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

Our days out consisted of paste sandwiches, a large bottle of made up squash and a wagon wheel.
We'd get an ice cream though or a fancy bun from the bakers, a bag of chips was our usual tea and we loved it.

Oh yes, the reused wrapping paper! My friends used to make fun of how slowly and carefully I opened presents, but it was so the paper could be flattened out and reused for Christmas/birthday next time round!

And the bucket in the kitchen for rubbish! This is taking me back...

Definitely eating out. A day trip with my mum will always be made tense by my suggesting we have lunch and her saying no, it's too expensive, she wouldn't enjoy it. She'd rather bring a bottle of water and marmalade sandwiches.

This definitely. My mum and dad would take bread rolls and hard boiled eggs. I used to be so jealous of all the other families tucking in to nice meals in the cafes. It's only as I got older that I realised how expensive it would have been to eat out as a family of 5 and that they were already treating us to a day out which would have cost money.

Milk was very 'precious' in our house when I was a child. I think it came down to the fact that most milk in those days (60's/70's) was delivered each morning. So mum knew what she had and how it needed to last until 7am the next day.
God forbid any of us 'helped ourselves' to milk, to the point that I'd even ask if I could have a glass of milk for years after being a child.

Lucozade (only for hospital stays). Choccie biccies (Christmas time), peanuts and cheesey biccies (Christmas also). Not complaining at all. I think it was the thing at the time and unfortunately now I tend to have those things whenever I want them (except lucozade which I now think is rank - but was nectar when it was rare!!) so they are deemed no longer special. Though I really should diet so in the future these things would be very special and rare indeed!!!

Remember Mum telling me to tell my friends at Cambridge University that our caravan holidays were expensive and giving me costings to prove it to them.

Bearing in mind these other students were mainly public school boys who spent the summer holidays in expensive hotels in tropical destinations I don't know what she was thinking. I told one which was so embarrassing and kept my mouth shout after that.

I've remembered a weird one.

We were never allowed to have tomato ketchup with eggs - there was no way we could mix the red sauce with runny yoke.
So in all our childhood we never had this combination or even tinned tomatoes with egg.

Was horrified when I met DH and watched him smother his egg and chips with ketchup, he was like and offered me a taste ... nothing bad happened to me and I've mixed the two happily for the past 30 years.
When I asked mum why we never had egg and red sauce together she simply said 'because' and has never given an answer.

So many of these ring true. I really hadn't realised what a wastrel I am. I am so properly decadent, I should probably just go with it and prance about my fully heated house drinking tizer with the television and all lights in the house on in the nude and be done with it.

Roast chicken
Switching a heater on
KFC

Twiglets.

One night dad woke us all and carried us downstairs, wrapped in our blankets, then out the door and into our neighbours' house. We were startled, to say the least. It appeared the chimney had caught fire and the fire brigade had been called.

We sat bleary eyed on our neighburs' couch, then spotted a bowl of twiglets still left out in a bowl on their coffee table from a party they had had earlier. The neigbours told us to help ourselves. Mrs Neighbour brought hot chocolate. What fun that night turned out to be!

Afterwards, we couldn't convince mum and dad to buy either twiglets or a coffee table to put them on.

Frozen food. We didn't have a freezer so fish fingers were a real treat and I would have to go ot the shop to buy them.

No idea why we were without a freezer for so long, we had a dishwasher, 3 week holidays in France 2-3 times a year so not for a lack of money.

you could have beans with cheese on toast there not just one or the other!

I didnt even know that cheesy beans on toast was a thing until my thirties!
My mum is appalled that I give it to the kids "but you dont need both!" We werent poor but she was tight when we were kids except for things she wanted, and despite spunking tens of thousands on new kitchen//bathroom/garden/ etc etc in the last 2 years, would have a coniption if someone had cheesy beans!

I always considered one of our neighbours posh as they had triangular sandwiches and her cheese and pineapple hedgehogs at parties.

I was also seriously impressed by my friends Mum having Sainsbury's Neapolitan ice cream and you could have beans with cheese on toast there not just one or the other!

My Auntie had a second reception room that we were never allowed in. We considered her vair posh for that.

My parents did the bag/bucket for rubbish for ages. Their excuse was they needed to keep in on the worktop to make sure the dog didn't get in there. They now have upmarket Brabantia bins.

Scented soap was always a luxury. I'd get it as a present occasionally. I still love the look and smell of Pears clear soap, even though it isn't quite the same as it used to be.

Who would save one whole room in their house to use only about 8 times a year?

My grandparents had a "front room" which to my knowledge they never used and they lived there for 40 years! The only people who ever went in there were me, sis and cousins to play when the weather was bad and Grandma to clean it once a week!

Pyong

Fizzy drinks only ever at Christmas.

I think my children are spoilt as I don't really ban anything. That said, they hate anything fizzy and have only started to regularly drink squash in the last few months. Before that, they were happy with water/milk.

Be fair, I think most families would consider a Rubens to be expensive and special :o :o :o

Bloody autocorrect!!! Ribena, not Rubens!

Rubens for sure. We never had blackcurrant squash, just orange or lemon. We used to occasionally visit my Mum's friend's house and they had Rubens. When she offered it to us, we were like 'Wow!' Then she'd fill the cup about a third full with Ribena so it was super strong - even better!!!!!
Plus only ever sitting on the sofa or even being in the 'best' room at the front of the house when friend's came over for dinner or at Christmas. I still can't get my head around that. Who would save one whole room in their house to use only about 8 times a year?

Kitchen bin-bags were unheard when I was a kid (late 1960s/early 1970s).

Indeed, we didn't even have a proper kitchen bin: we had an open plastic bucket which my parents lined with two or three layers of old newspaper before gradually filling it up with vegetable peelings and tired-out, twice-used teabags.

In summertime, by about the third day of the week it used to have a cloud of flies in hovering over it. Shudder.

My grandmother drove and always had her own cars. I never realised this was unusual until I was an adult. Dad's family was dysfunctional but well-off - they were the first in their street to have a TV and they went on a lot of holidays. Although the lady I thought for years and years was a nanny was actually Dad's foster carer .

I'd forgotten about Tizer. Tizer was a treat.