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.

Those yoghurts with a toy in the middle, and kinder eggs. We would beg for them in Safeways.

I don't really get it looking back though - they could have afforded it. I think there was meant to be some moral lesson in denying us things we asked for.

Yes to the lolly/ice cream hierarchy! On summer holidays we would be allowed a daily lolly at the level of Mini Milk, Mr Men, Sparkler, choc ice etc. etc. On the last day of the holiday - if there was enough money left - we would be allowed either a Cornetto, a 99 or a Feast. Magnums were always deemed as "grown up" ice creams. For adults only!

Fizzy pop definitely. We were a family of six (four children and two adults). Occasionally, maybe once a month, mum would buy a 1 litre bottle of lemonade which was expected to last. It was served in thimble sized glasses - and one glass was always more than enough apparently! The only exception to this rule was Christmas when the pop-man would deliver two bottles each of limeade, lemonade, cherryade, orangeade, cola and bitter lemon.

Fruit in general. My DCs are allowed to freely help themselves to fruit. We always had to ask first, and more than one item per day was considered greedy.

Actually, thinking about it, food in general was strictly rationed.

Tinfoil.
Paper towel.
Boiled ham
Picnics were frequent, not many lunches out, sometimes had fish and chips out as kids first tea and an Indian as a treat. I can understand this though, it gets dear buying food out for kids all the time.
Taxis were a massive luxury, only to the airport.

All very bizarre as my parents weren't poor and we used to go on long haul holidays four times per year!

Paper. I absolutely craved a big sketch pad of plain white paper. I had to do all my drawing on teen tiny sheets of fine ruled writing paper, using freebie felt pens that my dad collected from the petrol station, at the rate of about one a month. I loved those felt pens though.

Nods head to not paying for parking.

I never understood that one, why bother walking for bloody miles with kids?!

We were another ice cream hierarchy family, a Calipo would be a treat, no way we'd get a magnum. Cos, you know, there's a tub of vanilla at home in the freezer.

Ribena - now have it in cupboard

Coco pops - yes these too

Aqua fresh toothpaste unless much cheaper (DH and I use it 365 days a year now )

My Aunty when we went to stay used to buy the multi packs of 8 different breakfast cereals in little boxes which tasted much better than from big box

Also, lemon barley drink

Great idea for a thread.

I feel old as there wasn't even a McDonalds in the nearest city until about 2000.

I'm not sure I 'missed' anything because I wasn't even aware of their existence!.

I remember being at a friend's house whose father was planning a day trip that involved a boat trip. I was open eyed.

School trips were for the kids in school who were minted (the ironic thing was my father was very wealthy but frugal). I don't think I ever even asked to go on a trip more than once and still remember getting a talk about how much I'd hate it, would be made eat food I disliked etc etc until all my initial interest was replaced with cold fear of going.

I wasn't in any club with kids my own age, I didn't learn a musical instrument, I didn't visit anywhere apart from a beach one day a year and we brought a wonky little bbq on legs to incinerate sausages. I still remember the wind blowing sand onto them. We dreaded that day out!

When Santa came to town, we weren't allowed visit because it cost too much. It cost about a pound at the time! We ate in a restaurant (attached to a hotel) once every two years. We always had second or third hand bikes (which we were very excited to buy). The one thing we had 'new' were shoes and we had one pair until our feet grew out of them and then got the next pair.

My kids are are in about four or five clubs, argue the merits of certain coffee shop chains with each other, have a favourite restaurant, continually ask where they are going today when they wake up. They are under six.

Having baths. My dad considered it ‘decadent’ ( he had a flannel wash)

We never had a shower and most of the furniture was from the 1930s

Putting the immersion heater on, as soon as the radiators had heated up my dad would turn them off!

New clothes, had my sisters hand me downs, I remember going to Chelsea Girl as a teenager in 1980 to be bought my first ever very own coat

Eating out, packed lunches always

Taxis, my god yes, even tho my parents didn’t drive

So of course I love a warm house, long baths, eating out and nice clothes!

Still like finding bargains in charity shops tho

Baths! I had two parents working full time and we lived in a council house yet I remember never having any hot water. I think Mum just wouldn't put it on!

I used kettles and a washing up bowl till' I was way too big. I still, today have a sort of mania for deep, very hot baths and have one every day.

Ribena - absolutely unaffordable
Robinson squashes - very pricey but maybe sometimes
Catching the bus to the village - lazy and a frivolous waste of money
Fizzy drinks
Ketchup
Fish and chips - just for adults and then only as a treat
Chicken and chips - same
Chinese takeaway - completely out of reach
new potatoes from a shop
Oranges

Oh just remembered, we were the last people on earth to own a colour television or video recorder. Such extravagance 😃😃

Oh and clothes that weren't homemade, or hand me downs - except knickers, socks, vests, tights and 'jamas and even they were for Christmas.

Showers/ baths limited to three a week. Anything other than water or tea to drink. We didn't have much money growing up but some things like hot water my df just didn't see the need for.

Cherry tomatoes. We only got the big tasteless tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes were for Christmas.

Fizzy drinks, chocolate biscuits, fresh orange juice, crisps.

Going to friends houses and been given a chocolate biscuit after dinner was amazing.

Bottled drinks bought when out. We always had to take water from home. If we did need to buy a drink it was a big drama and we all had to share which was horrible.

We almost always get one each now EVERY time we go out and I am always astonished and feel so excited and pleased like it is a big treat

I erm still think taxis are probably for gazillionaires I should probably look into that. Public transport v good where we are though so not much need really.

We also had the rule of 1 loo paper square for a wee, two for a poo. Folded neatly into quarters. I can't remember how old I was when I realised that this was madness and just to use as much as I wanted. Probably when I started my periods TBH.

Shower gel as well was rationed into tiny 5p sized amounts for each body part and baths were weekly - we didn't have a shower

We make DS shower daily now but I still have issues showering often enough because I think it's a "waste" :( I'm also secretly disgusted and horrified by how much shower gel and bubble bath DH goes through even though I admit that he smells cleaner than I do.

We were allowed McDonalds (not v often though) but I remember being utterly floored when one of my first boyfriends ordered two burgers at once. I found this impossibly dangerous behaviour and refused to partake until one day I agreed to have chicken nuggets instead of chips and the decline started.

Shoes we also had one pair each - I find it very strange that DS is expected to have more than one pair, even more than one for the same purpose. It seems even more important in Germany, he went away for a week and was instructed to take five different pairs of shoes - he could almost have worn a new one every day! I had school shoes, weekend trainers, then the old/scruffy trainers would be regaled to school PE shoes and in the summer I might have sandals. And wellies. DS has about three pairs of normal shoes, sports shoes, indoor shoes, sandals, and I'm expected to buy him proper winter boots as well any time now.

Funnily enough though I am more frugal about cereal and squash than my DM was. We always had about six different kinds of cereal open at once yet I only let DS have one open at a time and this must be finished before a new packet is opened. This is because he ranks them in order of preference and will let one go stale at the expense of the other, preferred one, and never rolls the plastic bit down properly.

Anything with a brand name. Even if I won the lottery I dont think that I would be able to bring myself to buy them as they just seem like gross frippery!

Fresh orange juice (never bought by my parents). Kitchen paper - to be used only when sheets of an old telephone directory really wouldn't do the job. Central heating. Colour television, even when everyone else had it. Making phone calls before 6pm. The immersion heater.

We always got loads at Christmas (well hello there A la carte kitchen) but I think my Dad would still throw a funny foot at me if I dared ask for a magnum. I felt like Joan Collins the first time I had a piece of fish from the chip shop instead of a fishcake or battered sausage.

And my Mum always made her own chips from potatoes cooked in a chip pan with rarely changed fat but my Nan had crinkle cut chips from a bag which I thought was the height of decadence. As Mum always did home cooked food I thought a Findus crispy pancake was a luxury item!

I still think 'ooh crinkle cut, fancy' when I see them.

Kitchen roll
Ice creams like magnums or gaytime
KFC
Milo - used sparingly
Nutella
Pretty much any treat in the house like a bar of chocolate!
New clothes
I mean, come to think of it, pretty much everything - we had no money!
I had one friend though whose parents timed showers. They would all wait in line, get exactly 2 minuets each, and run in and out as soon as their dad yelled ‘next!’ That was grim. I hated staying there.

Yes to the ice cream/ice lolly hierarchy. We also very rarely went to a soft play. Never took a taxi. I never had cans of pop, to the point that when asked to man the drinks table at my dad's friend's party when I was about 10, I had no clue how to open a can of coke.

We also never had takeaways unless they were collected fish and chips. If we went out somewhere we always took our own food, or only stayed out long enough that we wouldn't need to eat, which in reality meant staying out for ages and being really hungry by the time we got home. I swear my parents just don't feel hungry or something! Nice cafe lunches were reserved for my mum to have with friends.

Heating - only I live in a place where summers are warm and humid and the LL provides the winter heat, so I pander to my neurosis by rationing the AC.

Food and drink while out and about - I continue the proud tradition of only bringing the plainest snacks (like plain Cheerios) and bottled water.

This thread brings back memories 😄 & while I don't buy into the nonsense that some older generations spout re cutting down on coffee to afford a house, they were definitely more frugal.

Born in the 80s & the below were treats:
Coke, only at Christmas/parties
Seedless grapes
Vienetta (still can't believe I can buy for a £1).
Ferrero Rocha
Tin foil (i'm still tight with this now)
Kitchen roll (I use with wild abandon).
Immersion.
Tumble dryer (i used to use in secret).
Phone calls during day.
Also even though I had lots of clothes & shoes my trainers were always shitty as my mum deemed Nike & co to be overpriced.

Plenty of day trips but always with packed lunches & whilst we did get taken out for meals it would always be a kids venue such as Pizza hut, as opposed to an artisanal bakery for brunch. We were pretty comfortable & would spend the entire summer at our house in the South of France though!

I read on here once (think an HCP mentioned it) that one of the reasons that the elderly get water/kidney infections and subsequently admitted to hospital is the ‘only using two squares of toilet paper’ rule

I love this thread but would be interested to know what people think our kids would say in the future about now times and the things that we are stingy on or can't afford ...