do kids not find ways to make money anymore???
When I was about 10 or 11, I stated mowing the lawn at home for $5 bucks every time I did it. After a year or two, I had 5 lawns I mowed every week, for $10 each, and 1 for $15. In the winter, I also shoveled ALOT of snow...
Then, when I was 13, I started my first job setting up table & chairs in a hall at an Elk's club... (VFW type place). That was $5 an hour, and only like 2 or 3 days a week for 1 or 2 hours. 2 years of that, and they slowly had less and less for us to do, till we didn't get called anymore, cause they weren't making any money....
A MONTH after my 15th birthday, I started working as a 'cleanup kid' at a local butcher shop / Deli about a 1/4 mile from my parents house. I started there at $5 / hr, and I am STILL there, 8 years later at more than $11 / hr, but in the deli since I was 18. I only work Saturdays & Sundays there. I have had a full time Mon-Fri Salary job since I turned 20, and I make more than $20 an hour there....
I bought ALL of my own computer stuff, with the exception of the first PC I got for free from a cousin. It was a 133Mhz pentium with a 200 MHz evergreen upgrade.... onboard graphics, and a BLAZING 72 Megs of Ram.... I was SOOO excited to get this computer.... lol... first upgrade was a burner. I got this PC cause his work was pitching DOZENS of them to upgrade to the 400 Mhz machines that had just come out.
After that, I built and paid for 3 other systems myself.
2nd system - 600Mhz PIIIe Slot A (now dead and not sure where is it... motherboard died on it, and I think I pitched it, upgraded to system 3)
3rd system - AMD 2400+ XP, 512MB Ram, ATI 9800 AIW - currently my DVR...
4th current system is listed in my Sig.....
ALSO, I didn't get my license till I was 17, and I bought my OWN car, $3000 after tax, title and all that fun stuff.... it was ALLL MY money. I certianly have learned to appreciate the value of a dollar... I just need to manage it better, thats why I have my fiance pay the bills.
EDIT: actually, my current monitor was a christmas present from my parents, it was the only thing I got.