Things your parents led you to think were 'special' or 'expensive' that you now take for granted?

[VladmirsPoutine]

for the po-faced

Growing up my siblings and I were wary over using too much kitchen roll - we'd get a sheet and fold it in half to tear before using, the faff was a PITA but to this day I still get a bit territorial over my kitchen roll.

We also had 'special' China plates, cups, cutlery, that sort of thing. Only used when we had guests or at Christmas - I didn't carry that into adulthood but whenever I visit my DM I still fondly look at the unit containing all those 'special' cups

My dad died when I was relatively young but prior to this death he used to always take us (siblings&I) to our weekend clubs when we were young, on Saturdays one of my sisters and I attended clubs that finished at similar times and it was always Saturdays that mum worked nights so the 4 us: dad+siblings would always get McDs and think it was basically gourmet dining.

I didn't have a deprived childhood by any definition but I do find those quirks quite funny looking back.

When we cleared mum's out, we found 7 tins of salmon she was saving for special occasions .. now we eat fresh salmon most weeks

I was born in the late 70s and there's a studio portrait of me as a baby and aged 2 as my brother had been born so off to the potrait studio again! 3 snapshots taken at home around similar times (someone elses camera) but no other photos till I was at primary school and my parents bought their own camera.

Take aways. DW and I actually thought we came up with the idea at uni. 'Wouldn't it be great if you could have macdonalds but it delivered'.... The shock when we realised you could.
This was 7 years ago. 3 stone later I wish I'd continued to live in blissful ignorance.

Absolutely yes to the ice crean hierarchy.

Tin foil. It was always reused when I was a child. I now use as much as I need whilst feeling guilty.

My parents never had any money, there was limited food but I was thankfully raised mainly by my Grandparents who were quite well off and saw that we had enough - never took it for granted though because we knew what it was to be cold and hungry.

My issue was clothing - my Grandmother would buy us clothes 'for best' but only that she liked and approved of and (quite rightly to be honest when you consider that she was paying for 3 Grandchildren all the time) branding was out of the question. My kids are drowning in Adidas/Nike/trainers, go to JDSports every month or so just because and have never heard me say 'I am not paying that for a T-Shirt'

Bananas we used to have a much-anticipated box of After Eights for Christmas only! Still love them but now I get them in my local pound shop

Love this thread and got me thinking that when I was at school in the 70's I actually didn't know a single overweight person. Not a single child in my schools were overweight and I cant recall any adults either.
Sorry for de railing slightly but so many of our memories are around food

Yes to the ice cream hierarchy, also fizzy drinks were only ever bought at Christmas. It’s only in very recent years my parents will keep a bottle of 7up in the house in case someone calling would prefer a soft drink!

I must have been 18 or older before I had a takeaway for the first time. My parents just couldn’t get their heads round why you would pay so much money for something you could make (at least in theory). Nowadays they occasionally treat themselves to one though the sight of a takeaway container/menu in their house is even now as shocking to us as if we found out they were off swinging!

Loads of food ones really - rarely had branded anything, always supermarket own brand which to be fair have improved hugely in competition with Aldi/Lidl but were pretty shite in the 80s. There’s a reason “Yellow Pack” became synonymous with cheap, second rate!

I suppose they weren’t wrong though. So many of the things we take for granted now really were expensive when I was growing up, relative to household income. A lot of it sticks though, doesn’t it? I still feel a bit decadent buying kitchen roll, my DPs only buy it at Christmas . Likewise naice foods, decent toilet roll and buying books rather than borrowing from the library.

Dowser My Grandparents had a colour TV and we didn't so we watched Princess Anne's wedding there.

Heating. I had no heating in my bedroom while living at home (I moved out at the age of 21- early 90s) and was allowed the use of a fan heater in a morning but my mom would come in and switch it off while I was in the bathroom because a few minutes was deemed sufficient time to warm my room. It wasn't even as if it was an old house, it was built in the early 1970s but just one bedroom had a radiator in it and that was the only radiator upstairs.
Being frugal with heating has stayed with me.

Chocolate. My mom used to slice up a Mars Bar and share it between the three of us as a treat.

Eating out didn't happen. There'd be a day trip to the seaside in the Summer and sandwiches and cake would be taken from home, sometimes we'd have chips before coming home. I was 16 before I had a meal in a restaurant and that wasn't with my parents.

Crisps. Not something that was always in the cupboard for a snack. Just a very occasional treat and bought in single packets from the corner shop.

I was a fat child in the 70s. I look at photos and in reality I was a bit fat, but not loads. The kind of child that mums post a photo in shock at being told that the BMI of their child is too high, but are insisting they are slim. But I was the fat child. Although I was very very active.

I do think many young adults today may not realise how much things taken for granted now, were a luxury in the recent past.

We used to share one (not large) pizza between 5 of us. To be fair as a family we were slim should have kept that up!

Eating a whole pizza still feels decadent.

Oh I also save nice wrapping paper from presents and gift bags as the were SO special when I was growing up.

It's a running joke that my Mum and I have been exchanging the same gift bag at Christmas for the last 6 years!

I save wrapping paper and gift bags too. Is that weird?

Fabric conditioner. It didn't get used in every wash, and was reserved for our purple bri-nylon sheets and Dad's drip-dry shirts . My mum over-diluted it too, so it barely did the job anyway!

Mum also rationed her perfume use and only had a spritz from her tiny bottle of Estee Lauder on nights out. The rest of the time she used talc and Avon hand-cream for fragrance.

Sugar puffs Christmas morning. The rest of the year Weetabix or cornflakes ( supermarket brand of course)

can identify with so many of these. wrapping paper, taxis, kitchen roll, lucozade & ribena, posh ice cream, soft toilet paper, etc etc.

My mum would never put the oven on just for 1 thing. Hence Sunday was baking day, and she did all sorts of cakes/pies/tarts etc while the roast was in (all morning!) As well as the roast, we usually had a rice pudding that had been done in the oven. I don't think I've ever had rice pud other than out of a tin for the last 20 years.

Things that were ridiculously expensive when I was a child are now cheap as chips so get taken for granted. eg we never had a roast chicken - it was always beef which was so much cheaper. How things have changed with regard to factory farmed chicken.

The biggest change I think is that nowadays so many things are very cheap to produce so are now regarded as disposable rather than repaired.

my parents were much richer than we are now however even so, my dad would always order two small hamburgers instead of a quarter pounder (cheaper for the same "meat"), bottled water (esp Perrier) was the last word in luxury, and there would often be different meals for the parents - they'd have trout with almonds while we had spaghetti with campbell's tinned sauce and parmesan from a cardboard container (in itself a ludicrous thing).
Cornettos were ok for the freezer at home, but never out. That would be madness.

Yes it is amazing to think when the first mobile phones came out, they cost a £1000 each. No wonder they were a sign of status.

MacDonalds -3 time’s a year. Once every main school holiday we would walk to the nearest town paying the water bill at the reservoir on the way. Maybe get a few essentials and then a MacDonalds as a treat.

I do think that I seem to be shopping all the time whereas I never remember my Mum going shopping for anything other than essentials at all really.

I am 6 weeks old in the first photos in our family album.
Nowadays babies are barely out of the womb before they are filmed and photographed from every angle.

Another family where one Mars bar would do the four of us. TBH now I would struggle to eat a whole one - they are so sweet but a wee slice is quite nice.
Cereal variety packs - this is still a holiday treat!
I often hear my mother's voice coming out of my mouth now telling my daughter to eat what she has on her plate before getting any more.
Taxis.

brasty, my first computer printer (a rather basic dot matrix!) cost me £350 at a time when I was earning about £100 a week (mid 1980's). I did keep using it for about 10 years though. That in itself would be unheard of these days!

Really teeny weeny glasses for orange juice, like in an old fashioned B&B