I grew up in a lower middle class family. We didn't have a lot, there were four of us kids. I remember the first time I had a brand new t-shirt from a shop when I was about 11 which I think cost about a fiver. Before then it was always hand-me-downs and charity shops - apart from shoes, shoes were generally new, mostly because I was the only girl and needed girl shoes for school. I was the first in my family to go to uni and when I got there I was so accustomed at that point to budgeting, being thrifty and saving money that I think I probably appeared to my friends as though I was well off. In reality I was used to making good food from supermarket value brands, I would use or freeze leftovers religiously and each week in my weekly shopping I would 'splash out' on one item which I would think of as a 'long term purchase' like a different spice or herb to add to my collection (although often the 'long term purchase' had to be on more practical things like washing up liquid). On nights out I would drink slowly so my drink lasted and I didn't have to buy more than one or two. Clothes mostly still came from charity shops or from other people's cast offs and any money I hadn't spent from my budget at the end of the week got saved for something else. I always had money to do the things I wanted to do, not because I had lots of money but because I was selective about what I used my money on and would go without or miss out on some thing's so I could do others. At the beginning of the term when everyone got their student loans unlike my friends I didn't spend any more than my regular weekly budget so as to make sure I could get to the end of the term and still pay rent. I was literally budgeting down to the penny months in advance because I had to. What I struggled with was that I couldn't understand why nobody else had money to do things. They always had money to get drunk or have takeaway pizza or buy brand name food or clothes etc. but whenever it came to doing an activity that cost money the excuse was not having enough money. It took me a while to realise that if you had money to spend on things you wanted to do (other than alcohol or takeaways etc) it was assumed you 'had money'. I knew for a fact that the majority of other people I knew at that time had more money than me so I think I probably came across as an ass when I give them a confused look to the response 'I can't afford to do that...' (generally followed by a night of them going the pub getting pissed). I think I probably wasn't the average student.

TL:DR grew up with very little, was accustomed to budgeting down to the penny, couldn't work out why other people didn't do the same when they didn't have a lot. Other people assumed I had more money than them and most likely thought I was an ass for suggesting we did activities that costed money.