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!

God, I remember that. Hovis felt luxurious.

I thought I was the only one who got to drink vegetable cooking water as a treat!! And also the wishbone, I'd forgotten that one

Lovely memories, a huge treat was sharing a fresh pomegranate with my Mum. We had a half each.
Oh yes, I remember being given a half pomegranate and a sewing needle to pick out the seeds! I suspect it was mainly to keep me quiet/occupied.

My children have no interest in the wishbone 😕

Corn on the cob, served as a starter with this cob spikes to hold onto and loads of butter.

when in holiday huge slices of watermelon, many photos of us eating these as kids on balconies

I was given the end of the baguette to keep me quiet during the weekly food shop. I remember it tasting delicious, although it must have been totally dry 😂. That and getting to choose what flavour squash we were having that week made big Tesco so exciting!

A Safeways prawn cocktail sandwich.

A pepperami.

Hubba bubba bubble gum. Put the whole packet in your gob at once!?

Similar thing with chewits. The cola ones were my fave. I think they were 10p a pack so you have a fairly decent sugar binge on your hands with modest pocket money!

Ooh yes being given half a pomegranate and a pin. Definitely kept us quiet.

I seem to remember the needle would go black...

Oh yes, Vienetta came out for every special occasion. It was very posh.

Bi-annual trip to Glasgow for clothes. One new summer dress and sandals and in the Autumn it was to Cowcaddens for a fur coat, why on earth i don't know. High tea at one of the nice hotels.
My son asked a customer in his bar what he was celebrating as he had ordered a fresh orange and lemonade, the customer was a bit confused until my son explained that was what we used to celebrate in our house when they were young.

Banana's and custard. My big brother was diabetic so anything sweet was a huge treat.

At the risk of sounding like the Monty Python sketch, my treat was not having to spend a day of my half term picking up potatoes in the rain.
Grew up on a farm.
To be fair Im so old we only had three TV channels, no shops or McDonald's or KFC out in the sticks, so most normal things kids have any day of the week would have been like a wish from Aladins lamp for us.
I was re reading Malory Towers recently and felt envious of their treats, and that was written in post war Britain when rationing was still in effect.

Vienetta was an elite. top-shelf treat, closely followed by that chocolate sauce that goes hard when you put it on ice cream.
Chicken 'nibbles' (i.e. wings etc) were also a real treat.

Choosing a carboard box to play with from 'Fine Fayre'. I got so excited about it, would use it for creative play with my dolls etc.

I still drink the cabbage water, these days i add a twist of pepper.

Sorry I haven't RTFT so apologies if it's been said before but Arctic Roll. I learnt from this very forum that these have disappeared from shops. It was such a massive treat to have Arctic Roll and I don't know how my Mum got them home from the Co-op where she worked without them melting on the bus journey home!
My Grandad also came for Sunday lunch most weeks and he had a sort of tan leather Gladstone bag that would contain goodies. He worked well into his 80s and latterly at the Safeway in his town where he'd get bargain discounts (probably out of date stuff, thinking about it). It was always a treat if he brought sweet cigarettes (!), Heinz sponge pudding in a tin that was shared between 5 of us, and ...drum roll....tinned potatoes, which I loved. I hear they're still very good to use in curries etc but I've not eaten them for years.

For quite some years, chocolate bars. We weren't even especially poor.

In the early '70s, it was Sunday afternoon tea time at my Nanny and Grampy's old cottage. We would have tinned pineapple chunks and 'thick cream'. I found out as an adult that the 'thick cream' was Nestle's tinned sterilised cream. It's been discontinued now, which is a real shame as I still loved it!

Into the late '70s, I went to tea at a friend's house and I experienced cheesecake for the first time. It was a Green's packet cheesecake mix and I thought my friend's Mum was so modern and bohemian for having such an out-there and decadent pudding. Only homemade steamed puddings and suet jam roly-polies in our house!

Matey bubble bath - It really was a treat to get this, I remember I used to use it so sparingly so it would last 😆

Pudding rice with prunes. We only had dessert/pudding on a Sunday. Usually tinned fruit with Dream Topping(!) or Bird’s Trifle. But every few weeks we had pudding rice with prunes and I LOVED it. It was a perfect balance of sweet and sour. If I served this to my DC they would think it was some sort of cruel practical joke🤣

Omg I completely forgot about this, I loved the dandelion and burdock

Angel Delight, cups of bovril.

Lunch at the BHS cafe. We literally never ate out apart from once a year here when we went to Poole.

@MajorProcrastination I can relate, to a degree at least.