When was the first time you heard about Bitcoin / Cryptocurrency?

I heard about it in June 2011, and bought some bitcoin shortly after to test it out. It was pretty difficult to get hold of where I am based (South Africa) so it took me about a week to get my first bitcoin. I think the price had just dumped from around $30 to something in the single digits. I managed to get a couple for around $11 at the time.
Since then, I went deep down the rabbit hole, and it has changed my life completely.

The biggest change I think is that I measure any spending I need to do, in the amount of bitcoin I could get instead with that money.
This has turned me from someone who had lots debt and who was always getting the latest cool gadgets, to someone who has no debt, and who is really tight fisted about spending.
I really only like to spend government money on a few things now, which are bitcoin, traveling, going out to eat at a restaurant on a Sunday, and things that might be fun experiences like concerts, festivals etc.
I dont like to spend money on junk, or stuff that I will never really use. I sold my car, and almost everything I own, and live very minimal now. My girlfriend at the time is now my wife, and we both are extremely frugal. We count every penny, always look for deals, and make money go really far. We do not waste anything if we can help it. We are not poor, we dont struggle, we just both dont waste money.

Thanks to bitcoin, we have been able to travel to many countries around the world, something which we would never have been able to do in the past, when we were stuck in dead end jobs with low wages. Now I am working in the bitcoin industry, helping others to learn about bitcoin and loving it.

I am always dollar cost averaging and buying bitcoin in small amounts as a way to save money for the future. I have more faith in bitcoin long term than I have in the banking system and the local currency in South Africa. Although I heard about bitcoin early, I didnt have money to buy tons of it back then, so looking back I always wish I knew then what the price would be today. However, I do believe that it does not matter, and in 10 years time, anyone just getting into bitcoin now will be thinking the same thing about the price of bitcoin today. I am just very happy that I have been able to keep up with regularly buying small amounts of bitcoin to grow my holding stash. I suggest others give it a try if you dont have large amounts of money available to buy bitcoin....just keep adding small amounts to your stash.