What things that were little luxuries when you were a child are now big luxuries due to cost of living?

[Holdontightly]

When I was little, things like cinema tickets, or swimming lessons or owning a dog or cat were fairly routine parts of childhood. Most kids in my bog standard state school had treats on this level, cost wise - obviously there have always been a group of people that can't stretch to any of these treats, but it was much more unusual. They seemed very affordable.

Nowadays, all of these things seem vastly more expensive relatively speaking, imo.

Is there any stuff like this you have thought of?

I'd say the opposite. What were considered luxuries or occasional treats when I was a child are now taken for granted.

You'd need to be quite well off to smoke these days and not go without essentials.

I don't know how all these people are affording dogs these days either? My two cats cost enough in food.

I take my own cinema treats.. so much cheaper.

Fish and chips - now as expensive as any takeaway
Musicals - always expensive but not like £100 for a shit view ticket
Zoos, theme parks - I earn a decent amount of money and I balk at them
Funfairs
Drinks in a pub - at £10-11 a medium glass of wine, again it’s almost completely unaffordable.

it’s all depressing

Pop concerts. I went to see Culture Club at Leicester Polytechnic in the early eighties. They'd just got to no 1 with 'Do you really want to hurt me?' and the tickets were £1.75! I went to see Lizzo recently and the tickets were nearly £90...

When I was a kid me and my friend used to get a swimming pass for the school holidays, once you were 8 you were allowed to go swimming without an adult. It cost £7 for unlimited swimming for the whole 6 weeks summer holidays 😂 can you imagine. It now costs me £4.50 to take my 4 year old once! We used to go at least 3 times a week. We’d walk all the way there and back by ourselves too which I’m sure wouldn’t happen now!

Living in a house with a garden, and having pets.

This is really interesting and shows how being deprived of something you’re used to having generates more resentment than not having it in the first place.

I was a child of the 60s, teenager in the 70s. I didn’t holiday abroad until I was nearly 30, we took picnics and a flask rather than use cafes or restaurants or take-aways, soft-play didn’t exist, swimming lessons were during school-time, clothes were handed down the family and new clothes bought only when absolutely essential.

We weren’t poor. This was how normal people lived.

I know this is a bit “we used to live in a cardboard box” and I’m angry that some people can’t afford food and power, but I’m a bit eye-roll about some of the examples on this thread.

But actually overall I agree with pp that it’s the opposite now really. People do all sorts on a regular basis now that would have been a very special one off treat in my childhood - eating out at a pizza restaurant, going to the local zoo/legoland etc, even stuff like ice skating was reserved for a special Christmas trip only. Despite the COL crisis people have never spent so much money on leisure and “discretionary” purchases.

In my experience it’s is the other way round

Bus and train rides.

Our grandmother used to take us on buses and trains all the time. For fun.

Sometimes we were going somewhere, sometimes just going for a ride.

When people complain that in the past a family could live on and buy a house on one wage this is the kind of life they had on that one wage.

Expecting to buy a house on one wage while having all the luxuries of activities, holidays etc is not at all realistic.

Fish and chips - cost is outrageous now and on a par with eating in an actual restaurant using China plates and cutlery

99 ice creams - more like 399 now

Fairground rides

Baking seems much more expensive nowadays.

And flipping fish and chips for a family of 5 is about £45-£50

A 99 is £3.75

I only remember going to the cinema once or twice before I was a teenager. I find the cinema very affordable now, it's only recently gone up from £5 to nearer £6 at Vue, it used to be much more. I also only went on holiday twice in my whole childhood, my children have experienced much more travel.

We didn't really get expensive treats. I used to buy a lot of magazines with pocket money, now they are so expensive that I wouldn't dream of it. We used to buy a lot of books and a lot of record singles that cost about £1.75. Albums we'd only get for Christmas or birthday!

We always had pets but they were never insured, no one really did that then. We only bought flea stuff etc if we saw fleas as we didn't have spot on ones! The one thing that is scarily expensive now is the vets, even in the 90s, 2000s, it was much more affordable.

I was a child in the 70s/80s.

Lurpak

Going out for dinner. Used to be a twice a month thing.. now it's once in a blue moon. And a huge treat.

Jinx!

I think there as probably a period in the 90s/00s where eating out, entertainment, holidays etc was quite cheap relative to wages. As a child in the 70s and early 80s there were a lot of things that I saw as a huge treat that were more of an everyday thing when my DC were small. I think we're going back towards that now. For example, as a child any sort of takeaway or meal out was a big treat. When my DC were small (00s) we'd have one about once a week. Nowadays it's a rare treat again as takeaway for the 4 of us is £40-£50 and a event the cheapest meal out is at least £100. Holidays are the same.

I know this is a bit “we used to live in a cardboard box” and I’m angry that some people can’t afford food and power, but I’m a bit eye-roll about some of the examples on this thread

Of course it is urgent and pressing when people can't afford food and energy bills, and that is very clearly a priority issue - but I do think that people should be able to have a few treats and luxuries in their daily lives.

Being so poor you can never (or very rarely) have anything you enjoy is a miserable way to live and I feel for people in that boat.

In my opinion, having enough money to go to see a film or pay for swimming lessons or have a family pet should not be crazily unrealistic dreams. They're not in the same league as a lifestyle expectation of Caribbean holidays and a new Merc and clothing everyone in designer labels.

It just seems like absolutely everything is prohibitively expensive compared to the prosperous bubble of the 90's, maybe.

I grew up in the 70's so it was pretty much the same! Heating too expensive, no fast food or treats - mum used to make cakes etc, fizzy pop was a treat as where fish and chips (between 2 as that was all mum could afford - she wouldn;t have any).

Like others though - we used to go to the Sat matinee at the flicks every month - when CB came in! We'd get 2 films for around 50p - usually black a white children's films (Escape From The Dark was my favourite).

Also bus fare - I'd pay 10p for an all day ticket and just ride around on the bus with my mates.

If I think about the bills we have now compared to when I first moved out of home it's very different now.

In the 90's I had rent, utilities, council tax, telephone line, train ticket, car insurance etc.

Add to that now I have:
Broadband
3 Mobile phones (me, husband, DSS)
Spotify
Netflix
Amazon prime
2 cars to tax, maintain and insure (because 2 working adults)
Tech, 1 x iPad each + 1 smartphone for each adult + Apple Watch for me
Gym membership x 2 (only just taken up again post lockdown) but back in the 90's I used to PAYG at a circuit and aerobics class each week
Doggy daycare 2 days a week because again, 2 working adults vs one when I was a kid
We have a few extravagances in all of the above but we rarely eat out, are fortunate to have not needed to pay for uni but I suspect we'll need to help DSS significantly if he wants to get on the housing ladder + we pay for two lots of commute fees. I WISH we had a cleaner with no housewife as my mum was when I was a kid.

It's a very different set of financial priorities now.

Fairground rides are ridiculous now! I won't go to any place that you have to pay on each ride for. But they've lost their atmosphere too - I remember them being absolutely packed and the rides were 10/20p!

We also used to play a game - big gang of kids - all give 10p and a match box - the one who could fill the match box with the most interesting things would win 50P - would cost a lot more now

Same. My kids get alot more treats than I did. Some of that is due to income disparity. But actually alot of kids we know also do.