If you grew up in a family without much money....

[AbbysMom]

If you grew up in a family without much money what always felt like a luxury?


Getting food from anywhere, going out to eat, McDonalds, take out pizza, etc.

 

[Norachan]

Getting food from anywhere, going out to eat, McDonalds, take out pizza, etc.

Getting first hand clothes, rather than hand-me-downs.
Having more than two pairs of shoes at the same time.
Staying in a hotel, rather than at a campsite or a relatives house. (Actually I think I was 19 before I ever did that. )

 

[Mia6]

Saying in a hotel
Dining out
New clothes instead of the hand-me-downs from the wealthy family my aunt worked for. They never fit Nicole but my mother
made me wear them because "they are quality clothing". One of the winter coats was so ugly..an unfurnature shade of green.

 

[LTS3]

Going out to eat, new clothes, a rare weekend trip to visit relatives, having the lights on and the heat on in the winter.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

Eating in a restaurant with my mom. (My grandparents would take me/us out sometimes.) Getting something from the ice cream truck. Getting a treat in the store (like a Kit Kat or a Dr Pepper). Getting a salon haircut instead of my Aunt or Uncle doing it. Getting clothes at the mall instead of Kmart and hand-me-downs. I only remember 3 vacations that weren't us going to the camp my grandparents and great and and uncle jointly owned. One was with my dad and we stayed in a hotel. One with mom we stayed in a hotel. The other we visited people and stayed with them.

 

[furmonster mom]

A lot of the same:
dining anywhere; Taco Bell, Denny’s, Baskin Robbins
new clothes
new toys
small jewelry (beads, resin)
sweet snacks or flavored chips

 

[Falena]

Apart from things others have already mentioned. Getting a sofa! I come from a refugee family with quite a different culture to where we live now. So we all sat on the floor until I was about the age of 11 and I remember getting our first sofa like it was yesterday. It was from a charity place and pretty beat up. But I loved that old thing, it was a climbimg frame, a bed , a seat, a table...anything I wanted it to be and it was glorious

 

[furmonster mom]

My parents were divorced, and my dad’s side of the family were small restaurant owners. They were essentially moderate mid-class. So when I stayed with them over summer visitation, things were a bit better.
My mom, who I lived with for the other 10 months, struggled. We lived off of a bit of child support and whatever odd jobs she could hold.
While Christmas and Birthdays with dad were fairly moderate affairs, they were lavish compared what mom was able to manage.
Growing up with this dual perspective made me appreciate things a little differently. I never feel disappointed by gifts, large or small. A gift may be lavish or not, but it should be appreciated for the love with which it was given.

 

[susanm9006]

We mostly lived off of home canned or preserved foods. It could get pretty monotonous and most canned food came out sort of brown colored. But on rare occasions we would get a food voucher that allowed us buy at a grocery. Coming home with all the store bought food felt like a total luxury . My favorite store item was canned fruit, like peaches or fruit cocktail because it looked so pretty and tasted so wonderful . All these years later every time I open a can of peaches I still marvel at how pretty is is.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

Buying things that weren't on sale or clearanced
Receiving new toys from my mom on birthdays or Christmas (my mom is a terrible gift giver especially now, and will give people stuff she has in her basement, which I should also clarify that she has an Etsy store where she sells random thrift store finds and picture frames)

 

[NY cat man]

When I was a kid, a box of Cracker Jacks was a luxury; ice cream, a new pair of sneakers, chocolate milk- a half-pint of white milk cost 2 cents at school, while chocolate cost 3 cents, and I didn't have the extra penny, new clothes, and dining out- the first time I ate in a restaurant was my high school senior class banquet. I had to ask someone else what all of the silverware was for. There were so many things that 'normal' kids took for granted that kids like me could only dream about.

 

[epona]

Having butter.

 

[MonaLyssa33]

Having butter.

Oh I forgot about that! We always cooked and baked with margarine but as an adult I only buy butter.

 

[epona]

Oh I forgot about that! We always cooked and baked with margarine but as an adult I only buy butter.

Exactly that.

 

[NY cat man]

Oh I forgot about that! We always cooked and baked with margarine but as an adult I only buy butter.

We had dairy cows, so we could make our own, and we had chickens, so we had what eggs we didn't sell.

 

[Maria Bayote]

I grew up in a lower class family in Manila. My mom, even though she worked as a high rank government official back then, was supporting and helping a lot of her nephews and nieces, aside from my brother and I. So we did not have much. So, having meat on the table was a rare event. Family travels was a luxury which I never experienced. I watched TV shows through a window of a neighbor's. Owning a bicycle was my dream which also never came true.

So all of the above plus more would have been luxury to me back then.

 

[Mia6]

the heat on in the winter.

Awww......reading that filled my eyes with tears.

 

[denice]

We were middle class but my parents were products of the depression so we lived well below our means. Clothes were always bought from discount stores and the biggest luxury was eating out. Eating out was always fast food and was very rare. We always had margarine but that was because at the time margarine was thought to be healthier because of cholesterol. That was debunked after I left home, I haven't used margarine in years.

 

[Mia6]

Apart from things others have already mentioned. Getting a sofa! I come from a refugee family with quite a different culture to where we live now. So we all sat on the floor until I was about the age of 11 and I remember getting our first sofa like it was yesterday. It was from a charity place and pretty beat up. But I loved that old thing, it was a climbimg frame, a bed , a seat, a table...anything I wanted it to be and it was glorious

Do you ahve any pics of the sofa?

 

[klunick]

I was a very nervous kid especially after our house got robbed by a DC cop so my luxury would be my mom being home when I got back from school. I hated being a latchkey kid and would lock myself in my room until my mom got home every day.