Things your parents led you to think were 'special' or 'expensive' that you now take for granted?

Vienetta, definitely

Also kiwi fruit in fruit salad. One sliced on top to be share by whole family.

Home made knitted school jumpers! Oh the shame! My mum used to wash sandwich bags, they were used hundreds of times.

We didn't get a landlines until the 90s

My parents did not get a landline until the 1970s and it was only then that my father opened a bank account. They thought these things were for "posh" middle class people.

I had no choice but to open a bank account at age 16 when I went to work in local government because thats how we were paid. My parents were quite snippy about the fact that I had an account and a cheque book. No one else in the immediate family (apart from my grandmother) had one. The big advantage was that my parents never new how much I earned when I lived with them as I had all my correspondence sent to an accommadation address. I had a phone put in when I moved into my first flat age 21.

Fizzy juice was a rarity. Even then it was usually a cheapo brand like cresta something like coke was pure luxury.
Slush puppies too, we only got them on holidays down south.
My mum did provide us with a lot though and was never stingy we just didn't have a lot of money. I got toys and nice shoes like other kids but now I know those were paid for through the catalogue weekly and she often struggled to pay them. I feel bad for being so greedy looking back as an adult.

Apologies if I've added this before, I put it some where but I don't think it was this thread.

Ketchup only came out when we had brought fish and chips home. Which, in turn, only happened on the one evening of the month that we all went to the supermarket to do the monthly shop. DM would top up at local shops through the month for fresh veg etc.

It all came crashing down around our ears the first time DH, then a BF, spent Christmas at DM and DF's house with us. The traditional Christmas morning bacon and egg rolls were served and DH innocently asked where the ketchup was. Everyone was agog. DB was dancing at the thought of ketchup coming out for anything other than fish and chips.

DM took it out the cupboard and it was too far out of date even for DM. She then went to the back up bottle, unopened, which was also out of date, but not by as much, so we had that. Of course it was out of date, it was only used once a month.

I remind myself not to save things for best now. If you do they're often wasted.

So many of these posts I can resonate with.

Cornetto and Magnums were definitely expensive ice creams, and only bought from icecream vans. Vienetta was also posh.

Fizzy drinks at Christmas and birthdays.

Lasagne was considered quite exotic.

Salmon was an expensive fish to eat.

Cadbury’s chocolate orange - just tap and unwrap, still only allow DS one slice a day.

One set of shite ancient fairy lights, my mum used to spend about 3 hours going through all the bulbs to find the one that had blown, it was never the white fuse bulb.

Alpen

Swedish wizardry for bendy yoga types

I’ve read this whole thread with fascination!

Although am late to the party will add my two bob- definitely no label shoes or clothes, no cafes ever. I don’t think I went to one until I was in my 20s on a date. It was always “we’ll get a cup of tea at home”

We had not only a whole dinner set but a whole cutlery set that came out at Christmas only. Don’t bother with that myself! Who has space to store all that!

We were not poor but my DF was king of ‘make do and mend DIY’ which all looked so homemade most of the time. Everything had to be on special for him to buy it- I actually thought ‘mis-tint’ was a specific colour until I was about 12 as our whole blimmin house was painted in varying shades of ‘mis-tint”

Babycham 🤣

From the biscuit assortment we were allowed to have 'a plain and a fancy' i.e. a digestive/rich tea/malted milk etc and a chocolate digestive or similar. I feel a bit rebellious when I pick two chocolate biscuits from my own biscuit tin even now (my DPs didn't apply the same restrictions to their DGC's or my DGD's - pretty much can stuff themselves full of chocolate biscuits if they want to )

Sky Tv. Dad just couldn’t understand why you would pay for it? Still doesn’t but is more than happy to sit and watch it at mine if babysitting 😂.
My mum wouldn’t park at the shopping centre. Would park at a ‘pay and display’ car park about a million miles away from the shops!!

Tin foil. I still re-use mine.

Yellow dusters are special.
"We're not made of money."

Tin foil. I still re-use mine.

Yellow dusters are special.
"We're not made of money."

My dbro has just reminded me about magnums. We were in the shop and he chose a white magnum and I had a cornetto. I said that he always chooses magnums. He said it was because we were never allowed them growing up because they were seen as too expensive so he always has one in summer now.

Prawns.
Orange juice - a thimble full every Sunday and my goodness how we savoured it.
Yoghurt - again another once a week treat.
Cheese.
Having more than one pair of jeans and a couple of jumpers to wear.
Sandwiches at a service station.
Haircuts by a hairdresser? Unthinkable! Mum bought a book and did it for us.
Hot water - one bath a week on a Sunday, we were greasy, smelly messes by Friday.

We basically had a 1950's childhood in the eighties.

Clothes, all my clothes until I was 12 came from charity shops. I only buy clothes once a year.

Squash, we were never allowed any flavour of squash except Robinson's apple and blackcurrant, the one that was in a 5 litre bottle. I remember sneaking a bottle of lemon squash into the trolley and my dad telling me to put it back as he wanted the nice big bottle that only he could lift.

Cafes, we would go to the cafe at Asda and that was it. Even then my parents chose what we had to drink. No choice, it was always diet coke.

Baths, we were never allowed baths, it was always a sink wash or a shower. My mum was the only one who had a bath. These days I have a lovely hot bath every day.

Tampons, I was never allowed to use them. I got given a box of Tampax when I was 11 after a sex ed class. My mum saw them and took them off me. I reckon she used them herself.

My parents weren't poor by any means, they always had money for fags and to go out on Saturday nights, they just begrudged spending money on us. Even now they plead poverty but every time I see my parents, they always show me their latest new gadget or designer handbags and shoes.

Rolls, white bread, any fruit juice that was not apple or orange, muller corner yoghurt, teen magazines, menstrual pads and tampons (I was taught to use cotton wool balls).

My late DM's hang ups were with toilet rolls and Sellotape. I grew to dread wrapping up presents within her earshot when I was still living at home,because I would have to tear the Sellotape off really quietly. Otherwise she'd be shrieking 'Go easy on that Sellotape will you? It costs MONEY!' I think part of her issue with it was that it was first available to the public when she was quite young,about 5 or 6. So it was probably ridiculously expensive then,compared to now. Likewise with toilet rolls. She expected our family of 5 to get through only one toilet roll a week. Her favourite ploy was saying to me when I was in the loo, 'If you're just having a wee,don't flush it,I need to go. No point wasting water'. I got wise to this as she was using it as an excuse to check how much paper was down the loo! (not envy!)

I was thinking of takeaways, meals out. They were special then

Heating, food, 'phone calls, new clothes and shoes. Didn't have a landline for years. Only went to the hairdresser a few times. Never had takeaways. Very occasionally went to the chip shop. Ate out at cafes occasionally every few years on holiday. Walked instead of buses.

Yet my ex parents had money for going out three times a week each. They begrudged any money spent on me, always the guilt trip.They supported me in further education and paid for driving lessons though. Hope all that money saved made them happy as they lost me. They can use it to pay for care in their old age!

Loving this thread!

Yes to the orange Juice, we used to get a pint delivered by the milkman once a week as I think there was some sort of public health suggestion on it at the time but we were only allowed a thimbleful every day at breakfast.

Only ever had Marj, not butter. Cereal was definitely rationed and to be eaten one box at a time, my nan used to buy the selection boxes of cereal when we visited her and we thought she was the best nan in the world.

Pop was bought from the milkman (?) at Xmas as well, one cola, one lime and one cherryade, and it “had to last”.

Never EVER had kitchen roll and always had a smelly damp dishcloth instead; this was in the time before antibacterial surface sprays as well so it’s a miracle we didn’t get botulism.

Dining out was once a year and we wore our best clothes and Dad used to let me drink a glass of Asti Spumante with my meal, I think I was about 10 at the time.

All hell would break loose if we every needed to buy a drink when we were out “wait until you get home” would be the request and if we did buy a bottle of something we all had to share it. Hydration wasn’t a thing in the 80’s and who remembers only ever getting a bottle of pop if you HAD to get a drink when you were out? I don’t even remember bottled water being sold. Nobody EVER drank water!

The hilarity of all of this is that my dad used to smoke 20 fags a day and on a Saturday afternoon he’d regularly take me and my bro to the pub. Whilst he was inside sinking 3 or 4 pints we were left in the car and he’d bring out a glass bottle of Dr Pepper with a straw and a bag of nice & spicy nik naks (only one each in the 3 hours we waited in the car though!) you’d be strung up for that today! (Oh and he’d drive us home after his 4 pints as well)

I don't think my parents actually told me this, but I assumed hairbrushes were expensive until I left home and needed one of my own. This was because (1) the family one was the same one throughout my childhood, and was made out of quite nice looking wood, (2) I occasionally heard of posh people giving a relative a silver or other luxury sounding hairbrush for a special birthday. I was kind of shocked at myself the first time I replaced a normal plastic hairbrush that was looking a bit tired.

We also had a special set of thick marker pens that DB and I were only allowed to use on Sunday mornings when my mum was having a lie-in. I suspect they weren't expensive at all and only lasted a long time because we weren't allowed to use them very much, but for all the fuss and ceremony over them, they might have cost £500!

Freshener not freshwater! Ffs