I am a money hoarder. Along with clothes hoarding, electronics, instruction manuals, magazines, useless trinkets, used gift cards, and many more. Hey… What if those gift cards still have 2 cents on it or something. It makes sense to hold on to, even if they are shoved into a junk drawer, not readily available.
Honestly, my hoarding from OCD is different from my penny pinching. Well, hold on, maybe it isn’t so different. Or maybe it is different, but still stems from my obsession of money. Oh… and the compulsion to not ever ever ever let it go.
Hello Frugality:
I’m willing to debate it if you are.
When did I even become a money hoarder? I’ve always been cheap, so my dad calls it. When I was a kid, I had jobs, an allowance, side hustles like cutting grass and shoveling driveways. Basically, I had loot for the things a teenager would need.
That didn’t stop me from hitting my parents up for the necessities though. You know, necessities, things we need but didn’t think your money should go towards. My parents supplied me with food, a rent free room, and clothes. What about entertainment though? I need entertainment like movie theater money, video games, another basketball. I needed a haircut, a new bike, gas, and whatever the latest tread was back then. These things shouldn’t come from out of my pockets.
I held on to ‘my money’ for the big stuff. Like… for food when my parents weren’t around and I was starving. Like… the arcade when my parents weren’t around. Or even like pocket cash to show the ladies that I was loaded. That’s where ‘my money’ belonged – In my pocket. Most of it just hung out in a dresser drawer, available when needed.
Money Hoarder, Money Shmoarder:
My dad has always made fun of me for this. The way he tells it, it is actually funny I guess. This grew to something else once I was out on my own. Hmmm… who am I joking? No it didn’t, the name just changed. I went from cheapskate to full fledge money hoarder.
I didn’t mind working for money, but I was working… for money. So it was MY money. How does Wendy’s have the right to charge me five dollars for a burger? That was almost equivalent to an hour of me working. Is one burger worth an hour of work? GTFOH Wendy’s.
That was in college when I was a broke student. Having a full-time corporate paying position didn’t change my thinking. “Wendy’s, where’s your dollar menu?” You can imagine I don’t eat out much based on my examples here. I do this with everything though.
Frugal, Cheapskate, Money Hoarder, Whatever you wanna call it:
Tons of people are frugal and that doesn’t make them OCD. Here is where I make my argument that for me, maybe it stems from my OCD. During my most difficult struggles with OCD, I did nothing. I didn’t go places, I didn’t go out, I didn’t have much fun.
Mainly that was because I was hiding compulsions from everyone and didn’t want that secret out. Some of it was because I knew it would involve a lot of triggers for my obsessions, and I wanted to avoid that. Less obsessions, less anxiety, less chance my friends would get to see the OCD side of me.
What made this okay with me, was the realization that I was saving money.
Sure, I avoided a long weekend beachside of a new resort with great friends, but… I was saving money by not going. That epic night that everyone is talking about the next day at work. They spent money to do that, I didn’t.
“So Brent, how was your week off from work?” A coworker might ask. “It was alright. I wanted to really get out and go somewhere, but thought my anxiety would sky rocket. So… I stayed around home and saved a bunch of money.”
With OCD Recovery:
I am still frugal, and I can dissect any purchase with a fine tuned penny. I see now how OCD has held me back, so I try to let go more with money. It’s dialed down more to a ‘don’t want to waste money’, but I had to learn to let loose a bit.
Money Hoarder? Me? Cheapskate? Muah? Am I a bit frugal? Perhaps all of the above. It’s been worse though. Believe me. Better yet, ask my wife. She is great at spending money – creating a healthy balance between the both of us.
I raise this question now because it seems legit. Another article here seems to think so too as they link money hoarding to trust issues. Being a money hoarder as a result of my OCD is something I would like to look further into. You know, dissect it, as if it were a 5 dollar burger. Or would this throat lozenge that I just found in my jacket hold me over until dinner?
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Let me know if you found this helpful. I am curious to hear your spin. Leave a comment or find me on Twitter @UghOCD or Instagram @brentleybigkid.
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