Got married by a Justice of the peace. There was no honeymoon, right after we got married I went with my younger brother to help fix my mom's car.

I was working two minimum wage jobs - 70 hours a week combined- barely making it. Couldn't afford car insurance, got a ticket for that. Our only car had no A/C (I lived in South Texas). Every job I applied for I was rejected for one reason or another. I had a bad back so that didn't help the job outlook. I enlisted in the Air Force after 11 months of that.

33 years later my house is paid for, I have no bills and am looking to comfortably retire in a few years. All on one income thus far (mine, my wife never worked).

Not as broke as I was after I got divorced.

Fortunately, we were in a pretty good spot financially. We were DINKs making good money and had saved up enough to buy a house before we got married. Married at 23 after dating for 8 years. To be fair, there were multiple times I worked 2 jobs because I had a desired skill set. At one point I had a Network IT job at a bank on weekends and holiday working an 8am to 8pm shift in addition to my full time weekday job. Both were considered full time positions anb often required me to take vacation to cover days the bank considered holidays. I did that for a year before we got married and my future wife was making really good money as well. We both worked our asses off for the first five years of our marriage before we started having children.

Got divorced in 97, 20k in debt.
Remarried in 03’ , no debt but broke.

In 22 we paid off our house, completely debt free.
We have a credit card but it’s for ordering stuff off the internet and it gets paid for each month.

I was still in college and working part-time in a grocery store. After paying tuition, we didn't have much left.

We would drive an hour to her folks house each week to do laundry. My mother-in-law always made sure to have a big dinner made up for us.

My wife grew up thrifty and that skill sure came in handy. Our apartment was furnished with stuff purchased at garage sales and Goodwill, but she made it a great home.

We had four kids and now have 11 grandkids. We'll celebrate our 40th anniversary in a couple of months.

I was a corporal in the Marines when we got married in 1968.......so, we were pretty broke. I forget what I was making. Probably somewhere around $300/month. My wife was a nurse, so that helped.

Define “broke”, please.

Married my first wife at 22, 3 months before graduating college and starting job at a Big 8 accounting firm. We had been engaged for 2.5 years, so she had more confidence in me than me I think.

I’m not sure we had $500 in the bank between us and no assets other than a car.

That was 37 years ago and it’s been great ever since.

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
That was 37 years ago and it’s been great ever since.

I’ll ask; then why do you call her your “first wife?”

quote:

Originally posted by TMats:

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
That was 37 years ago and it’s been great ever since.

I’ll ask; then why do you call her your “first wife?”

Well, mainly for how she reacts to it in public.

i was driving a cab in 1974, she was working for a credit-card company. we went to iran for work, planning on going to the '80 olympics, which we boycotted.

we left in dec '78, khomeini returned from exile in paris in jan'79....timing for leaving iran was perfect + a bundle of $$ in the bank!!

sustained myself just fine upon turning 18, through college, post-secondary...marriage did me in

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

We were not broke at all. The (now ex) wife and I were both established in our careers when we got married, and both making pretty good money.

But we still had no fancy rings, ceremony, or honeymoon. I personally never understood the thinking behind a new couple (especially a young couple) blowing thousands or tens of thousands of dollars on fleeting things like fancy rings, parties, and vacations, rather than using that money to establish their lives instead.

Her ring was a ~$400 white gold ring with a moissanite, and mine was a ~$30 plain stainless steel band. The ceremony involved being married by a judge in her chambers on our lunch break and then we all went back to work, but we did have a small and cheap reception a few months later for close friends and family once the weather warmed up. The honeymoon was a quick long weekend to New Orleans, staying in a B&B in the Garden District and visiting some zoos and museums.


And I don't have to worry about being broke the next time I get married either, because regardless of whether I ever do end up broke, I'm never getting married again anyway.

My wife and I married in 1991, while both of us were in the military. I was a Corporal in the Marines and she was a Sergeant in the Army. I think our combined income was under $30k. We had one child and we were broker then broke. Almost 33 years later, we are still together, empty nesters with three grown children, and we are extremely comfortable financially.

I wouldn't say "broke," exactly, but, money was quite tight.

I'd done extensive spreadsheet analysis of just how much house I could afford, incl. calculations for utilities, additional stuff I'd need (e.g.: lawnmower), grocery and clothing allowances, etc. Then accounted for a little, very little, breathing room.

Luckily I owned my car outright and had no appreciable debt.

For several years we survived on the one car. Spent little-to-nothing on non-essentials. When we finally did get my wife her own car, it was a very well-used little beater, but, it was mechanically sound and had good rubber. She was pleased as punch with her "little red car," as it was christened.

We scrimped and saved. My wife took advantage of every sale and coupon she could find. Bought a lot of "store brand" items.

Sadly, it was inheritances resulting from the passing of our mothers, first hers, then mine, that relieved the economic pressure before it otherwise would have been.

E-4 in the Army stationed in Massachusetts, 1987.

We were both in college when we got married in 1970. I had a 1961 mercury comet. We got three hundred dollars as wedding gifts. We used that money to pay for tuition. The apartment we lived in was so tiny I Could stretch out my arms and touch the walls. For a weekly date we'd go to the Dairy Queen and get two 5 cent ice cream cones

We've been happy.

About 1 month before we were married, we didn’t have enough cash for a movie ticket. My future FIL gave me some crap.

I was an E4 back in 1987, so I didn't make a lot of money, but I had about a year's income saved. My wife made a lot more money than I did though. We weren't broke at all but still didn't spend any money on a big wedding or honeymoon.

I was an E-4 over 4, so roughly $450 a month, plus housing allowance, whatever that was.

I got married on New Years Eve, 1974. I went from being a single E4 without a care in the world to a married E4 with 3 kids, a mortgage payment, a car payment and $1000 or so of revolving debt I inherited when I got married.

It's all relative tho. The wife and kids thought they'd hit the jackpot with that kind of money coming in. We didn't buy ANYTHING we didn't immediately need and when we transferred to Japan we "furnished" our quarters with stuff from the base surplus store. All three kids slept on military "racks" for the first couple of years.

Promotion took on a whole new level of importance. I got to Japan in February of 1976 as an E4 and I left in November of 1978 as an E6...