What do you consider you own money? From you first job or from birthday/christmas gifts, errands, etc. ?

Likely it would have been "keep the change" for going to the store to get dad smokes... "A pack of Lucky's and two double bubbles please."

;)

Hard to know the very first thing - that was a long time ago.

But I do remember what I bought with the money I made from my first job out of college.

My 1970 Volvo 145S:

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541468165.jpg

Audio gear!
 

Back when youth exclusively delivered newspapers, I raked in tips at Christmas time. Bummed a ride to the big stero shop over in Norfolk VA whose name escapes me now. First big purchase was my Dual 1215 turntable. My uncle was jellous. Good times!

To me it means money I earned outside the family. Money from family always seemed gratuitous to me. It was nice, but I didn’t earn it on my own.

When they were Quality
 

A pair of Sperry Topsider Captains Oxfords in Smoke Elk. The are nothing near the quality they were in 1968. $21 dollars at Harris and Frank.http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541472814.jpg

My first paying job was in middle school, I went around the neighborhood pulling a wagon asking for their old newspapers. I would then unfold them into a stack and roll them up and bind with a string. I would sell them to a local (Carpinteria) flower nursery for something like .25 cents a pound. I still remember one house where the guy kept years worth of daily news. SCORE! Also remember the nursery owner handing me $40 cash money...WOW. OP, sorry I have no idea what I spent that money on.

In High School I spent my hard earned money on some bogus race car watch from an ad in some car magazine, Road & Track or similar. So excited when it arrived. I showed it off to my smarter friend. We ran cross country for school. Wore the watch on a run. Got home and the face was totally fogged up and the watch stopped working. He had a good laugh at my expense.

Probably the green Schwinn Stingray to replace the one someone stole out of our yard. I was about 12 and earned it with a paper route in 71.

Next big purchase was a 69 Triumph GT6+ for $500 in 76. Bought it with money earned washing dishes in a bar.

My Fender P-bass in 1967. Then sold it in the late 70's to pay for tuition :(

Well, get down with your bad self!! :D

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That’s 1:04. And for a 440m that’s not too shabby if I may say so myself! ;)

Mine was red, but the other details jibe.

Condoms.
I was 8.

I think the first thing I bought at maybe 11 or 12 with my own money was a 30x40mm telescope from either the Sears Roebuck or Monkey Wards catalog. I sold Cloverine salve door to door before that. But that deal was you ordered a supply of the salve that came shipped in a cardboard tube. After you sold the tube worth and sent the money in, you could either choose something from their catalog or sell several tubes worth for something worth more. Things have changed a lot since then.

JVC CD player in 76 :D

One of these kits... probably the B-52. I don't have very many of the models I built in those days, but I do have these two. If they weren't so hard to get to, I'd photograph them and post them. They're way in the back of my studio.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541497821.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1541497840.jpg

I used to collect Coke bottles and buy penny candy. When I got older, I mowed lawns for a dollar.

Coke bottles were worth 3 cents. Penny candy was one, two, or three cents, and included Bazooka Bubble Gum. Cracker Jacks were a nickle, and had real prizes.

Yep...now I remember....I bought candy....probanbly 10 years old....same story except bottles only brought in an opinions worth (.02)....head out on a Schwinn banana seat, collect 6 bottles...ride a mile to the county line "country store".... CANDY bar (.10 + .01 tax). I was smart though....two candy bars & tax were only .21....hmmm. I was gonna be rich when they upped the windfall to .03/bottle.
Started mowing 3 neighbors lawns at 12 or so....buck 25 each....it was ON :). Purchased a brand new Jeep CJ5 when I was 17 with my own money for half and a cosigned loan for the rest...my first significant purchase. I worked...but my awesome parents taught me well and provided the essentials in my life well into college.

But I knew at 12, that if I wanted a "car" of my own in a few years...

When I was in 5th grade, I got a job as a math tutor/teacher's aid at the elementary school. I don't know what the job paid, but I worked mornings all Summer. I got paid less than 120 dollars in one lump sum at the end. I bought a Zenith 13'' black and white television with UHF. It was the ''deluxe'' model, and I had about three dollars left after I paid for it.

I never watched it in my room, and it eventually wound up in my parent's kitchen, where I would sit on a wooden chair and watch the 8 o'clock movie on channel 38.

I didn't know I wanted a car until I got my learner's permit, but that was my incentive to seek out real employment. I worked at a Chinese restaurant in High School as a bus boy and dishwasher. In the Summer I still mowed lawns and I could paint and wall paper.

Having a car took money. Without that incentive, I expect I would have been a deadbeat. I wound up buying a non running clunker, and I built my first and second cars out of pieces of other cars. I wish I had that kind of drive and desire today. Now most of my energy goes into my job.

The first big purchase was a 20 ga single bbl shotgun from Wester Auto. I was 13 years. Purchased it over the counter, no background check in 1963. I was only 13 years old. Carried it home over my shoulder. I did not have money for ammo for another week.

At least it wasn't something made out of double knit!