Things you thought were posh/exciting/unattainable as a child that are actually everyday items

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I'm just searching for scotch tape on Amazon ready for Christmas. It got me thinking how double sided sticky tape was but a dream back when I was little. Blue Peter used it all the time but it was something I'd never have. The same with play dough. I only ever had plasticine. Scotch tape was fancy too, we only ever had yellow sellotape. Ribera. I'm sure I'll think of others.

Microwaves! I remember going to my friends house in what must have been the mid 80's and being fascinated by her parents one and watching the food inside going round and round. We didn't have one and no one else I knew did.

Shop bought knitwear
Clothes from M&S

@CosmopolitanPlease I ahve an onyx ashtray and lighter set and I feel like Margot from the goodlife.

Perfume, for some reason my mum only ever used about one drop at a time from one bottle that she'd had from before I was born, and kept in a little velvet bag in her drawer. I thought perfume was a terribly expensive thing and you only got one bottle a lifetime.

Ki ora - a rare treat only to be given on cinema trips. Exotic does not even come close, it was like being on drugs. Monogrammed dressing gowns. Thought you had to be noel coward at least to have those.

Fizzy drinks!
We were never rich but by no means were we poor, but mum would always say that fizzy drinks were far too expensive for everyday drinking and we only got them when we had parties. I know now it was just her way of keeping the sugary drinks at a minimum! 😂

I had OJ as a starter in a restaurant in Cornwall in 2014! However, it was part of a set menu at a birthday event so it's possible that the birthday lady (it was her 80th) had specifically requested it!

Part baked bread rolls. We only had them at Christmas with proper butter and it felt so fancy eating warm crusty bread!

Coca Cola.
We used to get a bottle for a birthday party as an extra special treat.

They still had it as an option when I worked at a restaurant in 1999!

Vesta currys.
Those squares of shine toilet paper, completely unabsorbant, at school that scratched your bum.
Was never able to enter a Blue Peter competition because we never had postcards. Aside from seaside ones, which I knew weren't the right sort.
A friends family once took me with them to Galts toys, which was craft heaven but I didn't get anything because I had no money. But now I knew where it was! I went back with another friend, walked miles, they wouldn't let us in because we needed a grown up.

Extracurricular activities which need to be paid for. Unless it was free, I wasn’t allowed to attend.

For me - eating out but in a proper restaurant as this was rare when younger.

@Veganuaryborn and @FictionalCharacter - grapefruits were posh and eaten in hotels, on holiday.

I was a 70s/80s child and DM:

• baked her own bread
• went to jumble sales (sometimes shops, but John Lewis)
• bought biscuits (digestives)
• had parties for both our entire classes for both our birthdays - same month.

DM would say she was poor but not really as we lived in a Victorian house, had a car/van and did go on holidays - albeit camping.

Clothes were rarely new - got much better when I turned 8/9 and we had a significant and unexpected family inheritance. I recall once, we went to stay with friends in Bradford-upon-Avon (when it wasn't posh!) and it poured with rain the entire holiday - Easter? We drove to I think Marlborough and got bought brand new Wellington boots because our old ones were too small. Same with clothes, she made a lot of mine but I was bought by stepdad (recall it) a denim pinafore by him in Kings Road, Chelsea when I was 7 or so.

The shameful thing was, my nana (DM's DM) was very well off but also had friends who shoplifted and would pass children's clothes onto me and DB or try to. As soon as DM found out about the shoplifting she refused to take the clothes! Nana basically was when my DM and DF divorced (we'd had a nice lifestyle, holidays abroad to Greece etc by airplane) "you've made your bed, you can lie in it" so DM had to let rooms for years so she could pay the mortgage on the house.

Oh - ice creams in London - on the one or two times we did have these in London - these were an exorbitant cost and avoided!

Pineapple. Tinned was a treat, but an actual pineapple was purchased once a year, for breakfast on Christmas Day.

Tiger bread

Didn't that used to be the definition of posh, having fruit in the house when nobody was ill ?
In the early 50s we were considered posh because we had a fridge, hence a supply of VImto lollies, we were very popular in our road.

Eating or drinking anywhere that wasn't home, or food cooked at home. My mums friend was in hospital a long time and I would have to go with mum to the hospital and sit somewhere and wait for her to go and see friend (I can't remember where I was to sit, I know I didn't see friend ) and we would go to M&S before and get a packet of picnic eggs, a packet of crisps and some of those dark chocolate rectangular biscuits. She could have left me for hours and I'd have been good for my share of that.
We had dinner in a pub for our birthdays (so 4x a year), a chinese takeaway once, and maybe fish and chips once a year. Never a drink in a cafe, a curry, or a meal in an actual restaurant. My parents weren't badly off, my mum just didn't approve - similarly bought cakes/biscuits etc were banned normally

Proper butter - only ever bought at Christmas (and put in the very posh butter dish). If we went to a restaurant (rarely) and you got one of those little foil packs of butter with a roll, my sister and I would eat the bread & butter as a starter and think it was the height of luxury.

Yes to Ferraro Rocher - definitely the poshest chocolate and only ever seen on really special occasions.

Fruit & Fibre cereal - we only ever had Cornflakes or Weetabix for years growing up and then all of a sudden, my mum started to buy Fruit & Fibre. Thought we were dead posh after that

At senior school - being allowed to take money to go to the canteen (instead of having to take a packed lunch). Thought it was the height of luxury not to have to have a packed lunch in a tupperware.

Fairy washing up bottles that they used on Blue Peter. Ours were own brand and the wrong shape. Oh the things that I still wouldn't have made, if I had a washing up bottle!
Vienetta was the height of luxury, and hard backed books.

Branded cereal ( especially if sugared), branded crisps. In fact having my own bag of crisps or can of pop as I always had to share with DSis.

Croissants for breakfast.

Sugar cubes
White bread
Those plastic clips that closed bread bags, we just knotted the bag and the clip seemed so fancy.
Patent leather shoes
Smooth peanut butter
Plates that matched- same for cutlery
Hair clips
My friend had a pantry in her kitchen- a whole cuboard that you could step in just for food- I thought they were the fanciest people ever. The mum also had a lazy susan and that solidified their status as incredibly posh.

I have a set of grapefruit knives. Grapefruit is not expensive in the US, so not generally considered posh.

We had an old fashioned house, with things like a kitchen range, dressers and a Belfast sink, when they weren't considered to be desirable. No fitted carpets, no shower.
I remember visiting a friend's house and being quite envious of the fitted kitchen, the shiny stainless steel sink and fitted carpets. It all looked so modern.

She also had matching white bedroom furniture, with purple and orange fittings (it was the 60s), which I thought was the height of chic. It would never have crossed my parents' minds to buy furniture specifically for the children's bedrooms.

Odd that my house looks not dissimilar to my patents' house now. I do have a shower, though.