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?

My mum cut mine once...After that I had every haircut of my life until I went to Uni in the local hair salon.

It was for the best.

It looks like in the 1970s wealth was more equal than now so more people in the middle ranges - fewer very poor or very rich

With growing inequality we have a lot more people - people who grew up in the mid ranges - now in the lower ranges - which is why sone people compare their childhood to now and see things worse

The cost of living crisis is really only what has changed for you over the last year or two - or for those whose jobs were hit by covid, since 2019

Has it flipped that much? My first house (an ex council terrace) cost 10x my salary at the time. The same house would be about £300k now and a similar job probably pays around £30k.

My first salary was £4500 and involved a commute into London that cost £70 pm. That journey is £16 per day now.

I apologize, i thought you were one of those people who perpetuate that industry by buying such puppies.

I'm not sure. Expectations certainly have changed. Kids shared bedrooms when I was a kid. You pretty much only had a room of your own if you were an only child. Clothes was mainly hand me downs. In my case, they were the neighbours eldest, neighbours youngest and my elder sisters before they were mine - this is normal. There were not the places to go which they are now, so days out were the park or the woods to play. You took food and did not buy it when out. No-one expected take away coffee, regular new clothes when not needed, more than one pair of shoes at a time, bought books (you went to the library). etc. I didn't even know of such things as take aways until my teens. Holidays in the UK were the norm and it did not make you stand out if you didn't have one at all. Now people feel hard done by without some of these things and to be fair, many of the local facilities have closed or been built on. There are no mobile libraries now which was a mainstay of my childhood, for example. It sounds like some people who had 90's childhoods had a lot more - perhaps a blip decade and therefore comparing yourself to that may look very different than comparing yourself to the 1970s?

I’m a 70s child. Housing was definitely comparatively cheaper then. 1 wage mortgage for 25 years the norm. Luxuries, and I include clothing and snack foods in that are proportionally cheaper now.

Same here. I had my first meal out at the age of 11 at the Berni Inn (complete with curly straw)!

my kids have way more treats than I ever did.

Omg that’s ridiculous! I’ve taken all 3 of my DDs for hair cuts this week and it was £30 all up.

To get my hair done, half a head of foils, cut and style is £73, I have long hair. A full head of foils is an extra £10.

Depends on how old you are ! The cinema was out of our budget when I was little. Everything is so much cheaper today than it was when I was a
child. Houses are perhaps the only exception.

Our cinema is cheaper now than when i was a kid, £5 a ticket the last time I went in March.

Exactly this. You must be about my age.

Fizzy pop from the pop man and orange juice from the milk man.

This for me too! All mega expensive whereas we go quite a bit now!

You obviously had money in the 90s Op - we didn't all have that. To be fair, we didnt expect it either. My parents cut our cloth accordingly and we had food, clothing and warmth (both parents working 2 plus jobs at all times!) and we didn't expect these luxuries at all. People knew what they could or could not afford - no entitlement in the 90s and I think that's the big difference to today. Everyone is so bloody entitled abs thinks the world owes them a living!

I agree with this. I appear to have had a great deal less than OP and did not feel that meant I didn't have a good childhood. School provide swimming lessons - and I think it's good that they are required to do that. Cheap pet - yes would be good if everyone could have a hamster and I think a family should be able to go to the cinema a couple of times a year in this day and age but expecting to be, e.g. able to go to the cinema every 2 weeks is missing the point of a treat.

There's an outdoor heated pool near me that charges €150 for a family season ticket, unlimited swimming for 4 people which I always think is amazing value. It's only open during the summer months though thanks to our Irish weather.

I think it depends how old you are. Life has changed.
Sixty-odd years ago, when I was a child, I went to stay with "rich" relatives and - in my eyes - they lived a life of absolute luxury.

What were these luxuries? Well, they had things called continental quilts (duvets) on their beds, they had a washing machine (my mother washed all clothes by hand in the sink), they even had a food mixer machine which I thought was magic. And a TV....we didn't have a TV at home, nor a telephone. And the most luxurious of all was that they had central hearing.....real radiators, we had to light a fire at home. Oh, and wall-to-wall carpets, we had floorboards and rugs although the 'best' room (which we weren't allowed to go in) did have full carpet.

None of the above would count as luxury today, not one bit.

n 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.

Agreed. It worries me quite a lot that we've both got good jobs and we don't take our children swimming or to the cinema or for haircuts sometimes, purely because of the cost.

How do people on two minimum wage jobs manage?

Or one?

Or benefits?

I was a 90's child. My memory obviously isn't great I guess because I don't remember much from before I was 12 and I definitely don't remember prices of specific activities.

I do remember going to see Titanic four or five times in the cinema when it came out so cinema must have been very obtainable, I was 10 years old then. We had a small old fashioned local cinema, it didn't have a popcorn machine or anything like that.

We had Sky TV, I was the only person in my friends group that had it so that definitely felt like a luxury. I loved the music channels, I'd have them playing in the background for hours just waiting for my favourite music video to come on. These days kids have access to so many different streaming services.

When I was around 13-14 I started a weekend job. I remember getting the bus to our closest big town every weekend with my friends and I'd spend most of my money on CD's. So jealous of young people today getting to stream music for free!

I don't think I felt lacking in anything growing up but my kids definitely have more today. Whether that's due to different financial means or more availablity of luxuries or increased expectations.

Definitely the other way round for me too! I was a child in the 90s and we hardly ever went out to eat, the cinema was a once or twice a year thing, we only ever went on holiday to visit family (twice in my whole childhood). We were not being poverty stricken at all (1x doctor, 1x SAHP), it just wasn’t the norm back then.

My nephews by comparison are taken out somewhere every single weekend - soft play, cinema, theme park, bowling, etc., they eat out at least every week, and they had travelled overseas more by the age of 5 than my siblings and I had by age 20.

Lots of people don't have central heating. Literally millions.

And some of the people who do have it can't afford to put it on.

And whenever you watch or read something about people who are really struggling they often don't have carpets.

Laundrettes exist in areas where enough people don't have washing machines.

Internet is necessary for modern life but still millions don't have it. A million more just cancelled it.

Other way round for me as well. I was a child in the 70s.

However due to changes like the cost of housing and a general shift of wealth from the young to the old I can imagine there being far more people with young children now who are excluded from the privileges that others are enjoying. There are vast numbers of thriving coffee shops in my small town but the customers tend to be older even on non working days. It might be my imagination but I don’t think there are as many mums with little ones there as when my own were small 15 years ago.

Another factor is how much money you have/earn compared to your parents. I earn much more than mine ever did which will have an impact obviously

The number of people bringing up a family in a flat with no garden and no pets worries me.

A garden to play in doesn't seem like a luxury for a child.

Having a childhood pet doesn't feel like a luxury.

Having to move all the time because the rent keeps going up or the landlord has sold up again seems the opposite of a stable childhood.