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.

Yes, DHs parents used to fold the back seats of their car down for long journeys so that DH and his brother could play with their lego in the back. No seat belts!!

Or sometimes you didnt get warm orange squash if we had run out of our one bottle a week we had to drink Iuke warm tea with the adults.

No we weren't either Dixie my friend got the pop man

I was born in 1956. No central heating just a coal fire in the living room, outside loo until I was about 8. Food was definitely more expensive and there wasn't the same variety. A pp mentioned only tinned salmon - this has only become affordable to the majority due to salmon farms before that it was definitely a luxury item.

Electrical goods and clothing were really expensive. I remember a coat that I had for Xmas when I was about 15. It cost £15. My grandfather earned that amount per week. Housing was cheaper than now but everything else was more expensive.

I think we have so much "stuff" nowadays we can't imagine going without what we consider essentials but they weren't seen as essential then

My sister wanted a soda stream for Xmas so my parents got her a cheaper version called a merry mix no one ever remembers them

Holidays, the immersion heater and eating out.
There was no eating out in the 1970s unless it was going to a relatives house. I cant remember ever eating out until I went to University.
I had no holidays from 9-17 because My Mum thought they were boring and my Dad just wanted to do his own thing and drink beer all day.
The immersion heater was only allowed on for 1 hr on a Sunday and we had one bath per week. Looking back thats disgusting, I have a very deep bath to the top every day now.
Very few clothes and wearing trainers until there was no sole left on them.I now have about 100 pairs of shoes/boots etc and wont ever wear anything with holes in.

Salmon. Tinned salmon is still a "luxury" for salmon and cucumber sandwiches at Christmas. I'll often slip a pack of smoked salmon in the trolley and eat it as part of breakfast
Smoked salmon is so much nicer than tinned salmon, especially when it makes bread soggy.

My mum is still of a "save things for best" mentality and ends up leaving things for so long they get ruined. I'm still a sod for buying nice things like strawberries and saving them for a few days, then finding that they're turning to furry mush. I'm trying to train myself to use things quickly.

This is from the Experian blog about 1966

1. Buying a house – In 1966 the average cost of a house was £3,620, which equates to about £60,848 in today’s money. In contrast, the average cost of a house in the UK broke the £200,000 barrier for the first time in April 2016, going up to £313,000 in the south of England.

1. Buying a car – Cars were far less frequent on the streets in 1966 than they are now, and the boom in car ownership had yet to take full effect. One reason was the cost – the average cost of a new car was £950, which is around £15,968 in today’s money. Figures for 2015 show that the average transaction cost for new cars was £22,000.

1. Pint of beer – A pint of beer in 1966 would have set you back an average 2 shillings, equal to 10p, which amounts to around £1.75 comparatively in today’s money. In late 2015, the average price of a pint in the UK was £3.46 – the county with the lowest average cost was Herefordshire with £3.10, while in London it was £3.92.

1. Gallon of petrol – in 1966 it would have cost you 5s 3d – which translates to 26p. This would be around £4.58 in today’s money. Now today we don’t buy gallons of petrol, we buy litres – and the average cost in the UK is around £1.01 per litre. However, with the gallon/litre equation being 1 gallon = 4.54, the figures are not too different at the moment to what they effectively were in 1966.

5.   Wages – the average annual UK salary in 1966 was £891, which sounds ridiculously small nowadays but it equates to upwards of £14,977 in modern terms. The most recent figures from the ONS (Office for National Statistics) show that the average gross annual earnings for full-time employees was £27,600, up by 1.6% from the previous year.  However, someone working full-time on the national minimum wage (£7.20) could gross around £14,976 a year, a figure similar to the average in 1966.
   

So wages were lower, no working tax credit or equivalent in 1966, beer was much cheaper though.

And from a Liverpool article about 1966:

Crumpsall assorted biscuits, 1lb packet (with a free packet of ginger crisps): £2.32
Apples, pre-packed, five: £1.13
Grey and blue semi-fitted coat: £25.13
23 inch TV, weekly rental from Strothers/NEMS: £7.49 (weekly)
“Mod” shoes, real leather or suede: £33.53

So hiring a TV in 1966 was a huge expense, beyond the pay packet of someone on an average wage.

www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/liverpool-50-years-ago-how-11429313

I write on the gift tags on gift bags. I feel irrationally angry when people don't (ILs never do, for example) as it feels like they're saying I'm not worth it. When you reuse the bag, you remove the written tag and add a new one.

I like keeping some expensive things for best - e.g. my DC call variety pack cereal "holiday cereal" because it's the only time we have it, even though you can reliably get the 8-pack for £1 in the cheap shops.

We eat out far more nowadays than in my childhood, averaging out to maybe once a month over the year, but it is much cheaper than it used to be (e.g. at our pub two adult and two children's meals plus a sharer pudding for £15) and we limit them to one "nice" drink before it's squash only. I do think bottled soft drinks are shockingly expensive.

A holiday abroad.
Now, with budget airlines, and airbnb... no big deal at all

I paid more for flights, and I got the cheapest I could, to places in Europe in the 1990's, than I do today.

I don't know we went abroad every year in a reasonably nice hotel ,now if i price up a nice hotel in Spain or Greece for two weeks in the summer holidays its way out of our price league .

Hot water. The immersion was on for an hour for your once a week bath and that was it.

Bath was on a Sunday night
Vienetta was posh along with cornettos only went to wimpy or mcdonalds if it was for someone's birthday party same with cinema

Geting Barrs irn bru rather than the shit supermarket copy
Primula only came out at christmas with ritz crackers
Pick n mix was only allowed if i used my own pocket money (2.50 pocket money bought trip to town, pick n mix and a magazine)

This thread makes me think it's no wonder so many kids are overweight these days as treats are now daily occurrences rather than just special occasions. Also, why climate change has increased so much!

Was it a healthier, greener way of living back then, and do we have to go back to it to save the planet, and ourselves?!

We were definitely thinner, yeah.

x2boys I only talked about flights. Hotel prices abroad depend on exchange rates, and our currency is doing badly, which makes hotels abroad more expensive.

inigo Yes much healthier. But it wasn't a choice. People had to walk to the shops because they could not afford a car, kids had to walk to school. And most could not afford all the treats kids get today.

This thread makes me think it's no wonder so many kids are overweight these days as treats are now daily occurrences rather than just special occasions.

I am appalled by the crap my nephews eat at aged 3 and 6.

We never ever would have been allowed to eat like that. Biscuits galore, kinder bars, ice cream, sweets, crisps all in a normal day.

Owning your own home was a complete impossibility.
Going to University. Though I went to a grammar school, it wasn't somewhere for 'the likes of us'.
A car of any sort, my parents never did get one of their own. I got my first car at 28. A brand new one was undreamed of.
A holiday 'on the continent' - I first went on a two week holiday abroad, on an aeroplane, when I was 18. And then I went again when I was 21! A school day trip to Calais was a huge adventure. A week long school trip to Scotland was paid for in many weekly instalments.
A record player; my parents saved up and got one specially for me when I was 15. I remember going to pick it up from Comet with my Dad, on the bus :)
Colour TV.

It was the same for everyone at that time so we didn't feel different or deprived. Looking back, I know now how much my parents struggled so hard to try to give us everything they possibly could and I love them so much for it.

Yes it probably was healthier in that we just didn't really have snacks in the house. There were no crisps or sweets in the larder, just a fruit bowl, on the table.

Mum had a biscuit tin with bourbons and rich tea biscuits in but it wouldn't have occurred to us to raid it I just had my sixpence a week pocket money and I was far to obsessed with Cindy doll clothes and singles to spend it on sweets.