Yesterday I met Sister Zhao upstairs, she is 80 years old this year, and her wife is 83 years old. One of the two people retired from the city institution with a pension of 4,500, and the other retired from a cadre in the county system with a monthly pension of 7,200.
When Sister Zhao saw me, she sighed to me: No, my leg hurts, and now I cook as a job, and I feel that I don't have the strength to cook after a while. What should I do? The children are far away.
Sister Zhao has a son and a daughter, and the daughter settled in Hangzhou with her husband in her early years, and because Sister Zhao used to be patriarchal and did not have a deep relationship with her daughter, her daughter often came back to visit once during the New Year. Every time she came back, she hurriedly instructed her daughter to dismantle and wash the quilt and clean up the house, just wanting to let her daughter do all the work.
Her son and daughter-in-law are both in the system, and they bought a 140-square-meter three-bedroom staircase house in the south of the city. In addition, his son and daughter-in-law are all leaders, and they are very busy at work, and they usually work overtime on Saturdays and Sundays, so they can't take care of them.
I suggested to Sister Zhao: We are all 80 years old, we must learn to care for ourselves, don't save money and don't spend, you are all high wages, and now you can take care of yourself, just ask for an hourly worker, come and clean up the housework, make lunch, how simple is it for breakfast and dinner, how good it is, save time for cooking, and you can also go out for a walk. An extra 1500-2000 a month is enough.
Sister Zhao pursed her lips and said: No, your eldest brother and I can still move, just sit there and let others cook for us? It doesn't always feel like it's time.
I don't know how to continue the conversation, I know, 100 more times, she is the same rhetoric, in the final analysis, she is still worried about money.
Many people say, why are there many elderly people who are desperately trying to save even though they are in good condition? Let me also talk about the reasons:
01 Because I suffered a lot in my original family when I was a child.
Like Sister Zhao, there are five or six brothers and sisters in the family, and they have been poor since they were children, lacking clothes and food, and they are the eldest in the family.
Sister Zhao said that when she was young, she and her sister only had a new pair of pants, and when they went out to run errands, they would be given to whoever wore them. They are really people who have come through hard times, so they feel that every penny is precious.
Now, Sister Zhao and the old couple are still very frugal, they don't buy a new dress for a few years, the underwear inside is sewn and patched, the amount of food for two people is not large, two people share a steamed bun for a meal, drink a bowl of porridge, there is no mouthful, usually if the children don't come, the meat is never eaten, and the living expenses of a month can't even spend 1000.
02 I don't want my children to suffer, so I give all the money I save to my children and grandchildren.
Sister Zhao is a bit patriarchal, she rarely gives her money to her daughter, and is basically willing to spend it on her son and grandson. They themselves are reluctant to buy anything, but as long as the grandson proposes to travel and sign up for a tutorial class, the sponsorship will be 12,000 yuan every time, and they will always be willing to do it.
When their son bought a house, they also paid hundreds of thousands, probably because they were used to being poor when they were young, so they were particularly reluctant to let their children suffer again, so they were economical to themselves and very generous to their children and the next generation.
03 Saving is a virtue.
Now there are some young people who earn 3,000 yuan, and when they spend it, it's like they have 30,000 yuan.
In fact, for ordinary people, money is really saved, not earned.
Like Sister Zhao's family, although the conditions are very good, they also know that every penny is not easy to come by, if they don't have it, it is difficult to reach out and ask for money, and the quality of saving can also make the family's good character continue from generation to generation. Always eat and drink without worrying, squander at will, don't leave some surplus food for the family, and sooner or later you will be empty.
Of course, for families with average conditions, they have to rely on saving money to get more savings, so saving is not a bad thing.
However, we must be vigilant against excessive saving, we are old, don't overdo it, we must learn to love ourselves, no matter what the current conditions at home are, what should be eaten and drunk, don't treat yourself too badly, and then save under appropriate circumstances, and have a degree.
Do you agree with me? Do you have any elderly people around you who are particularly frugal?
Regardless of whether you are saving or not, you still have to learn to care for yourself~