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?

80s kid, actually my parents probably had more luxuries than I do now, including:

Owning their own house with garden and all kids having their own bedroom
Holiday abroad once a year
Latest computer or console each year (admittedly of the Amiga/NES variety rather than what we have now!)
Masses of Xmas presents
Pudding every evening (so much sugar around in the 80s!!)
At least 4 pets, if not more

My parents worked incredibly hard to provide all this stuff for us all. Tbh I have luxuries now (in some ways much more so cos of availability/affordability of modern tech etc) but prob live more simply. my fave childhood memories weren't about this stuff - they're about the excitement of getting really big boxes at Xmas to play with (ignoring what's inside!), going on long muddy walks in the woods and swimming in the freezing sea

Haha brown bread girl could have been me too! We also had a yoghurt maker and I used to take a tuperware tub of plain yoghurt with a blob of jam in, when all my friends had pots of Ski. I hated it, especially the time it leaked and the dinner ladies were all tutting "why can't her mum just put in a normal pot of yoghurt like everyone else?" Never allowed chocolate bars either, we had cereal bars when they weren't really a thing yet. Think you could only buy them in Holland and Barrett!

Ha! None. We have a lovely life, don't get me wrong, but I have nothing they didn't, I was born in the 80ies. In fact we probably have a bigger mortgage than they ever did on our tiny house. They had a 5 bed detached on the beach, a yacht, numerous sailing dinghies and accoutrements, 2 kids through private school...on one salary. A good salary, but not 6 figures. We never went on holiday apart from sailing, but we don't now either other than camping. In retirement (dad retired at 54) they have a higher income than we do, with no mortgage, and a load of capital from numerous increases in house price. They've just dropped 60k on a new yacht too. I don't begrudge them it, and I love them dearly...but the idea that DH might be able to retire in 12 yrs is laughable, let alone the thought of us having any luxuries they didn't. I guess some things cost us less, general prices of clothes etc have come down, we have the internet and stuff.

Haha, I think this only works if you were a child of the 50/60/70s.

I was born in 1991 and my parents had way more than we do now, they actually managed to buy a house, on one wage, have more than one long weekend camping per year and didn't have to buy value/basics food products.

They even managed this whilst drinking a litre of vodka every night. Not that I want a litre of vodka, but I'd be hard pushed to afford one a week, let alone 7.

Saucy, I think you had the same kind of working-class upbringing as me.

I had sweets, crisps and pop all the time. And lots of convenience food like crispy pancakes, frozen bagged stir-fries, Mr Kipling cakes etc. Anyone who had brown bread or much fresh fruit and veg was a bit weird and 'posh'.

Materially my parents had more luxuries than I do. Growing up I had lots of holidays, days out, treats. They owned a house from age 19, dad built up a business and they had a vehicle each for everyday as well as a weekend one.
I rent and earn enough for a comfortable life but not like theirs!

What they didn't have (and still don't) that I couldn't do without is security. My parents spend everything that they have. No debt but no real savings either. My dad has no retirement pot and if something catastrophic happened to them now they'd struggle massively.
I'm the opposite. Ours cars are old, we have a mix of new and second hand furniture, we have treats and holidays but not exotic expensive ones, but we have money stashed away towards a house deposit and another pot for 'just in case.'

I was born in 1991 and my parents had way more than we do now, they actually managed to buy a house, on one wage, have more than one long weekend camping per year and didn't have to buy value/basics food products.

But then you are only 25. I was born in 77 and DH and I are much better off now than we were at that age (and imagine parents were at that age)

If you were born in the 90s, you are really still very young. Lots of people struggle financially in their 20s

Yes, lots of us now in our forties are better off than we were in our twenties because we had something resembling career progression based on merit which gradually made us better off.

I think, though, that there is a strong likelihood that for a large proportion of people those days are gone.

we had fizzy pop everyweek from the top shops. (it was cheaper there than from the corona van)

I know I'm young, I'm 25, my dad is only 43 now though, so was my age during my childhood.

Central heating .. oh those cold mornings when you had ice inside your window pane!
Double glazing
Carpet in all rooms
Colour tv
Automatic washing machine
Second car
Duvets .. we had horrid sheets and a blanket
Separate showers, most people only had a bath
Ensuite
Taxis
Takeaways, fish and chips were a real treat

And yet, looking back, we had a better standard of living than most if my friends.

Takeaways, meals out, cars, treats on the shopping, my own house, now tv, Netflix...

When I was growing up (born in the 80's) my mum was a single parent working all hours she could for us to live on £20 a week. Times were hard but now we both have good lives and are very close

I just meant at age 25 if you have been to University, you havent been working for many years, so there can be big variations in wealth at this age, that will balance out.

That's a good point, (not true in my case, couldn't afford uni and have worked since 13) but I can see why that would be the case for a lot of people.