“We couldn’t afford to go out and eat. I fed them peanut butter sandwiches. My kids loved it! They didn’t know they were deprived,” Maye Musk wrote in her memoir.

“The suit cost $99 which included a free shirt, tie and socks,” wrote Maye Musk

Maye Musk, the mother of Elon Musk, has shared a 1990 photo of her son, taking everyone back to the time the family lived in Toronto. The image shows a young Elon Musk dressed in a black suit, white shirt and tie, offering a stark contrast to the image of wealth and luxury now associated with the billionaire.

“This photo was taken in our rent-controlled apartment in Toronto, with my mom’s painting on the wall,” Maye wrote, adding, “The suit cost $99 which included a free shirt, tie and socks. A great bargain!”

Ms Musk added the suit was her son’s only one at the time and he wore it every day. “He wore this suit every day to his bank job in Toronto. I couldn’t afford a second suit. We were happy,” she said, emphasising the contentment they found despite their financial constraints.

The Musk family, originally from South Africa, moved to Canada before eventually settling in the US. During these early years, Maye worked to support her 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren, facing numerous challenges in providing for them. In her memoir, ‘A Woman Makes a Plan – Advice for a Lifetime of Adventure, Beauty, and Success,’ she wrote about their struggles, including buying second-hand clothes and living frugally.

“We couldn’t afford to go out and eat. I fed them peanut butter sandwiches. My kids loved it! They didn’t know they were deprived,” Maye wrote in her memoir.

Despite the Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s remarkable rise to fame and fortune, his mother expressed discomfort with labels like “wealthy” or “billionaire,” preferring to focus on her son’s intellect. “I don’t like the word ‘wealthy’ or ‘billionaire’ because I think it is degrading. I think he’s the genius of the world,” she said in a recent interview with Fox Business.

Elon Musk himself is known for his frugal approach to life. In 2020, he made headlines when he said on X that he had sold all his possessions and no longer owned a house. “I am selling almost all physical possessions. Will own no house,” read his post.

In 2023, Ms Musk shared “memories of sleeping on mattresses or blankets on the floor, on couches, or a bed in the garage” in a post on X. She mentioned that her other 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren, Tosca and Kimball, often slept on the floor, but noted that none of this seemed to bother her in the slightest.

Elon Musk’s former partner, Grimes, revealed in a 2022 Vanity Fair interview that when they discovered a hole in their mattress, the billionaire suggested they “replace his mattress with the one at her house.” She added that he “lives at times below the poverty line.”