What luxuries do you have that your parents wouldn't have?

[GrabtharsHammer]

Following on from my thread about the reasons younger people can't buy houses due to iPhones and sky telly?

We have Sky Q and iPhones etc but I'm really thinking of things that would have been available in the 70s/80s but were real luxuries.

Mine would never have had a second car. We went out the the Harvester on special occasions, always the early bird menu and only about twice a year. Holidays were camping although we went to France twice to stay in a friend's house.

Day trips to Chessington etc were very rare, once every couple of years. We had piano lessons but that was our only 'extra', we wanted to ride horses so had to wait until we were old enough to work on a yard (12/13) and earn lessons.

I don't think we ever had a takeaway, the closest was a family bucket from KFC once in a blue moon.

Having said that, my dad smoked sixty a day until we were in our teens, and my mum always had a bottle of sherry a week.

What else? Black and white telly until we were about seven or eight (so 86/87). We had a video recorder but it was a huge luxury.

My dad had a computer but he was the only person we knew with one.

Once a fortnight we'd rent a video.

We had one pair of school shoes, one pair of trainers and wellies. I remember being bought a pair of red patent shoes for a party and thinking all my Christmases had come at once. Mum made most of our clothes.

How different is your experience of modern life to your parents? And so you think things are much cheaper or that priorities are so different?

Oh yes, my username should have reminded me - cream, milk that isn't skimmed and other fatty food. They were obsessive about low fat food (needless, as naturally thin people anyway).

Cars with electric Windows and air con! They just don't see why these are important to me. Their car has wind down Windows. Madness.

There is some competitive poverty boasting on this thread!

My parents were skilled working class but had a much better lifestyle in the 80s than we do now.

We did have takeaways, meals out, holidays abroad, meals with herbs and spices, 2 cars, spare bedroom in house, weekly cinema trips, weekly video rental, nice party dresses bought in boutiques, high protein diet. They had good quality furniture that didn't fall apart.

No chance of similarly educated young people these days having that lifestyle in their early 30s.

The difference from other on the thread is maybe that they only had one child and always both worked full time.

Why do you think it is competitive poverty boasting? I have mentioned poverty, but it certainly wasnt boasting, simply my life.
And I am older than you, but I find that certain skilled working class jobs can actually be better paid than some middle class jobs.

I don't think it is competitive poverty boasting. Things really were different in the 1980s and a lot of expectations and things that people do all the time now were unimaginable luxuries then and it was the same for everyone, it was just normal.

Takeaways were a few times a year, some people went abroad, but many people didn't. Before I was about 30, I went abroad only 2 or 3 times. Children with their own bedrooms were quite unusual, we had 5 DCs in a 3 bedroom house. We didn't have a car until I was 15, it was quite unusual for women to drive, so most families that had a car only had one. Food was quite basic, crisps, sweets and pop were rare treats, coffee shops didn't exist and McDonalds was also a rareity - a few times a year for birthdays.

Even though a lot of people complain about struggling or never having anything nice now, a lot of things have gone from rare treats and luxuries to standard/every day expenditures so some people are having a lot of luxuries, it's just that they see them as essentials/normal every day stuff.

Grew up in the 90s

Heating on when we feel we need it (though my upbringing still results in a kneejerk reaction of 'put another jumper on'!)

Tumble dryer

Travelling long distances on trains, not coaches

Holidays in anything other than a UK youth hostel

Eating out - especially for things like lunch at work

Broadband - I still remember dial up and being told to hurry up on the internet because it cost a penny a minute - and that was a lot!

A TV that works (I remember having a TV that was ancient - even then - where the colours had gone rather skew-whiff. It took ages before DM had the money to replace it...

Honestly though, I think the greatest luxury I have is not having to worry too much about money. I have a buffer in the bank, and that means that if something unexpected comes up, I can pay for it. If something breaks, I can fix / replace it. And if I really want something, I can usually afford it (within limits!)

That said, my parents also have luxuries that I have no short term hope of - like a mortgage!

Beebee

We weren't in poverty

But my parents were War babies - they'd be brought up with rationing, so frugality was what they were used to

The relative cost of things like takeaways and clothes was much greater then

Some things - like fresh Parmesan and fresh garlic weren't mainstream because holidays anbroad and therefore the demand for these "exotic" things had not yet taken off

Yoda re: 'exotic' ingredients.

We actually had asparagus growing like a weed in our garden, but as it was unheard of in 1970/1980s Yorkshire, we didn't know what to do with it so we just let it get massive and go to seed. I kick myself often about that one.

"Food was quite basic, crisps, sweets and pop were rare treats,"

Nah- you've got this the wrong way round in my experience.

We are all sorts of shite back on daily basis in the 80s that I wouldn't dream of feeding my kids now. All washed down with gallons and gallons of full-sugar Coke.

There was one girl in my class whose Mum actually put brown bread sandwiches and fruit in her packed lunch. This was very strange hippy behaviour back in the working-class 80s.

We loved it.

Holidays - same (camping)

Veg - we get a seasonal veg box delivery and a supermarket delivery weekly, my parents bought veg in the supermarket. Had never eaten avocado also.

Food - same (ish). Both no convenience or fast food. We have a lot more food and variety in our cupboards though. We make lots of different types of meals. My parents made traditional cottage pies and roasts.

Materialistic crap - We are into Marie kondo. We like life being uncluttered and aren't particularly materialistic. We have about the same clothes wise and a few more screens. Two lap tops (no telly) and adults only have android phones. My four kids don't have gadgets. They have quite a outdoors lifestyle but keep a fioot dipped in the world of technology.

Parenting styles - we are more child led then my parents who were quite Victorian and had old fashioned views about women

Child of the 70s - my parents had to be the "firsts"

First in their street to get colour tv
First to get a video recorder
First to get Sky tv

Owned large 5 bed house

2 cars never more than two years old, 1st August new plate one car would be replaced started off as Vauxhalls progressed to Mercs and BMWs

Privately educated their children

3 foreign holidays a year

I have less then they had and have I am a failure - this week it's because I don't have a 4K tv

BUT it was a treat to go round to American friends who always had Coca Cola in the fridge, that was something normally only consumed on holidays - there is now always Coca Cola in my fridge.

Saucy

Re the crisps etc, I think that depends whether or not you are a typical Mumsnet 'my DCs only eat healthy organic home cooked food and exceed their five a day by several orders of magnitude' person.

We didn't have loads of junk food because it was an unaffordable extra not because it was seen as unhealthy. We had money for normal basic food but not the in between meal treats, apart from once a week at most.

Wheras now, plenty of people drink loads of fizzy pop and drinking water only is often seen as unreasonably puritanical - people report that their DCs would rather die of thirst rather than drink plain water.

Just look in any supermarket near a high school before school or at lunchtime - a lot of the teens there will be buying large bottles of coke or even Red Bull type stuff and sharing packs of crisps and sweets.

Some won't do it every day but a lot will. Their parents will give them £3 or whatever for a school canteen meal and it will buy a can of energy drink, and whatever crisps/chocolate family bags are on offer for a pound that week.

Lots but the Ines that weren't available would be
Sky tv,internet,smartphones,tablets,laptops and most electrical items.

The luxuries that were available but they didn't have
Power steering
A car costing more than a months salary
A dishwasher
Central heating
A tv in the kitchen

My parents were better off than we are, so I can't think of many things we havevthat they didnt, apart from things that hadn't been invented in the 70s like tablets (but they now have better ones than we do as they have more money).

My parents had a car each but then they both worked, which was very unusual (I was born in 1966 wnen women tended not to work after children). We lived in a three bedroomed house but when I was very small it got extended to a 4 bedroom, so that my sister and I each had a bedroom and then there was also a spare bedroom. We moved when I was 10 to a house where my parents had an en suite, which seemed quite exotic. But my dh and i didn't live in a house with an en suite until ds was 9, so fairly similar.

Mum and Dad had a freezer, which lots of people didn't in the 60s/70s, but I think that that was because mum worked. We did have a parade of shops at the end of our road with a butcher, baker, greengrocer, newssgent, chemist,hairdresser, hardware store, and very small VG supermarket. I think most women locally shopped daily for food. I went past recently and the shops are now a Tesco Express, dry cleaner, estate agent etc.

My parents also had stuff like microwaves, dishwashers etc, ss soon as they were commercially available. My sister and I were educated privately. My dc attended the local state schools, even if we had wanted to educate them privately we couldn't afford it.

The one area where it is different for my parents and for us is holidays. When I was growing up we used to go on holiday to Devon and stay in B&Bs that always had weird rules about not being there in the daytime, so even if it rained (and it rains a lot in Devon) we had to sit on the beach until 4pm. We did go abroad occasionally, but camping in France. I have never been on a plane with my parents. Whereas my dc have had lots of foreign holidays, and flown with us several times. We have also done holidays in the UK but we always rent a cottage.
My parents do fly abroad on holiday now, though, and always fly business class if they are going long haul. I have never been able to afford business class.

I think my parents were relatively more affluent than us, and still are. Same with my dh, whose mother didn't work. His father earned £45k pa in 1970, which was a fortune. They had amazing houses with swimming pools, boats, new cars, skiing holidays, exotic summer holidays. Dh went to boarding school. When dh and I were first married and kids were small, in about 2000AD, we lived in a small terraced house, had one car between us and dh earned £35k which was much less than his father was earning 30 years earlier.

we had a takeaway every week back in the seventies. (before the shop opened we had those vesta boxes from asda) we don't do that now.

erm. had a tv in the seventies. ours is broken. we do have a computer though as compensation!

life for me in the seventies was probably better than my childrne's life. I lived in a house with garden they live in a flat with shared grounds.

Central heating
Weekly meals out/ coffees
More than one TV, phone
Eating out at an attraction, we always had a picnic.
Designer/nice clothes
Holiday home
Enough bedrooms, bathrooms
Utility room, dishwasher, tumble dryer.
Traveling/Luxury holidays when young or with dc

They have the luxury of never having a mortgage as had a house bought for their wedding.

What's shocking about the argos catalogue is that many of the items are about the same price now.

These days, if your £15 kettle dies, you get another one.

In 1985 if the cheapest kettle is £15 then of course you'll try to repair it because £15 is worth a lot more.

When people say children drank only milk or water, and no squash, I wonder if their parents imposed that rule due to money or health.

We drank squash. Squash was cheaper than milk. Drinking milk was only for when we accidentally had more milk than we needed.

Central heating and double glazing. We only had one fire in the living room and the gas hobs in the kitchen. Remember ice on the windows and wearing coats and fingerless gloves when I wanted to sit in my bedroom and write to my penpals. My parents still don't have central heating or double glazing, the housing association offered to put it in but they don't want it! But I do find our house too hot, dh is always moaning it's too cold.

Parents didn't drive or have a car until I was in my teens. We walked everywhere, I still like walking. Didn't go abroad til I was 16, we stayed with family in Scarborough or went to pontins.

It really is much the same. Other than some things weren't invented so we didn't have them. We did have holidays, I had a pony in my teens so not exactly a history of deprivation and belt tightening.

There was one girl in my class whose Mum actually put brown bread sandwiches and fruit in her packed lunch. This was very strange hippy behaviour back in the working-class 80s

I wonder if that was me :) We always had brown bread and only had juice, no squash.

If I take the family set up as a comparison - 1 child aged 3 - it was 1980 and we had black and white TV, no dishwasher or microwave, only had foreign holidays as had relatives abroad, so stayed with them, weekends away or day trips were rare and again usually revolved around family visits. Our diet was also far more simple than today - generally meat and 2 veg with no convenience items like jars of sauce. Eating out was a once or twice a year thing and takeaways maybe once every 2 or 3 months. Alcohol was reserved for special occasions or when we had guests. We only had 1 car but then so do dh and I, currently.

Going by parental age, when my mum was my age it was 1991 and they had 1 teenager, 1 pre-teen. By then we had a microwave, dishwasher, colour TV, Vcr, and second car. Our diet was more similar to now, but we still didn't eat out frequently and I can only remember 1 foreign holiday that wasn't to family when I was about 14. We had a caravan by then so occasionally had a weekend away in that, but would never have stayed in a hotel or b&b. I went to a dance class that was 50p a week and my brother did football on a Saturday morning so my parents would have had to buy my shoes and his kit but that was all for extra-curricular activities. From talking to friends, kids these days do more and comparatively more expensive activities.

Now my parents are retired and mortgage free and enjoy the same, if not more, of the luxuries we do. Only thing they're not fussed by is Sky TV (though if it were up to me we'd make do with Freeview too!)

I’ve followed this thread and the original one about young people buying houses with a mixture of awe and despair.

I was born in 1975, but into a British expat family in what was then viewed as the developing world, but now has a much higher income per head and standard of living than the UK. Although we were fairly unremarkably middle class and lived normally for that part of the world, we enjoyed probably higher income and lower costs than an equivalent family here. When I arrived in England for boarding school in 1985, when my parents were the age I am now, I was actually shocked just how poor and backward the UK generally was.

We ate out regularly – often at the country club. Tropical fruit juices, garlic and spices were normal whereas a Fray Bentos pie or Marmite was the exotic luxury, we had real coffee, cars with airconditioning (or at least one of them did), and domestic appliances such as dishwahers and tumble driers even though we had live-in staff in the servants quarters of our 3,000 sq ft home. Holiday allowance was six months every two and a half years (a throwback to the days of taking the boat home), so they were very long haul, long duration holidays. My parents funded all of this, and put two kids through boarding school, from a single income and associated benefits package. My DF left his northern grammar school at 16 with a few O-levels.

I probably own a few more clothes than they did and replace them more frequently, but that’s probably because I have to dress for seasons here and clothes definitely don’t last as long these days, rather than anything else. And there are a few ‘luxury’ things which I acquired at an earlier stage of life than they did – my crystal glassware collection springs to mind, but that was an unwanted gift to my DM when I was 20 which got given straight to me for my first home, so it probably doesn’t count.

Of all the tangible ‘stuff’ that I own now the only things I can think of which my parents didn’t have at my age, but would have been available at the time, is an espresso machine at home and a cordless handset for the landline. Of all the things which have been invented since, DF and PILs have newer, better ones than we do.

There are two non-tangible luxuries I consume far more of than they did though. I have the luxury of not having to worry about the costs of international phone calls thanks to inclusive packages. When I was at boarding school I was limited to speaking to parents for ten minutes at half term because of the cost.

I also have the luxury of education (two degrees, from globally-recognised universities) and access to knowledge that my parents could only dream of. They and I have invested vast sums of time and money for this in the belief that it would allow me to at least get remotely close to the standard of living my parents had, and still have after 18 years of retirement, but in truth that lifestyle seems further away than ever.

That knowledge, unfortunately, has also given me the luxury of knowing that the lifestyles, and in particular the welfare and pensions system, my parents’ generation enjoy was never sustainable: it is simply not possible, as in DF’s case, to pay 5% of your career salary in for 35 years and expect that to fund 60% of your final salary from the age of 54 until you die, which might well be another 35 years. It is my generation’s wealth creation which is making up the shortfall, which means that we cannot save for our own retirements or in many cases make ends meet, never mind piss our wealth up the wall now.

“But you should be fine,” says DF from the poolside of the four bedroomed villa in Southern Europe where he lives alone on a pension of nearly 50k after tax, while moaning that when he comes to stay with us for a month without contributing a penny to bills or food he has to sleep in the spare room where we store our own things because we’re stuck in a 800 sq ft shoebox which we couldn’t afford to buy again. He is still baffled that I am poorer than him, because he genuinely thinks I should be able to land a 100k a year job by walking up to any employer I fancy and asking for one.