch. Her folks gave us $500 for the wedding. Considering the budget, it was a really nice wedding. My wife’s best friend made her wedding dress, and they remain best friends, although they don’t get to see each other as often as they’d like.

The reception was at another dude ranch and was outdoors on a beautiful June evening. They had an elevated dance floor, built because the adobe main house was on the National Register of Historic Places, and we had a local Western band (don’t recall how much money they charged us). A cook from our ranch did the food and directed one of my brothers in carving an ice sculpture; with just a small amount of blood involved.

Luminaria lit the pathway between the table and the dance floor.

All in all, because we had such great friends, it was pretty special. My mother said she thought it was the nicest wedding she had ever been to. Of course, no honeymoon, which my wife reminds me of on a somewhat regular basis, but hey.

I was a PFC on my way to Vietnam. I think I was making about $150 a month. My wife was still as student and was getting room and board in exchange for watching over a floor of freshman girls.

Her folks paid for the wedding. Her cousin was a cop and had arrested the band on drug charges. He told them if they played our wedding, he would forget about the arrest.

I sent her an allotment monthly and kept about $40 to live on. At the end of the month, if there was leftovers, I sent her a money order. Cigarettes were fifteen cents a pack and beer was a dime a can. My expenses were minimal.

I had a pretty good paying job but due to some financial discipline issues, was over $25,000 in credit card debt when I got engaged. I sold off a Sig Pro to put toward the engagement ring and was surprised when the gun shop gave me more than I’d paid for it instead of hosing me.

Within 18-20 months of tying the knot, my wife had me out of credit card debt due to her really good budgeting skills and financial discipline.

She’s currently a stay at home Mom making $0.00 a year doing that and homeschooling our children and I’m grateful that I make enough for us to be able to do that. It does take some sacrifices and belt tightening but it will pay off in the long run with non-brainwashed smart kids!

Married 11 years this month.

I was working my first full time job after college and living back at home to save money for a house.

I was adamant that I didn't want to rent and wanted to start in our own house. Once I had 20% down to avoid PMI I proposed and got married at 27 years old.

I kept that first job until I retired at 55 a couple of years ago and am still married to the love of my life. It's been a great life for sure as we have both been very blessed.

quote:

Originally posted by RETTOP:
In June 1972 I was 19 and a Lance Corporal (E3) in the Marine Corps, so pretty broke. We got married on June 2 and on the 12th I was on my way to Vietnam. 12 months of combat pay helped out, I think it was $50 per month.

We're now working on our 52nd year.

Wow.

Forty three years ago . I had a good job at a power company and the wife had a decent job . We weren't rolling in it by any means but we didn't have to eat beans and rice every night either .

I love this thread. We were so poh, we couldn't afford the letter R that goes at the end. So we weren't just poor, we were poh!

We were so poor we had to share a $5 seafood claypot dish at the neighborhood Chinese restaurant. When things got tighter, we would settle for the walk up where for $3.50 we get a Styrofoam plate of steamed rice, bok choy vegetables, and pieces of pork.

At night, we would walk up and down the aisles in Walgreens. Our tv in 1986 was a two inch square black and white that we got for sitting through a 2 hour sales pitch for vacation rentals. When we wanted to splurge on our date night, we would pony up the $2 after getting gas to go through the car wash.

When we would drive back from Walgreen's, I would see Joe's of Westlake up on the hill from the road. At night they had candles on the table by the windows. From time to time, I would ask my wife if she wanted to go there. She would say she could cook me a better meal at home. About 10 years later after reaching some measure of financial stability, we went back to eat. We were pleasantly surprised that this restaurant which was above our means at the time was just an Italian cafe, granted the waiters wore nice suits. But we were laughing at how it was not just a big deal but also grateful we got to the point where it was not such a big deal.

But we were blessed to not know how poor we were. During that time, we called it "the good ole days" because we believed that sometime in the future, we would look back at those days fondly as the good ole days. Every phase of our life that we are currently in, we still call it the good ole days.

We didn't have a lot. My wife was working for Muse Air in Houston, while I was finishing my bachelor's degree at the University of Washington. I also received my ROTC commission and was scheduled to attend the Armor Officer Basic Course at Ft. Knox a month after our wedding.

Not as broke as I am now.
3 kids in private school
1 of those kids with major medical issues plus $600 in occupational therapy a month for him really takes a toll. This year has been a kick in the balls and crushed a big chunk of our savings but ohh well.
Not really broke just in a different place. Bigger house, less play money, and only one vacation a year.
Certainly would be in a much better spot if nearly everything did not cost twice as much as it did 3 or 4 years ago.
We were actually in a really good spot when we got married. My wife was debt free minus her house.
I had $2k in credit card debt and like $10k in student loans at .25% interest. Turns out it’s not and paid that off quick.
Wife had a good job as I did I.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Black92LX,

Broke enough. I remember when we were engaged we’d go to the pet store and look at the fish for our entertainment, because we couldn’t afford a movie or dinner.
And I remember not being able to afford a pair of new blue jeans.

I used all the insurance money from a car accident (blessing in disguise) to pay for my wife's engagement/wedding ring. She hocked her jewelry more than once for us to eat.
Our honeymoon was a few days on exotic Galveston island.
Made her the queen of my doublewide for several years before the 1500 Sq ft house we lived in for 25ish years. The lean times made us who we are today. 37 yrs with her so far.

20 years last month. I proposed in may 2001 then i promptly got laid off in the dot com crash. It took a while to get stable and we married in 2003. I had always hustled 2-3 jobs when single and she convinced me I would need to stay home at night. Then we got pregnant. She hasn’t worked in 15 years. Since the 1st baby came. I’ve always figured out a way to make it work.

It was July of 2009, the housing bubble in Florida was well and truly popped, and we were making it through on what I made at the guitar shop from repairs and gear setups, so pretty fucking broke. Our entire budget for both wedding and honeymoon was $3k, and honestly? For the money, we did pretty damn good. Most of that went to Sandals resort in Ocho Rios with a snorkeling trip, a hike up Dunn’s River Falls, and a Blue Mountain bike tour, and we had a blast. Wouldn’t change a thing.

50+ years ago, I was primed for grad school on a personal vision quest. We found a marvelous oldOLD country house from the previous century next to a nice creek, $50/rent. I ran a one-man fire wood & scrapping business in addition to classes.

Our recreation budget very tight at the time: once a month we took $5, hogged down on "Heavy Number [strike]Taco[\strike] Burrito Supreme" and used the rest for the $1/seat movies WITH popcorn. Even at that price, a triple header with Peter Sellers/Pink Panther series was a bit too much. Still got the special wedding-day t-shirt.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: signewt,

1st marriage, 1986, I was 27. Doing OK. Was able to buy a house right after.

2nd marriage, 1992, started well ended in disaster and bankruptcy. It happens.

3rd marriage, 1996, Bankruptcy behind me, We started off well, and have continued to improve. 27th anniversary is this month.

In 1972 I was a specialist making $346 a month. I was dating a nurse when I came down on orders to Korea. She gave me a “ We’re getting married.” We’d only had known each other 5 months.
We married, I left for Korea and she got assigned there three months later.
That was 52 years ago. Two kids, two grand kids a travels all over the world.
I was very lucky.