What mundane item/experience was a luxury in your childhood home?

[FirstFallopians]

I remember being jealous that mum and dad had pillow protectors under their pillowcases. I thought they must be the height of decadence until we got an IKEA and I saw they were literally £1.50 each.

Real butter instead of margarine.

Ordering a takeaway and getting it delivered instead of picking it up. Debauched.

Buying any food whatsoever from Marks and Spencer’s was akin to doing your weekly shop in Harrods Food Hall.

Middle income family in the 1990s, no money worries and not otherwise frugal.

Anyone else grow up thinking very normal things were real luxuries?

A shower.

Orange juice

Vienetta

Loo roll.
We had to use newspaper and book pages so there was enough money for our parents 🤬 fags

Same as @Spidey66. A shower was an exciting and luxury thing. My parents didn’t get one until I was about 12 so until then it was baths and strip-washes and washing my hair in the sink. A few years after the shower we got a dishwasher and I felt like we were really posh and sophisticated then. We all gathered round in the kitchen to load it together and witness it being switched on for the first time. Such a thrill!

Having a car and using it to go to far flung other counties was seen as being very la di dah.

I still get a bit chuffed with myself now for having a car and being able to drive it all by myself.

Unbroken biscuits. We mostly had giant boxes of broken biscuits bought direct from the biscuit factory outlet shop. We weren't poor but there wasn't much disposable income until I reached my teens and my dad had reached a higher level in his career. My lovely parents prioritised days out over proper biscuits but I hated the constant covering of fine crumbs on the broken chocolate ones.

Eggs and butter in baking (my mother used to vet recipes and anything over 2 eggs and half a small pack of butter was deemed extravagant) Not that she used butter but it was the same thing with margarine.

Orange juice

Fizzy drinks

A microwave.We never had one,then we were given one.it was at least 10 years old,but it was such a game changer. Unfortunately,my mother then bought as many microwave meals as she could and pretty much stopped cooking after that.

a radio

Shower and more than one bathroom. We had a family of 6, all close in age all trying to get through one bathroom. I’ve no idea how we did it 😳😄

An old IBM PC that my mum got given by her work as it was going in the bin. We used it to play pixelated games and thought we were the bees-knees :)

Ribena instead of Sainsbury's orange squash. We were quite comfortable financially but I can remember my friend having Ribena and we didn't - I was so jealous.

Oh dear so many to list but for now, chocolate biscuits! When I think back we didn't even have a biscuit tin 😁 so biccies and any sweets at all were such treats.

Vienetta?! First time I had that was at a school friend's birthday party. I went home and asked could we have some.

It didn't happen until I left home and bought it myself. 👍

Tape recorder. I remember some older girls from up the road coming round so they could sing into it and hear it played back.
That was the extent our technological advances, I remember being so jealous of my cousin's games "console" (she also had a tennis court but that was by the by). Playing electric tennis with my auntie was a childhood high.

Being taken to a Theme Park, late 80s. We had a picnic. I remember it feeling epic, I have such fond memories. It must have cost a fortune to take us!

A shower that wasn't just a hose by the taps! Also a takeaway.

Broadband internet - we dial-up for such a long time.

A soda siphon
A suitcase with wheels
A hostess trolley (Grandma must have been really posh)
Ferrero Rocher

I was actually only thinking about this yesterday!
I grew up in the 60s/70s and was one of 5 with what we needed but no spare money..next door was a family with 7 DCs but a father who drank the wages...
If I was ever invited to stay for tea I thought it was so nice to have a loaf of bread and a jug of water on the table...
I probably went on and on about it and why didn't we do it...
One day my DM snapped at me that it was a way of filling up the kids so she could feed them less as their father drank all the money!
He was a horrible horrible man who kicked his dog regularly and knocked his wife and kids around..
When he died young I remember my DM saying she was 'pleased'... Shocked me at the time but as an adult I get it...

When I was about 15 my parents were able to afford 2 electric storage heaters. One went in the kitchen and the other on the landing so we all kept our bedroom doors open to let the warmth in. Bliss. Until then there was only one coal fire in the living room.

My best friend was allowed to order Levi’s from the Kay’s catalogue. We had BHS or C&A.

I often watch my kids guzzle strawberries all year round as a normal snack or part of breakfast. Getting a punnet in summer was a top treat growing up, with sugar and sometimes cream heaped on top (removing any health benefits).

Butter was only bought at Christmas

Buying a drink when out for the day. Actually having a drink in a cafe was unthinkable.
I remember being unbearably thirsty.

A car. When I was little only one person in our street had a car. It was a jag.
Also foreign holidays. My parents went to Belgium for a city break and it was like they were experienced globetrotters.