What normal things did you not have or not have in your house growing up?

[Fairypowder13]

We ran out of kitchen roll today and it got me thinking, growing up we never had kitchen roll in the house. I can remember visiting people who did and thinking that it was quite posh.

I grew up in a very poor home and we were always warm, clean, clothed and fed, but also lacking so many basic things. My parents always had money for cigarettes and alcohol though 🙄

I can remember having to have my hair washed with washing up liquid at times, I had very long hair and my mum never bought conditioner so you can imagine how knotty my hair would be. I did eventually get access to hair conditioner after begging my mum after I’d seen it advertised.

No cushions on the sofas.

No family holidays or day trips. Didn’t see the sea until I was 16.

No fabric softener for washing.

Never had a bed or mattress of my own, had one that was given to us until I was old enough to buy my own, it was all broken in the end but it didn’t occur to my parents to buy one.

No birthday cake or celebration, we’d get one small cheap present but nothing beyond that.

No stocking for Christmas. We’d put out one of our socks.

No winter coat, I had to wait to be given one by my older cousin.

70s and 80s..Dad in and out of work and mother never worked outside the home..They never frittered money, never spent a penny on themselves, no luxuries whatsoever but were always skint.

They'd run up debt and run out of money for food frequently. We'd sometimes have nothing for days or have only one meal of mashed potatoes. I would be sent to the corner shop to beg for food on tick regularly and get lectured by the shopkeeper in front of everyone about how much my parents owed.

No pocket money ever and we never went on holiday.

We always had a washing machine, even it if was a twin tub back in the day , and a tumble dryer. My mother hated housework but ironed everything including towels and dishcloths. We were only allowed a change of clothes once a week. There was no laundry basket , clothes were taken off and washed immiately once a week.

No treats in the house, except at Christmas and we walked everywhere. Even when we had a car there was no possibility of asking for a lift anywhere.

No central heating and the immersion heater was turned on once a week for baths which were about two inches of water, with cheap shampoo and a bar of soap. Nothing else in the bathroom, apart from toothpaste. Hair was dried by sitting next to an electric fire.

Food was always of the meat and two veg variety , nothing foreign or different. Vespa curry full of sultanas and currants was as exotic as it got. Never had spag bol or anything like that. They wouldn't have known what it was or how to make it even if they'd been prepared to try it..

Pets lived outdoors all day and only came in at night. Never visited the vets, ever, no vaccinations, if they got sick they either lived or died (or disappeared). Dogs were never walked but no one else did and, I guess, as they roamed the streets freely all day they didn't need it..

We are not wealthy but my kids have lived a life of total luxury by comparison..

Fruit! We only ever had apples. On the rare occasion they did buy other ones with the weekly shop my parents would complain that it all got eaten. 🤔

We used to visit our nan on Saturdays and her fruit bowl just got raided. She used to make a trip to the market to fill it up for us. When she visited she used to bring us bunches of bananas.

I now have an entire shelf of fruit in the fridge.

To be honest if you use a grill you do get a more evenly cooked slice of toast but you have to practically stand over it all the time. LOL

No processed food...Ever, sounds like a boast nowadays but when I was young I was so envious of my friends who had crisps/chocolate bars in their packed lunch boxes. I remember going to a friend's house and we were served Findus Crispy Pancakes with Artic Roll for dessert, my mind was blown!
I was the youngest of 3 girls so I always wore hand-me-downs, only had a new outfit for birthdays. No microwave or toaster and no holidays abroad until I was 12. I remember feeling 'poor' at the time but we lived on my dad's wage and my mum stayed at home. There was extra money available but they prioritised paying off their mortgage early. I actually had such a happy childhood, looking back
My parents got it dead right.

Gosh I'm shocked at this, I did not grow up in the UK but am now 50 and we had pretty much everything mentioned and it was a "third world country" balanced diet plenty of meat, fruit and veggies, brown bread, wholegrains, inside loos, regular baths/ showers.

One thing I do remember is that the dishes were scrubbed with this sort of wooden thing, steel wool was used, cotton dishcloths and loofah to clean off burned bits. I see these are making a reappearance as plastics are now better understood. No paper towel. Dishcloths and tea towels were boiled twice a week and everything was ironed. Everything was well looked after shoes and floors were polished daily. The fridge and freezer were deep cleaned on Wednesdays.

Our vacuum cleaner which my dad still uses was old then, my granny had bought it from a travelling sales man when my dad was born in 1945. It weighed a tonne.

When we went to the grandparents, the only toys there were marbles and books but we spent a lot of time in their garden, particularly in the vegetable patch and made fairy dens in the other parts under trees. It had very different plants to our garden and good trees to climb.

The major difficulty I remember is my mum had a grey Fiat that was not very reliable, she got rid of it when I was around four but there were lots of mutterings about unreliable Italian vehicles and periodically we would have to bail out of it when it broke down. She then got an ancient Ford afterwards but it was more reliable.

We also always had shampoo and then conditioner from when I was about six, my mother told us her granny, probably born around 1880, used fairy liquid and had lovely white hair.

I recall sanitary seeing the odd sanitary towel of my mum's and thinking they looked very bulky but with hindsight on the plus side there was no plastic in them.

There was no dog food and my mum would buy some random bits from the butcher and boil them up together with some veggies and pulses, the smell of the dogs' food was awful when she cooked it, she would then portion it up for the week and left it in the fridge, certainly a disincentive to fridge raidingThey also got a once a week bone and fortified cereal in the morning. They were supper healthy and lived well into their teens with rare trips to the vets, apart from vaccinations and when they were neutered.

Another thing I don't remember are snacks, my kids are always snacking. There were only meals.

Inside toilet, bath, hot water, washing machine, central heating and many more.

Same here regarding the school uniform. I only ever had one school skirt, one jumper, one dress and two blouses.

When my own children were at school, in the 1980s) I bought them 3 shirts each, so they could have a clean one each day (providing I remembered to do laundry during the week) but they only had one skirt/one pair of trousers. Nowadays, it seems that children have 5 of everything!

No bathroom and just an outside toilet! I have memories of a tin bath in front of the coal fire every Sunday. I was born 1968. My mum died in childbirth so I was raised by my very working class grandparents in a 2 up 2 down terraced house. I was probably about 6 when they finally got an actual bathroom added to the house. It felt very posh! We were definitely poor, clothes came from jumble sales. Occasionally my nan would take us to a shop in town that allowed you to take things 'on tick' to be paid weekly and we always had new pants and socks from there for back to school. We did have caravan holidays, family was important and it was a very happy childhood. My kids don't know they're born! Even though we're very comfortably off now, mortgage free, good income, no debt etc, my poor roots stick with me I hate food waste and begrudge wasting money on kitchen roll and get annoyed when the kids use too much of it 😂

No heating upstairs.
New clothes were rare. Most came from jumble sales as did most books and toys.
No pocket money. No holidays. No days out. We ate stew a lot which was mostly vegetables with a bit of meat in it. Shared a bedroom with two sisters.

I did have a happy childhood. We played out a lot, reading and education was encouraged and we all did well at school.

In the 90s we didn’t have a sofa because my dad refused to buy one, we had 2 old chairs from his parents house which meant there was nowhere for me to sit. My mum bought one with her own money in 1998!

Carpets. We had Lino in every room with a massive square rug. Probably seen as trendy now but I knew it meant we were poor.
We only went to the cinema (pictures) if it was someone’s birthday. Same with eating out. The thought of just popping into a cafe for lunch was unheard of. We didn’t have a washing machine but we always had enough food. I was never cold or hungry and for that I am very grateful.

Household items and travel are proportionally much cheaper now, but the essential costs of living such as housing and utilities are far more expensive. They switched around the end of the 90s. Cutting out netflix and a holiday wouldn't allow one parent to stay at home.

Not sure how normal but we weren't allowed ribena unless me or my brother was at death's door.

We were lucky enough to have money for all of those things, but what I never had was sober parents.

I always thought that people who used teabags instead of loose leaf tea were posh!

Same my mother left when I was 9 and honestly she wasn't a very nice mum up to then either. We had the basics we were fed clothed and had a warm home with beds to sleep in but not really had loving parents. Mum was nasty and abusive school saw plenty of black eyes and bruises that were always explained as "accidents" Dad wasn't much nicer after she left either he had weird friends and seeing him drinking every night was seen as normal for years. On the outside he seemed the perfect parent. Friends were jealous of all the holidays we got as kids but honestly I'd have rather had parents who actually loved their kids

No electricity upstairs, no bathroom, inside toilet or central heating, as for items like paper towels, even toilet rolls, (we used newspaper cut into squares) nope.

I cant say we missed those things then, because what you never had you can't miss, so for us, that was 'normal' living.

Thank God those times are past.

Same list as you OP, house was always warm with food - my mattress was so uncomfortable with springs sticking out I got a new one myself when I started a PT job at 16!

I would also add there were never period products, I had minimal clothing and shoes with holes my feet always got wet 😔😔

We had no nice furnishings and didn’t have a landline, and there were never cleaning products. Everyone else seemed to have all of these nice things, I didn’t grow up in a well off area but others had a lot more.

I am a similar age to you and grew up in the 90’s, and there was always money for cigarettes for my DP.

I would also say a walk in shower or anything that you did not have to hold over to wash yourself was pure luxury!! We had one of those rubber hand held showers! This was in the 90s early 00’s!!

80’s:
No TV, which all my friends thought was weird.
Central heating too- but that was quite normal.
Fizzy drinks.

I remember when I was around 10 we moved house after my mum left. We'd already downsized from a 4bed to a 3bed council property (we exchanged with a neighbour in the street who had more kids than dad had). We ended up moving out of the 3 bed into a privately rented 2bed as it was a house that belonged to my dad's sister. It was cramped for a single dad and 3 daughters and we didn't have a bath in that house. The bathroom was tiny and had a shower which didn't work for years so we had to fill up buckets with hot water from the kettle to have a wash-boiler also didn't work and putting the hot water on caused a leak Looking back he was stupid to give up a three bed council house with a bath and fully functional boiler

this pretty much for me too.

A car, central heating, double glazing - I remember frost on the inside 🥶, fruit, microwave, tumble drier, going abroad, suncream, a shower, duvets, coffee. We had one hairbrush between us all, like why? We had an outside toilet.

No fabric conditioner. No washing machine for a long time. Dad used to do it all by hand in a bath with a board... Please have this really grin washing up liquid that smelt really bad cuz I think it was actually some sort of hand cleaner. Dad got free from work 😅 oh and we didn't have heating in the first house and then in the second house mum and dad seemed quite heating adverse 🤣

I still date is fabric conditioner cuz I don't see the need but I do have proper washing up liquid

Yes safeguarding was quite dire, wasn’t it? School were quite happy that my broken arm was the result of “someone” twisting it up my back, never probed who the someone was.