What did you/your family consider a treat growing up that really wasn’t?

[ClassicStripe]

I’ve just randomly remembered that when I was younger me and my sister thought it was the most amazing treat to have our mum’s bath water after she was finished with it. She didn’t even use bubble bath so it was literally just lukewarm water but we absolutely loved it. This was in the early 90’s and we had regular hot warm bubble baths which makes it even stranger that we were so pleased by using mum’s old water!

It sounds like your childhood was a lot more middle class than mine, crumbly cheese and piano lessons sound better than my weekly 10p pick and mix. 😀

My father used to work for rowntree mackintosh (later nestle)

We would get 'waste' sweets (massive bags for pennies) as long as you didn't mind that they may be a bit gummed up or the packaging was plain,you could make your pocket money go a lot further

The real treat was anything but rowntrees sweets-cadburys was the ultimate treat (and almost unheard of in our house)

I didn't taste a Cadbury creme egg until I was late teens

I think we only graduated to fresh orange juice when I was nearly a teenager. Previously our Sunday treat was powdered orange juice (Apeel)

Rise and Shine.

Powdered orange juice, we thought it was the bees knees!

Possibly Duralex brand. It was everywhere.

Fish fingers
Birds trifles
A proper dress from a posh shop (bought by an auntie - my mam made all my clothes - I was 8)
Chewing gum from tiny vending machines
Nestle chocolate from train station vending machines
Boullion from the vending machine at the baths (I didn't know it was just Bovril)

Eaten pip by pip with a pin.

I used to love that. I had forgotten about it.

Eating cold toasted tea cakes for breakfast in the car on the drive to our holiday - pre most motorways so a very long journey! I so looked forward to our first rest break!

White bread and butter!

Any sort of fast food thing really. In the 80s it was really unusual to have a McDonald’s or kfc regularly. Certainly not as much as we do today (and I include myself in that now; we eat out a lot). It was always a rare thing.

Bit bottle of R Whites lemonade from the off license and also Pringles at Xmas .

Jelly Babies. Poor Man's Trifle (a la granny): bought trifle sponges, jam, bananas and custard (made by granddad, who generally didn't cook but was the acknowledged expert on custard. Bird's custard) - nothing else (well, a bit of pouring cream). Fancy Xmas trifle with tinned fruit and sherry was a let-down. Picnics with granny and grandad with a basket with dark-green plastic plates, cups, salt and pepper shakers etc. Parents thought a "picnic" was sandwiches in an old ice-cream tub, bless their prosaic unimaginative hearts.

Sitting in a haze of pipe smoke while granddad told stories. Have never smoked myself but still don't mind the smell of tobacco.

Sliding around in the back of granddad's early-70s Vauxhall which didn't have belts in the back. When VERY small (it was gone by the time I was five), being in dad's original mini that didn't have belts anywhere and sometimes if he went over a bump too fast (he went everywhere too fast) my head would hit the ceiling. Being strapped in (in mum's car) was so dull - honestly, parents, making you use a car seat, if there happened to be one available (no matter if not, I mean let's not get obsessive about it). What killjoys.

The mobile library coming down our street every Friday afternoon. The two librarians who worked in it were the loveliest people as well. Do they even exist anymore, those libraries? And comics - my mum bought us two every week and my granny bought another couple. We used to walk into her house and dive on them! Bunty, Twinkle, Tammy. Misty. I also loved it when people would give my parents bags of children's books and annuals when they were having a clear-out, those bags of books were so exciting.

Fridays were paydays for my parents so it was the weekly shop day. We were allowed a bar of chocolate and a can of fizzy drink each. Simple things, but they seemed special.

Arctic roll or those little frozen mousse you’d get. Felt like a treat for pudding.

God, I’d forgotten about these, they were lovely! A weird texture, almost rubbery, lovely! Weirdly grey tinged too? @SilentBob

We never had soft drinks when we were little kids, even at Xmas- Mum wanted us to only drink milk if thirsty for the calcium etc. Not a terrible thing I now think!

But for a couple years, just for the summer hols and when we were older, we’d have this orange drink made from powder, called Apeel. I think it must have come from Kwik-Save 😁. It was with hindsight not very nice, and gritty, but we looked forward to it so much! My grown cousins would have Coca Cola at Xmas only and we were allowed a glass when we visited. Heaven!

We only had KFC once a year. A trip to see Blackpool Illuminations and a bargain bucket on the way home.
Getting 20p on a Saturday evening and a trip to the pick and mix at the local petrol station. Then I got to eat them while I watched Dr Who with my Grandad.
Picking wild garlic or blackberries or any other wild fruit with my Grandmother and looking for trout in the river for my (other) Grandad at the same time.

I remember my parents going out to dinner sometimes to the local Chinese restaurant, and they used to bring us kids back a bag of prawn crackers. We thought this was a real treat.

I remember Rise and Shine 😁 Loved it at the time, can’t imagine what I’d think of it today. 😯

Yep, Viennetta. And Ferrero Rocher. We had them only at Christmas.
I would probably argue though that they WERE a treat, and still are, in that if I buy myself one now it's always with a certain thrill and glee. When I was a kid we simply couldn't afford them at any other time.

Coke with ice-cream in it

Occasionally, when my dad came home from the pub he’d bring me a cocktail umbrella. I was quite taken with them - they were like dolls’ or fairies’ umbrellas.

Oh, and dream topping! Also at Xmas. Such a weird thing to go for now, it didn’t keep that well once whipped up and frankly more effort than cream cream?

Not at home but at school. I went to a private junior school so most families (unlike mine) were not short of a bob or two (some of the houses were mansions). Once a week, or fortnight, we'd go swimming and have lunch in our classroom on our return. The excitement among the kids is there were bread rolls on offer was ridiculous 😂 (Think they were left from staff lunches as we never got them otherwise and there was never enough for everyone so it wasn't as though they were deliberately made for us.)