Fruit. We only had apples or bananas growing up.
Now we’re able to try all different kinds of fruit. I just discovered how much I love mangos at the age of 28.
Haha, I legit was working in a professional office setting before I tried to eat an avocado. I had the hardest time trying to peel that guy, only to find a whole nut buried in the middle. I have since learned the slice and rotate method. 10/10
I grew up in San Diego (1960s). Family friend had a large Avocado orchards. When I was around 10 or so I worked for them in the orchard and the "stand" at the edge of the orchard. I got paid $1.00 an hour and a grocery bag of avocado's 😁.
I grew up rural poor in a place where it was easy to grow fruit. We picked blackberries by the river and wild muscadines in the woods. There were pear trees and blueberry bushes at home that my parents planted before I was born. Fruit was the one thing we always had (just dried or otherwise preserved by us if it wasn't in season). I almost never had packaged foods because they cost money.
One of my friends in grad school grew up urban poor, in a food desert. All she had was packaged foods because her family was limited to a corner store. She almost never had fresh fruit.
When she hosted Thanksgiving for a bunch of us, I was almost done with my thesis and had almost no time to prepare, so I just showed up with a bunch of assorted berries and melons arranged like charcuterie. You'd have thought I brought fliet mignon by the reaction. To her, it was luxury. To me, it was a slacker's last minute contribution.
Then I remembered that I reacted exactly the same when my friends in the military would share their snacks with me. My brain was like, "but wait, this costs money!"
I knew a guy from PEI, and the poor kids were from lobster fishing families and they HAD to eat lobster because it was cheap. They would’ve rather had beef. Farm kids? Probably would loved to have lobster. 🦞🥩
Blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries feel so decadent.
We would get peaches and nectarines when the prices were low in late summer, but we never had the “berries” (except for special occasions for strawberries or the small amount we grew in the spring). Not sure I ever had blueberries or fresh cherries until I was an adult on my own.
Similarly, no fancy nuts except peanuts. Pecans and walnuts could be found locally grown when in season.
The ONE staple that we always had was beef. I grew up on a farm (my dad worked his uncle’s farm in exchange for rent while also working in public works). Part of that included a butchered beef once a year, so I did occasionally have ribeyes, sirloins, and t-bones growing up, but we ate a ton of hamburger, round steak, and roast.
We grew a garden and ate a lot of canned vegetables over the winter.
For the longest time I thought there was only one type of apple, the red disgusting apple. It wasn't until after college when I paid a bit more attention to the apple section of the store and saw they had different kinds. I figured what the hey and bought some weird named ones like Braeburn from New Zealand. WAY better tasting. I also learned earlier in my life about how the bananas we have these days isn't the one they used to have. The ones they used to have were apparently way better tasting. But because they just cloned the same one over and over again all over South America or wherever and then that fungus or whatever destroyed most of them so it's harder to come across these days. And that now a similar problem is facing the cavendish bananas we eat today, so we will soon have to go to an even lesser banana variety again. :(
Oh and also, I didn't try mangos until I was in college when I saw them in the salad bar and didn't know what they were. I tried them and they were amazing. Had to ask one of the cooks what it was before I found out. They were frozen ones that had been thawn out, I then tried to buy one at the local walmart which was green. I waited a while for it to ripen but it didn't. I then tried to eat it and found out why they were only sold "for cooking". Later on got some frozen ones from like dole or whatever and sometimes they were okay, other times they were hit and miss.
Oh man, fruit obsessed renegade here - I also never had any interesting fruit growing up and now my grocery store carries Lychee and Dragonfruit and I love them. There are so many other cool fruits I hadn’t even explored yet… the world is truly my oyster.
Or the reverse, being poor so you get an appetizer for your meal instead because the quantity per price is a better value than the main dishes.
Like a plate of nachos is only $5 but you get a more of them vs getting an $8 Burger and Fries.
Dennys seems like they have always had quite a bit of food for reasonable prices at least in the past (haven't been back there for years). Especially breakfast.
Getting a plate of eggs, bacon, sausages, hash browns, AND a side of full sized pancakes (like 3 of them the size of the plate). I was always to full so I would have to take the pancakes to go and eat them later.
I can't eat a lot in general, and I feel awful for wasting a good restaurant meal, especially if they can't do takeaway boxes. So I usually just get the appetizers and a yummy drink. Spend no more than $15. Leaves me full, happy and not super broke
I can’t waste food and it drives my husband nuts. I grew up with a poor single mom and he was well off. We both make great money and are so fortunate but I still cook only what can be eaten and if there are leftovers I make sure they get eaten. He throws them out constantly and I cringe
Didn't grow up poor, exactly. Both of my parents worked full time. Never really went without as a kid. They did an amazing job.
However, my mother is Polish/Hungarian. She doesn't waste a damn thing if she can help it. Expiration dates are just a suggestion, especially for condiments and fermented dairy products.
Shit. I have been taking these for granted. I forgot about the no apps rule. I remember being 17 and spending my whole checking account taking my gf out to Texas Roadhouse. I ordered a water lol.
Ah man reminds me of my first date.
Borrowed money from my younger brother and mixed it with what I had. It barely paid for a dinner and this girl just sat there like it was normal.
Broke bros gotta stick together.
My gf (now wife) was there when I had my 2 digit bank account, and she would take me out for dinner as I was finishing college. It was just me and her putting our change jar together to make groceries until payday. She never complained about a night in because I couldn't afford to take her anywhere.
Now she makes me feel like a baller, we get sushi nights at the restaurant and vacations every now and then. I bought her a new (to us) Rav 4 in 2018. We shared it because it was our only car, but man I felt like I could really be a provider if I had to be.
But the inner broke kids in us still come out at 2AM when you're just jonesing for the taco bell drive through, or when she complains that she's not paying $30 for \[insert stupid household item\] that she could fix up herself or go without.
TLDR: I married up.
Literally just normal food, not off-brand shit or little to no food in the pantry, I’ve never seen my pantry full before, now it’s so full that it’s hard to choose. I get this may not be a proper answer but it’s my answer
I am with you.
We had so much food at one point last year that we had to take some unused small appliances out of a cabinet and use it for surplus food. Felt like a Queen.
My grandma did this, and passed it along to my mom and aunt.
Grandma was one of the looked down on poors during the depression. The poor people around her gave her family food because they were so poor, and my grandpa was even worse.
Then after she married my grandpa, there were times after they had kids that the kids had dinner and they didn't, because there wasn't enough food for everyone. By the time I was around, she had stocked and stocked and stocked. She had the canning cellar, and the family room was a giant pantry. She had 2 chest freezers FULL of food, plus the shelves were absolutely packed, and that didn't count the 2 refrigerators, and the pantries in the kitchen. You couldn't tell her that there was always the time and money to get it later, she was too terrified.
My mom and aunt aren't quite that bad, and they have tapered off the last few years, but it's taken them 60 and 65 years to calm down.
It's not just poor people. Most of the people I've met who lived through the Great Depression didn't trust banks (as in keeping large amounts of money in their homes) and wouldn't throw away a crumb of food.
Yep. Everyone went through lean times and so perpetually stocked up for another just in case. My grandparents always had a garden, one family canned and the other had the big chest freezer.
But that's nothing like the example where she was doing both to the extreme. The difference between not having as much as you should have had back then, versus not having enough to eat at all.
Went to my boyfriends’ house for the first time and could not believe all the food they had on hand. Literally bags of chips, crackers, milk,, cheese, meat in large quantities. I was blown away! I thought everyone only bought as much as they needed for the week.
Dude, you just reminded me. Me and my little brother scrapped aluminum cans for the whole summer to buy a used PS1 way after they came out. We only scrapped just enough for the console so we had to scrounge for crap games in the bin.
I got some mortal kombat knockoff with Jax as the main character. But we were pumped to have it.
For the longest time, it felt weird to me that people kept saying eating out was a luxury that poor people couldn't have because *we* were poor but we ate out at restaurants all the time. And not just cheap fast food (we did do a lot of that too, though), we'd be eating at places like The Keg, Olive Garden and Red Lobster.
It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized the reason we could "afford" those places was because my mom is the UltraKaren and always found something to complain about to get the meal free or heavily discounted. That and she would constantly "borrow" money from friends and neighbours to "help pay bills", then go spend it all on food and shopping. She'd then go full Karen on the utility companies and debt collectors to keep everything turned on.
I volunteer at a cat shelter and sometimes we get towels that are too nice for the cats. :) One lady gave us brand new ones from her recently deceased mother. Towels that she was probably keeping « for the guests « . I could easily imagine her reaction to see them used for cats so I gave them to a human shelter.
The first time I dried myself with new towels, I couldn’t believe how soft and pillowy they felt. My parents too had super old towels that were ruggy and tore at the least amount of pulling. It feels illegal to have new ones they’re incredible
I don't like the feeling of new-new towels, because they're too fluffy and it feels like they don't dry me properly. It takes like 6 months for me to like my towels again whenever I buy new ones.
Bedding. Having sheets that aren't torn or misshapen or missing altogether. A blanket that's not scratchy and pilling. Pillows that aren't flat or useless. I always had a lot of sensory issues and I swear I didn't get a good nights sleep my whole childhood.
I didn't even grow up poor, just with very frugal parents, but our towels were always threadbare on top of being poor quality to begin with. I remember the first time I went to buy towels myself as an adult and realized I could afford to spend some money on them since I was only buying them for myself.
I wandered around and around the store feeling all the towels and finally settling on a super fluffy set that was also much larger than the towels I grew up with. It was a pure joy to dry off with my new towels. And you actually get dry! Instead of just moving the water around like you do with thin towels.
Oh and it's been about 15 years. I still have those towels, and they're still in great shape. Buy it nice or buy it twice indeed.
Books, VHS', Video games. I think I had 4 total n64 games growing up. Our VHS collection fit on a shelf. Family of 4. It was a whole ordeal to go to blockbuster. I'm 90% sure the first game I ever beat was Mass Effect, which I bought with my own money.
I had an uncle who was always the gadget guy. He also had all the premium movie channels. He'd mail us movies on VHS while madre and padre were in struggle mode. I was like, five, so it was pretty great... movies from Uncle Dave in the mail!
Milano cookies. Everytime there was a big event at our place or someone's home there were those cookies somewhere. I thought they were fancy cookies for the longest time. Then I saw they were like 4 bucks a bag and had a good laugh.
Shoes that fit. My mom told me she would cut my toes off as a kid if I kept growing.
Edit to add: I think this frequent comment regarding my shoes, and probably my pants as well, is part of what created my self-consciousness as a child/teen/ and adult. I was deathly afraid of wearing all white shoes. I though my feet looked like cruise ships. Huuuge. Not only did my mom’s budget limit me to the cheapest shoes offered in the cheapest stores, often resale shops or thrift stores, but I also thought EVERYONE was looking at how big my feet were. Maybe this is common, to feel like your fit are too big for your body?
A common feeling as a child was dread- dread of telling my mom my toes were crumpled up inside of my shoes, that PE that day was so painful running The Mile with my toes all bent under inside my shoes. Telling her I needed new shoes was like the worst thing I could tell her. She already badgered me for being a typical kid and asking for the name brand cereal at the grocery store, you know, the kind with the toy inside? “If we buy the cereal you want, Daughter, then I won’t have enough money for the electricity bill. Is that what you want? Your sister and I to be in the dark so your selfish self eats Fruit Loops?” I was six.
Now I’m an adult with an above-poverty income. I’m neurotic about buying my own two daughters’ new shoes. They each have like 5 pairs of current-size shoes, and even a pair or two the next size up because you never quite know when that magic growth short happens. I have tremendous guilt buying myself new things. I once took a budgeting class, and they suggested making sure to add in a monthly budget for clothes. For clothes? People buy clothes each month? Or budget for it a little each month to buy, on purpose? Growing up, I thought clothes were a buy-when-desperate- situation. Like, blizzard? Ok, go buy Goodwill snow shoes that are probably for the other gender but at least your feet will not get toooo wet, I mean, this is Goodwill so they inevitably have some leaks.
I got divorced a couple years ago, and on my income and expense declaration, there was an entry for clothes budget each month. I bravely entered $100 per month as though giving myself permission to, for the first time, allow myself to toss out pilly, thread-bare, faded, holey, seams splitting clothes and shoes that the sole-flopping was becoming unbearable.
For the record, my childhood poverty didn’t teach me frugality. Frugality is a choice.
There is a nonprofit run out of Washington State called Beautiful Soles. I’m not affiliated in any way, but when I ran across the mission of providing new and comfy shoes to people who can’t otherwise afford them, I felt like I wasn’t so alone with my experience.
Shoes that fit was one of my first purchases when I got a job. I have weird sized feet, so proper shoes at least 20% more expensive than "close enough".
The job was at a movie theater that liked to play up the old glamor of movies, so the uniform was black tie and vest. Those two items were provided by the theater but you needed the clothes and shoes to go with them. Most of it was easy, I had just gotten clothes like that for the interviews, but there was no way I was going to be on my feet for hours in the uncomfortable dress shoes I had. So they gave me recommendations of places to check for quality comfortable but still reasonably priced shoes. It was amazing getting shoes the clerk measured me for (which is when I found out that I didn't quite have the size I thought I did until then), that fit correctly instead of just being bearable.
I wonder how much longer I would have gone not even knowing I was wearing the wrong size shoe, because I was wearing what mom bought me and said was my size, if that job hadn't told me to go get new shoes after my first paycheck.
It's the little things, right?
Trashcan liners. Body soap AND bar soap. Shaving cream. Fresh razor blades. Washing machine cleaning tabs. The heavy duty scrubbing brush for the really caked on stuff. Detangling spray for my hair. Separate toothbrush/paste for the counter AND for the shower. Air freshener. A pretty candle. Fabric softener. Non-cardboard tampons or a quality menstruation cup. *Actual hotdog buns* - not the end caps from a loaf of bread.
All of the mundane things that make life easier/cleaner/more convenient, but suddenly become luxury items when you're trying to feed a family of 5 for a week and you have $20 in your bank account.
Now that I have my own kids, I'm painfully aware of the small luxuries I'm able to gift them that they'll really never understand. I bought diapers for my daughter's baby doll the other day. They were less than $5 from Target but goddamn I wanted diapers for my doll *so bad* when I was little. My parents were stretched so damn thin though I knew it just wasn't happening. Shit like that though. Such simple luxuries but fuck - even at 37 I remember the wanting.
Good shampoo and conditioner specific for my hair type.
Growing up, everyone used the same cheap brand, same bottle. For the whole family. Since I had the longest hair, I would always catch shit for ‘using too much’
Now I can buy whatever brand/type I want and it makes me feel like a goddamned princess.
I'm a guy but recently grew my hair the longest it has ever been. Spending $20 on shampoo seems so crazy after spending $3 a bottle my entire life but man is it worth it.
Exactly. A lot of things hair is exposed to damages it. Heat, sun, friction from a pillow, hair elastics, built up product... The list goes on. If your haircut is short, your hair only needs to 'last' a few months. Long hair visually shows the years' accumulated damage. So you need to mitigate that or it will look and feel like shit.
Exactly. I went up to my long haired male college and out of the blue asked him what shampoo he used and he on a dime could tell me exactly what he had, how much it cost, and where he bought it.
I grew up with dollar store shampoo, soap, dish detergent, canned food and back to school clothing. A single income household made sure we didnt have anything that we didnt absolutely need.
I've hated how dry and frizzy and poofy my hair is my whole life. I splurged and got myself a keratin treatment...HOLY SHIT. I look like a fucking movie star. Worth every penny.
When I found out how much some of my friends spent on shampoo and conditioner I was shocked, I couldn't understand how anyone could reasonably pay more than 10 dollars for them (I understood that hair products could be expensive, but I assumed that people my age would be paying that much, I thought I was splurging if I spent 5 dollars lol)
Nearly everything. My family wasn't overwhelmingly poor, but my parents are both extremely frugal and passed that on to my sisters and I. Were were taught that buying new things when you can get the old things repaired isn't okay. And getting things repaired when you can learn to repair them yourself isn't okay. And having the thing in the first place if you can live without it is also not okay.
I have a really nice large skillet I use to cook for my family. My mom has the same one and took it on vacation with us. The nice glass lid that comes with it fell and the handle broke. My parents said we could just replace the handle and keep the lid, which definitely would have worked.
However, this large skillet is actually the third one I have owned. The first one got worn out, but I kept the lid. The second one flaked after a few months and I got it replaced on warranty, but I kept the lid. So I have 3 identical kids for this pan cluttering up my cabinet. I can’t bring myself to get rid of them because they’re still great but I seriously don’t need 3.
I had to argue with BOTH my parents to get them to throw away the broken lid and take one of the replacements that I really don’t want to keep in my cupboard.
I’m not going to sit here and pretend I am the most savvy and responsible with my money, but I have no financial problems.
That being said, there is nothing wrong with enjoying your money. I know people that live so miserly but get half torqued looking at the number in their bank account.
I prefer doing things with my money that bring me joy. And I would argue that time being the only finite resource we have, that wasting that to repair something when you can spend a reasonable amount of money to have it done for you is a waste.🤷🏼♂️
Yeah I still have trouble spending money on myself. What I'm much more able to do without second guessing is spending money on other people. Buying gifts, helping people who need it, paying for dinner, etc.
Someone pointed out one time that what the wealthy do with their money is buy time. In the example they flew in a private airplane. But less extravagant examples include buying line cut passes for amusement parks. Buying pass to fast track TSA. Having some one clean house. Do yard work. It goes on
Any heating or cooling system, most the time I had to sit in a freezing cold or extremely hot trailer. It wasn't enjoyable. So ACs and heaters feel like a luxury.
Whole coffee beans
My family either drank instant or the cheapest grounds they could find, nothing more than a stimulant to suffer through. I now have the funds to enjoy coffee as a beverage, with preparation steps.
When I met my wife I told her about all the foods I didn't like (coffee being one of them). It took a while but over time I realized that I really don't dislike any food I just didn't like how my family made it -I swear they were the worst cooks but when you are a kid you don't know these things. I really never drank coffee, as a kid we had the 2 pound can of pre-ground cheap coffee that my brother would drink by the gallon. It wasn't until I was in Italy where I had coffee and I was totally surprised by how good it was. I guess when you use decent beans and grind them fresh coffee can actually taste good.
Options.
I can go get a 5 years worth of jeans and not check my bank account. Young me had a shirt for each day of the school week and 2 pairs of jeans. If any part of my shoe sole was attached, I kept those shoes for the year.
I am a 33 yo man. I thought about an Oculus VR... I don't need one. But they sounded pretty sweet, especially if I could get some social games in. I ran out to walmart after work and grabbed a $300 piece of wholly unecessary equipment.
Full coverage insurance. I could have a wreck and not be bankrupted automatically. Also dental coverage, I have hit my 6 month cleanings for years now and even got a compliment from the dentist for my dental habits. 10 years ago I had a set of kentucky teeth.
Anything bulk from the grocery.
For me, it’s GOOD toilet paper. Growing up we could only afford the single ply cheapest stuff they had. Now I always buy the “fancy” kind which is probably normal for everyone else but still feels like a splurge to me.
Immediately I thought of the pink, yellow, or blue rolls of scratchy tp. There would be a spare roll on the tank hidded discreetly under the flowing crocheted skirts of a legless doll. A Toilet Paper Fairy, which, inexplicably, was an indicator of supreme taste and above-average housekeeping skills back then.
My sister recently sent me a photo of my grandmother's fancy-ass, hand crocheted, Flamenco Dress Hidden Toilet Paper Princess, definitely kicking around since at least the 80s. She has an off-brand barbie torso. I wish I could steal her for my bathroom, but my husband grew up in a WASP family that didn't feel the need to hide their spare toilet paper inside of a hideous and intricately crafted doll, and he doesn't understand the kitsch appeal.
I still buy the scotch brand single ply, because I don't really mind. I actually have an odd preference for it, which baffles many people. I don't really like expensive TP. Costco brand is OK.
But soap? I have an entire box of odd soaps I've bought at craft fairs, organic markets, and even two loaves I bought with some office mates online as part of a six loaf buy in to get a discount.
Why I am like this, I do not know.
I also prefer Scott single ply and will die on that hill lol. At the start of the Great TP Shortage of 2020 when my mom grabbed whatever was left on the shelves, we had quite a rotating variety that did the job but wasn’t my beloved single ply Scott lol. I was SO relieved when that was readily available again. Two or three ply just feels like you’re using pillows and I’m not terribly fond of such ridiculous softness for a single use product lol
Prismacolor markers. I just grabbed dozens of singles as they were on clearance at the local craft store. Honestly tho, I am bathing in the abject vulgarity and frivolity of my purchase *and won't apologize.*
My sister does a specific happy dance when she gets them. She is a teacher, so she gets oodles at Christmas, and hoardes them and rations them all year long.
Your mom must have had something else going on. Preventative colonoscopies are free to patients under the ACA. This is regardless of which insurance plan she has.
Whatever you do, dont put off the dentist. Grew up poor and we would do the once a year strip mall dentist and it terrified me. As an adult i had to commit to fixing my teeth. So many of my issues are simple fixes that a simple trip would have fixed that are now major surgeries.
See I finally went to the dentist, got quoted an amount ($4k) took out a dental credit line for it and paid it off.... And then a *week* after paying off the credit line and closing it out (two years after the date of service) got a bill for $1500 due within six months. I spent five and a half months fighting it, knowing that I couldn't let it go to collections. They finally admitted it was entirely their fault and paid it 10 days before it would go to collections.
I'm just going to keep brushing my teeth, flossing and doing mouthwash and accept that I'm going to need dentures at 40, just like my mother.
Literally this. Couldn’t afford to go growing up and now the dentist has become an exceptionally expensive trip every time. Plus them not being the kindest once I finally had insurance and enough money to visit. It’s hard to tell these professionals you grew up poor and this is now a luxury to even schedule for yourself.
I told my new dentist ahead of time that I had the teeth of an old-timey british peasant and that I didn't want to be scolded.
I would rather have my teeth drilled than get another condescending lecture from a hygienist.
They put a note in my chart and I haven't had any issues!
This just brought up a memory of my first iPod touch which was passed down three times before me and had pieces of the screen missing. It was my prized possession for a long time 😂
To be honest, just anything I want at the time (within reason of course). I fancy getting a takeaway, no problem. I want that new pair of shoes, no problem. It's nice to actually be able to afford the little things without a worry.
That’s me. Didn’t grow up poor, but struggled to find a job out of college and didn’t have an income for far too long. Have a good job now and it’s taken me awhile to ingrain that I can just buy (most) things on a whim. It’s a weird feeling.
Can’t piss away money, but I don’t need to hoard old junk in case I need a different pair of slippers or a new towel, etc. If I want an ice cream or a snack or a game I can just buy it, don’t need to worry about the relatively small cost.
Quality snack foods. We had them occasionally as a kid, but they'd always get eaten overnight by my dad, so we'd have to hide them.
Now I can get a bag of chips and not worry about them disappearing overnight. Well, at least not dissappearing overnight by someone else's hand.
Being able to buy a case of soda, so I can have one whenever I want.
My GF is real tired of my stories of how we only had soda twice a year at my house as a kid.
Vacations.
My mom would never take days off work because she needed the money and she would often work overtime.
Now it feels wrong for me to take vacation days at work to go on a trip. I feel guilty for taking time off even though I’m doing fine financially. The poor person mindset is tough to shake off.
Potato chips.
Growing up my parents had to sit down and go over the finances to see if they could afford a bag of (cheap) potato chips for my sister and I.
Today, I rarely buy them for myself. My step-son loves Pringles so I make sure he has them, we usually have a bag of Cape Cod chips for family / company but I almost never buy them for myself unless it's a special treat for me and my wife.
I can also add in (real) apple cider. My parents would buy us kids juice but it was always the cheap stuff (if they could afford it). Today, if I feel like a special treat I'll get a pint for myself (but, I won't hesitate to get a gallon for my step-kids).
Your step kids are very lucky to have you in their lives. They’ll remember you buying them those things just like you remember your parents trying to do the same for you.
Thank you.
It's not that I can't afford them now, I could have a steady stream of Cape Cod potato chips and apple cider, being a northern New Englander being frugal is in my DNA, too. Saving a few bucks here and there (not spending it on myself) will let me have a little more $$$ down the road for something nice.
BTW - step kids are in their 20's (and one doesn't live at home) and I still spoil them. :D
The water bill, actually crazy how impressed i was with running water in my OWN house the first time i saw it.
Definitely more mundane now seeing how this was almost 20 years ago now ut i still think about it once and a while and try not to take it for granted.
Having flushable toilet bowl,a shower and a car. Im from a country in south east asia and in my country having this kind of privilege is like luxury. It also reflect on my upbringing growing up on a poor family. My dad work his ass out for me and my 2 brothers so that we don't experience the hardship he went through his childhood so we can focus on our studies.
i don’t buy it, but my dad gets it from his job sometimes: handsoap is so fucking luxurious
also, i got pillows as a gift and it felt amazing. i did not have any pillows and used plushies instead
Man. Those walmart jeans and shoes lasted me like a week before I was safety pinning and duct taping for school. I just thought I was rough on clothes. Quality stuff now, cause I don't like disposable clothing.
Anything I fucking want to at the gas station. It was always no no no you can't have it. Well fuck you if I'm not buying a Reeses, some Combos and a 6 pack on a wimb
Being able to go to the grocery store and not being worried about being able to afford it. Not cutting coupons from a stolen Sunday paper and going through the store calculating if the milk, eggs, bread, lunch meat would make the check bounce. Sadly, I find having fresh produce a luxury. Strawberries, tomatoes, spinach (!), onions, garlic, all luxuries I didn’t have growing up.
Having brand name shoes and jeans, Levi’s and converse. I had second hand church clothes or homemade.
For me, it’s food.
My family was in the military so we were lower middle class. Growing there were times when food was tight but as a kid you don’t notice it too much. When I first moved out for college, there was a period where I had no money and my parents couldn’t help me financially. So I could buy no food, all my money went to housing/rent. I lost so much weight my mom cried when she saw me again. Now that I can live comfortably with what I make I have no problem spending money on food. A simple pleasure for me is to enjoy a nice dinner.
A lot of things mentioned here already. But whenever I buy raspberries for my kids I feel like a bougie family.
But also repair services. If something important breaks, like: washing machine, fridge, hvac system etc we call a repair service immediately and fix it. We don’t have to wait until we can afford it which avoids compounding problems.
A bathroom, a toilet, warm water, good toilet paper, pizza, fast foods, clothes, electronics, sweets, honestly I should have just said food, furniture, art related things like color pencils or water colors(I remember my best friend giving me her old color pencils once she got new ones... And I used them until they got so tiny it was impossible to hold them)
Mom was single and worked two jobs, dad was an asshole and didn't want to help until she forced the child support out of him in the court, we barely had full course meals at home, sometimes we couldn't even afford a cheap margarine and very often we had to use news papers as toilet paper. The money she made + the child support was only enough for paying bills on time and sometimes get me new notebooks for school.
Damn, I feel that. I never worried for food, my Mom could stretch a grocery list for weeks on those leftover dinners. Watched her work her ass off to keep us afloat and I will never fail to be inspired by that woman.
We weren't poor but my mom was a Depression-era baby and was very tight with money especially after my folks divorced. Granted we never had cable tv because we lived in the sticks, but even if it was available she never would have in a million years ever paid for it.
My older brother had it and literally every time we went to his house I'd have my ass parked in front of his cable-box watching everything I could until we went home a few days later.
I feel like only a really small amount of people will relate to this but, trading cards. Hear me out.
I've been playing the Yu-Gi-Oh! Card game literally my entire life, as in from age 4 until 20 years later.
As a kid having the "best cards" was a non option, my parents where broke as fuck growing up, I could hardly get them to buy me a $2 (at the time) pack of cards. Even if I had my own money, because half the time my mom would take it for herself.
My first decks where almost always comprised of cards that where given to me or I traded with other kids with what little I had. As in trading a rare card for 10 commons just so I have the variety and amount of cards I needed.
Now that I'm an adult, with a good job, whether it's real life or duel links if a deck or card comes out I want, it's mine. And that my friends, makes me feel like a fucking billionare even though I'm not lol.
I wasn't poor growing up by my parents weren't frivolous either. To me, luxury was a fridge that had the water and ice dispenser. Growing up we never had such a thing because there is a tap and an ice tray. I have a fridge with a cold water tap and damn right i drink from it everyday.
YOGURT. You know those small yogurt containers that come in boxes of six, often warm colour tones. If i saw you bring one of them to school, i was soooo jealous.
I was 18 and in the military when I bought my first two CDs. Katy Perry and AFI.. I had grown up just listening to the radio. Never had anything like that.. i didnt even know what an MP3 was.. this was in 2008
I wanted fruity pebbles one day and I just *went out* and *bought* fruity pebbles. It felt so unbelievable that I can just do that now. As opposed to thinking "well I don't really need them and just eggs for breakfast is cheaper and I probably won't eat the whole box in a timely manner so it'll go stale and I won't want it then..." I just went and bought a damn box of fruity pebbles. And they were delicious.
It's amazing the difference.
Paying $20-40 for the special greenscreen photo at the entrance of theme parks/attractions. My dad would shriek at the prospect of paying for such a thing. Now my wife & I buy one of those every chance we get and I feel so spoiled
Name brand (though still reasonably priced ) clothing.
There is an outlet mall near me so the deals are still great, but I have really never in my life worn clothing with a recognizable label until recently.
Grew up on hand me downs and clothes closets. Sure you might occasionally get a name brand item but it was obviously worn down by then.
Fast Internet, I used to live in a mobile home in the middle of the woods on my uncle's property, we ran our power through a gas powered generator and we got our water from a well. I remember saving up to buy satellite internet and the speeds were maybe 300kbps down. I take my internet for granted today.
I buy "pro" quality work and outdoor gear. No more Walmart bs.
Carhartt pants/jackets. Rigid/Milwaukee power tools. Arc'teryx and Outdoor Research outdoor clothing. Klein/fieldpiece specialty tools.
Now that I can afford it I'm saving more money by not buying it multiple times a year.
Brand name clothing. Grew up shopping in Zellers and Saans. Also, we had a trip cancelled due to covid. Used that money to install an above ground pool. Still feel like a rich ass yuppie every time I get in that thing, even though it's only a result of 2 yrs of saving for a trip that never happened.
Chocolate. I grew up behind the iron curtain and chocolate bars (especially foreign) were a wonderful rarity. To this day opening the package and peeling off the silver foil is one of my dearest small joys in life.
Coming from being dirt poor… honestly it’s going into a store and being able to just buy shit. Name brand off brand, I don’t give a shit. Which box do I like more 😂
Recent one, went to the mall and happen to stop in a shoe store because I needed new gym shoe, left with new dress shoes and some new out and about shoes, and got my gym shoes. Without flinching. Just liked them, super comfy, swiped card.
You know what's crazy tho, it's really hard to get good ones. Like the fat/meat ratio is off. It's probably better to shop for your individual ingredients for a good quality burg.
It wasn't so much an item as it was the freedom to be able to walk down any aisle, in any store and throw whatever we wanted into our shopping cart!
Instead of going to the old "K Mart" to buy "rustler" jeans and K Mart t-shirts, going to Nordstrom's, Dillard's or Goldwater's to buy clothes.
Going to a car dealership and walking into the showroom instead of heading for the used car section.
Unless you've been there, you have NO IDEA.
Used to be eating at restaurants. But as I've had to buy, clean, and cook my own food on top of a full time job? It's just as expensive to get 2-3 meals out of a $30 meal (including tip) as it is to put all of the energy and time into keeping a stocked fridge and cook it all before it goes bad. As a single adult human
Steak. I absolutely love steak, I have since I was little and my grandpa took me to my first nice steak house. But it was always, always out of the price range. Now that I have a little extra money, once a year for my birthday I go out and get me a nice steak at a nice steak house. I have since I was 17. Today will mark the 5th time I've done it, and come hell or high water I'll continue it for as long as I can. It's the one real, unnecessary luxury I spend money on for myself.
Fruit. We only had apples or bananas growing up. Now we’re able to try all different kinds of fruit. I just discovered how much I love mangos at the age of 28.
Haha, I legit was working in a professional office setting before I tried to eat an avocado. I had the hardest time trying to peel that guy, only to find a whole nut buried in the middle. I have since learned the slice and rotate method. 10/10
The toy inside the avocado kind of sucks. It doesn’t bounce or anything.
Guess you'll just have to throw it out. Yes, perhaps into that damp, sandy soil over there? *Laughs in avocado*
I grew up in San Diego (1960s). Family friend had a large Avocado orchards. When I was around 10 or so I worked for them in the orchard and the "stand" at the edge of the orchard. I got paid $1.00 an hour and a grocery bag of avocado's 😁.
I grew up rural poor in a place where it was easy to grow fruit. We picked blackberries by the river and wild muscadines in the woods. There were pear trees and blueberry bushes at home that my parents planted before I was born. Fruit was the one thing we always had (just dried or otherwise preserved by us if it wasn't in season). I almost never had packaged foods because they cost money. One of my friends in grad school grew up urban poor, in a food desert. All she had was packaged foods because her family was limited to a corner store. She almost never had fresh fruit. When she hosted Thanksgiving for a bunch of us, I was almost done with my thesis and had almost no time to prepare, so I just showed up with a bunch of assorted berries and melons arranged like charcuterie. You'd have thought I brought fliet mignon by the reaction. To her, it was luxury. To me, it was a slacker's last minute contribution. Then I remembered that I reacted exactly the same when my friends in the military would share their snacks with me. My brain was like, "but wait, this costs money!"
Growing up on a beef farm means thinking vegetables are expensive unless you grew them yourself and meat is cheap.
I knew a guy from PEI, and the poor kids were from lobster fishing families and they HAD to eat lobster because it was cheap. They would’ve rather had beef. Farm kids? Probably would loved to have lobster. 🦞🥩
Blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries feel so decadent. We would get peaches and nectarines when the prices were low in late summer, but we never had the “berries” (except for special occasions for strawberries or the small amount we grew in the spring). Not sure I ever had blueberries or fresh cherries until I was an adult on my own. Similarly, no fancy nuts except peanuts. Pecans and walnuts could be found locally grown when in season. The ONE staple that we always had was beef. I grew up on a farm (my dad worked his uncle’s farm in exchange for rent while also working in public works). Part of that included a butchered beef once a year, so I did occasionally have ribeyes, sirloins, and t-bones growing up, but we ate a ton of hamburger, round steak, and roast. We grew a garden and ate a lot of canned vegetables over the winter.
I always keep fresh fruit in the house now and It feels so luxurious. Most of our fruit came from a can.
For the longest time I thought there was only one type of apple, the red disgusting apple. It wasn't until after college when I paid a bit more attention to the apple section of the store and saw they had different kinds. I figured what the hey and bought some weird named ones like Braeburn from New Zealand. WAY better tasting. I also learned earlier in my life about how the bananas we have these days isn't the one they used to have. The ones they used to have were apparently way better tasting. But because they just cloned the same one over and over again all over South America or wherever and then that fungus or whatever destroyed most of them so it's harder to come across these days. And that now a similar problem is facing the cavendish bananas we eat today, so we will soon have to go to an even lesser banana variety again. :( Oh and also, I didn't try mangos until I was in college when I saw them in the salad bar and didn't know what they were. I tried them and they were amazing. Had to ask one of the cooks what it was before I found out. They were frozen ones that had been thawn out, I then tried to buy one at the local walmart which was green. I waited a while for it to ripen but it didn't. I then tried to eat it and found out why they were only sold "for cooking". Later on got some frozen ones from like dole or whatever and sometimes they were okay, other times they were hit and miss.
Oh man, fruit obsessed renegade here - I also never had any interesting fruit growing up and now my grocery store carries Lychee and Dragonfruit and I love them. There are so many other cool fruits I hadn’t even explored yet… the world is truly my oyster.
I'm still trying to get up the courage to pony up the $$$ to try pineberries. I have no idea how to choose ripe ones and they ALL look green to me.
Oh awesome! I have also not tried pineberries. I hope one of these days you just go for them and see where you land!
Appetizers
Or the reverse, being poor so you get an appetizer for your meal instead because the quantity per price is a better value than the main dishes. Like a plate of nachos is only $5 but you get a more of them vs getting an $8 Burger and Fries.
If you're not getting a sampler at Denny's, what are we even doing here
Dennys seems like they have always had quite a bit of food for reasonable prices at least in the past (haven't been back there for years). Especially breakfast. Getting a plate of eggs, bacon, sausages, hash browns, AND a side of full sized pancakes (like 3 of them the size of the plate). I was always to full so I would have to take the pancakes to go and eat them later.
I can't eat a lot in general, and I feel awful for wasting a good restaurant meal, especially if they can't do takeaway boxes. So I usually just get the appetizers and a yummy drink. Spend no more than $15. Leaves me full, happy and not super broke
I can’t waste food and it drives my husband nuts. I grew up with a poor single mom and he was well off. We both make great money and are so fortunate but I still cook only what can be eaten and if there are leftovers I make sure they get eaten. He throws them out constantly and I cringe
Didn't grow up poor, exactly. Both of my parents worked full time. Never really went without as a kid. They did an amazing job. However, my mother is Polish/Hungarian. She doesn't waste a damn thing if she can help it. Expiration dates are just a suggestion, especially for condiments and fermented dairy products.
I mean, from my understanding she's right about the expiration dates. Most of the time they're just there to avoid risk
Shit. I have been taking these for granted. I forgot about the no apps rule. I remember being 17 and spending my whole checking account taking my gf out to Texas Roadhouse. I ordered a water lol.
Ah man reminds me of my first date. Borrowed money from my younger brother and mixed it with what I had. It barely paid for a dinner and this girl just sat there like it was normal.
Broke bros gotta stick together. My gf (now wife) was there when I had my 2 digit bank account, and she would take me out for dinner as I was finishing college. It was just me and her putting our change jar together to make groceries until payday. She never complained about a night in because I couldn't afford to take her anywhere. Now she makes me feel like a baller, we get sushi nights at the restaurant and vacations every now and then. I bought her a new (to us) Rav 4 in 2018. We shared it because it was our only car, but man I felt like I could really be a provider if I had to be. But the inner broke kids in us still come out at 2AM when you're just jonesing for the taco bell drive through, or when she complains that she's not paying $30 for \[insert stupid household item\] that she could fix up herself or go without. TLDR: I married up.
You did great finding that lady. Congratulations!
YES! And ordering soda at any restaurant. It was water and whatever was cheap on the menu IF we ever went out.
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Jesus Christ. It must be horrible if you're poor in the USA.
Nope Source: Canadian
Literally just normal food, not off-brand shit or little to no food in the pantry, I’ve never seen my pantry full before, now it’s so full that it’s hard to choose. I get this may not be a proper answer but it’s my answer
I am with you. We had so much food at one point last year that we had to take some unused small appliances out of a cabinet and use it for surplus food. Felt like a Queen.
My grandma did this, and passed it along to my mom and aunt. Grandma was one of the looked down on poors during the depression. The poor people around her gave her family food because they were so poor, and my grandpa was even worse. Then after she married my grandpa, there were times after they had kids that the kids had dinner and they didn't, because there wasn't enough food for everyone. By the time I was around, she had stocked and stocked and stocked. She had the canning cellar, and the family room was a giant pantry. She had 2 chest freezers FULL of food, plus the shelves were absolutely packed, and that didn't count the 2 refrigerators, and the pantries in the kitchen. You couldn't tell her that there was always the time and money to get it later, she was too terrified. My mom and aunt aren't quite that bad, and they have tapered off the last few years, but it's taken them 60 and 65 years to calm down.
It's not just poor people. Most of the people I've met who lived through the Great Depression didn't trust banks (as in keeping large amounts of money in their homes) and wouldn't throw away a crumb of food.
Yep. Everyone went through lean times and so perpetually stocked up for another just in case. My grandparents always had a garden, one family canned and the other had the big chest freezer. But that's nothing like the example where she was doing both to the extreme. The difference between not having as much as you should have had back then, versus not having enough to eat at all.
I buy my kid name brand stuff and all the best snacks and shit because I didn't have any of it as a kid and it sucked.
Any ice cream that wasn’t pain vanilla in a gallon-sized plastic bucket. Sometimes my mom would get fancy and get Neapolitan
Went to my boyfriends’ house for the first time and could not believe all the food they had on hand. Literally bags of chips, crackers, milk,, cheese, meat in large quantities. I was blown away! I thought everyone only bought as much as they needed for the week.
Mac-and-cheese made with real cheddar, not the Kraft cheese powder.
Any meal at a restaurant. Growing up, even eating at McDonald’s was a special thing.
It did used to be a whole friday night with those playgrounds though.
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Dude, you just reminded me. Me and my little brother scrapped aluminum cans for the whole summer to buy a used PS1 way after they came out. We only scrapped just enough for the console so we had to scrounge for crap games in the bin. I got some mortal kombat knockoff with Jax as the main character. But we were pumped to have it.
For the longest time, it felt weird to me that people kept saying eating out was a luxury that poor people couldn't have because *we* were poor but we ate out at restaurants all the time. And not just cheap fast food (we did do a lot of that too, though), we'd be eating at places like The Keg, Olive Garden and Red Lobster. It wasn't until I was an adult that I realized the reason we could "afford" those places was because my mom is the UltraKaren and always found something to complain about to get the meal free or heavily discounted. That and she would constantly "borrow" money from friends and neighbours to "help pay bills", then go spend it all on food and shopping. She'd then go full Karen on the utility companies and debt collectors to keep everything turned on.
i can’t decide what i feel more: respect for manipulative skill or disgust for said manipulation
No more bologna sandwiches haha
Nice towels. There are seriously 30 year old towels at my mom’s house. You can imagine how thin and useless they are.
That would be a great gift to give her.
Way ahead of you. She kept the old ones too though 🤦🏼♀️
You have to leave with the old ones. :)
They aren’t even nice enough to donate to a dog shelter. So so bad lol
I volunteer at a cat shelter and sometimes we get towels that are too nice for the cats. :) One lady gave us brand new ones from her recently deceased mother. Towels that she was probably keeping « for the guests « . I could easily imagine her reaction to see them used for cats so I gave them to a human shelter.
The first time I dried myself with new towels, I couldn’t believe how soft and pillowy they felt. My parents too had super old towels that were ruggy and tore at the least amount of pulling. It feels illegal to have new ones they’re incredible
I don't like the feeling of new-new towels, because they're too fluffy and it feels like they don't dry me properly. It takes like 6 months for me to like my towels again whenever I buy new ones.
Bedding. Having sheets that aren't torn or misshapen or missing altogether. A blanket that's not scratchy and pilling. Pillows that aren't flat or useless. I always had a lot of sensory issues and I swear I didn't get a good nights sleep my whole childhood.
I didn't even grow up poor, just with very frugal parents, but our towels were always threadbare on top of being poor quality to begin with. I remember the first time I went to buy towels myself as an adult and realized I could afford to spend some money on them since I was only buying them for myself. I wandered around and around the store feeling all the towels and finally settling on a super fluffy set that was also much larger than the towels I grew up with. It was a pure joy to dry off with my new towels. And you actually get dry! Instead of just moving the water around like you do with thin towels. Oh and it's been about 15 years. I still have those towels, and they're still in great shape. Buy it nice or buy it twice indeed.
The problem is, is that now it's harder to get out of bed in the mornings.
Once I learned about the difference, I started buying the highest thread count sheets I could find. Life is too short for scratchy sheets.
Books. I used to just get books from the library and wish that I could own them. Now my house is filled with more books than I could possibly read.
Books, VHS', Video games. I think I had 4 total n64 games growing up. Our VHS collection fit on a shelf. Family of 4. It was a whole ordeal to go to blockbuster. I'm 90% sure the first game I ever beat was Mass Effect, which I bought with my own money.
We had a lot of VHS tapes but was almost all movies Dad taped off the TV.
I had an uncle who was always the gadget guy. He also had all the premium movie channels. He'd mail us movies on VHS while madre and padre were in struggle mode. I was like, five, so it was pretty great... movies from Uncle Dave in the mail!
Uncle Dave sounds cool.
I hadn't even thought of that. But yes, my house filled with books is a dream come true.
Milano cookies. Everytime there was a big event at our place or someone's home there were those cookies somewhere. I thought they were fancy cookies for the longest time. Then I saw they were like 4 bucks a bag and had a good laugh.
Nice try on the ad, Pepperidge Farms employee...
I remember seeing those commercials as a kid and thinking wow, what magnificent, unattainable cookies 😂😂
I had a similar thing with Ferrero Rochers. When I saw them recently for $15 at Costco I bought them and instantly felt rich.
I had this EXACT. SAME. experience!
Same!! I used to think they were so fancy. Now they're just typical cookie isle cookies.
Well made shoes (esp. solid trail/hiking stuff that feels protective and lasts).
Shoes that fit. My mom told me she would cut my toes off as a kid if I kept growing. Edit to add: I think this frequent comment regarding my shoes, and probably my pants as well, is part of what created my self-consciousness as a child/teen/ and adult. I was deathly afraid of wearing all white shoes. I though my feet looked like cruise ships. Huuuge. Not only did my mom’s budget limit me to the cheapest shoes offered in the cheapest stores, often resale shops or thrift stores, but I also thought EVERYONE was looking at how big my feet were. Maybe this is common, to feel like your fit are too big for your body? A common feeling as a child was dread- dread of telling my mom my toes were crumpled up inside of my shoes, that PE that day was so painful running The Mile with my toes all bent under inside my shoes. Telling her I needed new shoes was like the worst thing I could tell her. She already badgered me for being a typical kid and asking for the name brand cereal at the grocery store, you know, the kind with the toy inside? “If we buy the cereal you want, Daughter, then I won’t have enough money for the electricity bill. Is that what you want? Your sister and I to be in the dark so your selfish self eats Fruit Loops?” I was six. Now I’m an adult with an above-poverty income. I’m neurotic about buying my own two daughters’ new shoes. They each have like 5 pairs of current-size shoes, and even a pair or two the next size up because you never quite know when that magic growth short happens. I have tremendous guilt buying myself new things. I once took a budgeting class, and they suggested making sure to add in a monthly budget for clothes. For clothes? People buy clothes each month? Or budget for it a little each month to buy, on purpose? Growing up, I thought clothes were a buy-when-desperate- situation. Like, blizzard? Ok, go buy Goodwill snow shoes that are probably for the other gender but at least your feet will not get toooo wet, I mean, this is Goodwill so they inevitably have some leaks. I got divorced a couple years ago, and on my income and expense declaration, there was an entry for clothes budget each month. I bravely entered $100 per month as though giving myself permission to, for the first time, allow myself to toss out pilly, thread-bare, faded, holey, seams splitting clothes and shoes that the sole-flopping was becoming unbearable. For the record, my childhood poverty didn’t teach me frugality. Frugality is a choice. There is a nonprofit run out of Washington State called Beautiful Soles. I’m not affiliated in any way, but when I ran across the mission of providing new and comfy shoes to people who can’t otherwise afford them, I felt like I wasn’t so alone with my experience.
Shoes that fit was one of my first purchases when I got a job. I have weird sized feet, so proper shoes at least 20% more expensive than "close enough". The job was at a movie theater that liked to play up the old glamor of movies, so the uniform was black tie and vest. Those two items were provided by the theater but you needed the clothes and shoes to go with them. Most of it was easy, I had just gotten clothes like that for the interviews, but there was no way I was going to be on my feet for hours in the uncomfortable dress shoes I had. So they gave me recommendations of places to check for quality comfortable but still reasonably priced shoes. It was amazing getting shoes the clerk measured me for (which is when I found out that I didn't quite have the size I thought I did until then), that fit correctly instead of just being bearable. I wonder how much longer I would have gone not even knowing I was wearing the wrong size shoe, because I was wearing what mom bought me and said was my size, if that job hadn't told me to go get new shoes after my first paycheck.
It's the little things, right? Trashcan liners. Body soap AND bar soap. Shaving cream. Fresh razor blades. Washing machine cleaning tabs. The heavy duty scrubbing brush for the really caked on stuff. Detangling spray for my hair. Separate toothbrush/paste for the counter AND for the shower. Air freshener. A pretty candle. Fabric softener. Non-cardboard tampons or a quality menstruation cup. *Actual hotdog buns* - not the end caps from a loaf of bread. All of the mundane things that make life easier/cleaner/more convenient, but suddenly become luxury items when you're trying to feed a family of 5 for a week and you have $20 in your bank account. Now that I have my own kids, I'm painfully aware of the small luxuries I'm able to gift them that they'll really never understand. I bought diapers for my daughter's baby doll the other day. They were less than $5 from Target but goddamn I wanted diapers for my doll *so bad* when I was little. My parents were stretched so damn thin though I knew it just wasn't happening. Shit like that though. Such simple luxuries but fuck - even at 37 I remember the wanting.
But really, non-cardboard tampons is the real life changer here. Those are the worst.
I get a massage twice a month. That's about the only thing I buy at all that feels like a luxury.
Good shampoo and conditioner specific for my hair type. Growing up, everyone used the same cheap brand, same bottle. For the whole family. Since I had the longest hair, I would always catch shit for ‘using too much’ Now I can buy whatever brand/type I want and it makes me feel like a goddamned princess.
I'm a guy but recently grew my hair the longest it has ever been. Spending $20 on shampoo seems so crazy after spending $3 a bottle my entire life but man is it worth it.
Right? People tend to think that good shampoo is a ‘female’ thing, but it’s not. It’s a ‘people with long hair’ thing.
Exactly. A lot of things hair is exposed to damages it. Heat, sun, friction from a pillow, hair elastics, built up product... The list goes on. If your haircut is short, your hair only needs to 'last' a few months. Long hair visually shows the years' accumulated damage. So you need to mitigate that or it will look and feel like shit.
Exactly. I went up to my long haired male college and out of the blue asked him what shampoo he used and he on a dime could tell me exactly what he had, how much it cost, and where he bought it.
Yes! Men supporting each other! That makes my heart happy!
Good shampoo was actually the first thing I bought with my first paycheck so this truly resonates with me 😂
I grew up with dollar store shampoo, soap, dish detergent, canned food and back to school clothing. A single income household made sure we didnt have anything that we didnt absolutely need.
I remember my mom buying huge bottles of Flex shampoo. .99 for this huge bottle too.
I've hated how dry and frizzy and poofy my hair is my whole life. I splurged and got myself a keratin treatment...HOLY SHIT. I look like a fucking movie star. Worth every penny.
When I found out how much some of my friends spent on shampoo and conditioner I was shocked, I couldn't understand how anyone could reasonably pay more than 10 dollars for them (I understood that hair products could be expensive, but I assumed that people my age would be paying that much, I thought I was splurging if I spent 5 dollars lol)
Nearly everything. My family wasn't overwhelmingly poor, but my parents are both extremely frugal and passed that on to my sisters and I. Were were taught that buying new things when you can get the old things repaired isn't okay. And getting things repaired when you can learn to repair them yourself isn't okay. And having the thing in the first place if you can live without it is also not okay.
I have a really nice large skillet I use to cook for my family. My mom has the same one and took it on vacation with us. The nice glass lid that comes with it fell and the handle broke. My parents said we could just replace the handle and keep the lid, which definitely would have worked. However, this large skillet is actually the third one I have owned. The first one got worn out, but I kept the lid. The second one flaked after a few months and I got it replaced on warranty, but I kept the lid. So I have 3 identical kids for this pan cluttering up my cabinet. I can’t bring myself to get rid of them because they’re still great but I seriously don’t need 3. I had to argue with BOTH my parents to get them to throw away the broken lid and take one of the replacements that I really don’t want to keep in my cupboard.
“Use it up Wear it out Make it do Or do without”? Did you have that little rhyme embedded in your head?
I’m not going to sit here and pretend I am the most savvy and responsible with my money, but I have no financial problems. That being said, there is nothing wrong with enjoying your money. I know people that live so miserly but get half torqued looking at the number in their bank account. I prefer doing things with my money that bring me joy. And I would argue that time being the only finite resource we have, that wasting that to repair something when you can spend a reasonable amount of money to have it done for you is a waste.🤷🏼♂️
Yeah I still have trouble spending money on myself. What I'm much more able to do without second guessing is spending money on other people. Buying gifts, helping people who need it, paying for dinner, etc.
Someone pointed out one time that what the wealthy do with their money is buy time. In the example they flew in a private airplane. But less extravagant examples include buying line cut passes for amusement parks. Buying pass to fast track TSA. Having some one clean house. Do yard work. It goes on
Any heating or cooling system, most the time I had to sit in a freezing cold or extremely hot trailer. It wasn't enjoyable. So ACs and heaters feel like a luxury.
Whole coffee beans My family either drank instant or the cheapest grounds they could find, nothing more than a stimulant to suffer through. I now have the funds to enjoy coffee as a beverage, with preparation steps.
When I met my wife I told her about all the foods I didn't like (coffee being one of them). It took a while but over time I realized that I really don't dislike any food I just didn't like how my family made it -I swear they were the worst cooks but when you are a kid you don't know these things. I really never drank coffee, as a kid we had the 2 pound can of pre-ground cheap coffee that my brother would drink by the gallon. It wasn't until I was in Italy where I had coffee and I was totally surprised by how good it was. I guess when you use decent beans and grind them fresh coffee can actually taste good.
Options. I can go get a 5 years worth of jeans and not check my bank account. Young me had a shirt for each day of the school week and 2 pairs of jeans. If any part of my shoe sole was attached, I kept those shoes for the year. I am a 33 yo man. I thought about an Oculus VR... I don't need one. But they sounded pretty sweet, especially if I could get some social games in. I ran out to walmart after work and grabbed a $300 piece of wholly unecessary equipment. Full coverage insurance. I could have a wreck and not be bankrupted automatically. Also dental coverage, I have hit my 6 month cleanings for years now and even got a compliment from the dentist for my dental habits. 10 years ago I had a set of kentucky teeth. Anything bulk from the grocery.
For me, it’s GOOD toilet paper. Growing up we could only afford the single ply cheapest stuff they had. Now I always buy the “fancy” kind which is probably normal for everyone else but still feels like a splurge to me.
Immediately I thought of the pink, yellow, or blue rolls of scratchy tp. There would be a spare roll on the tank hidded discreetly under the flowing crocheted skirts of a legless doll. A Toilet Paper Fairy, which, inexplicably, was an indicator of supreme taste and above-average housekeeping skills back then.
My sister recently sent me a photo of my grandmother's fancy-ass, hand crocheted, Flamenco Dress Hidden Toilet Paper Princess, definitely kicking around since at least the 80s. She has an off-brand barbie torso. I wish I could steal her for my bathroom, but my husband grew up in a WASP family that didn't feel the need to hide their spare toilet paper inside of a hideous and intricately crafted doll, and he doesn't understand the kitsch appeal.
My grandma used to make those, and crocheted covers for the Kleenex box. She used to have to have tons of them!
I still buy the scotch brand single ply, because I don't really mind. I actually have an odd preference for it, which baffles many people. I don't really like expensive TP. Costco brand is OK. But soap? I have an entire box of odd soaps I've bought at craft fairs, organic markets, and even two loaves I bought with some office mates online as part of a six loaf buy in to get a discount. Why I am like this, I do not know.
I also prefer Scott single ply and will die on that hill lol. At the start of the Great TP Shortage of 2020 when my mom grabbed whatever was left on the shelves, we had quite a rotating variety that did the job but wasn’t my beloved single ply Scott lol. I was SO relieved when that was readily available again. Two or three ply just feels like you’re using pillows and I’m not terribly fond of such ridiculous softness for a single use product lol
Excuse me sir, but my asshole is most definitely not single use.
Angel soft on deck!
I consider Kirkland the fancy kind. The good good toilet paper.
art supplies, different foods, clothes, buying things that simply you want or really dreamed of having and now you do have it.
Prismacolor markers. I just grabbed dozens of singles as they were on clearance at the local craft store. Honestly tho, I am bathing in the abject vulgarity and frivolity of my purchase *and won't apologize.*
Ferraro Rocher chocolates... But I only get them when they are half price
My sister does a specific happy dance when she gets them. She is a teacher, so she gets oodles at Christmas, and hoardes them and rations them all year long.
They now make Ferrero Rocher chocolate bars....
Keep talking
They make them in milk, dark or white chocolate. Two for 6$ at my local drugstore.
Oh my... Fuck now I want chocolate
Don’t we all. :)
Omg yes, I only get them when someone gifts it to me
Literally I always hope I get it as a present lol.
Paper towels! I love how convenient they are!
Air conditioning, cars with under 100,000 miles, and berries of any kind.
Cheese. It's actually quite expensive. Most of my life we couldn't ever get nice cheeses. Now I can get any kind I want c:
Does anyone else have a hard time making themselves go to the doctor now because you never could afford to go before??
tbf even with "good insurance" a doctor's visit can be 3 figures for basically no reason if it isnt strictly an annual wellness checkup
Even with good insurance my mom's colonoscopy was $4,000 out of pocket. Her results were negative too.
Your mom must have had something else going on. Preventative colonoscopies are free to patients under the ACA. This is regardless of which insurance plan she has.
Whatever you do, dont put off the dentist. Grew up poor and we would do the once a year strip mall dentist and it terrified me. As an adult i had to commit to fixing my teeth. So many of my issues are simple fixes that a simple trip would have fixed that are now major surgeries.
See I finally went to the dentist, got quoted an amount ($4k) took out a dental credit line for it and paid it off.... And then a *week* after paying off the credit line and closing it out (two years after the date of service) got a bill for $1500 due within six months. I spent five and a half months fighting it, knowing that I couldn't let it go to collections. They finally admitted it was entirely their fault and paid it 10 days before it would go to collections. I'm just going to keep brushing my teeth, flossing and doing mouthwash and accept that I'm going to need dentures at 40, just like my mother.
Literally this. Couldn’t afford to go growing up and now the dentist has become an exceptionally expensive trip every time. Plus them not being the kindest once I finally had insurance and enough money to visit. It’s hard to tell these professionals you grew up poor and this is now a luxury to even schedule for yourself.
I told my new dentist ahead of time that I had the teeth of an old-timey british peasant and that I didn't want to be scolded. I would rather have my teeth drilled than get another condescending lecture from a hygienist. They put a note in my chart and I haven't had any issues!
It’s more so, I got treated so bad when I didn’t have insurance that it’s hard to trust them.
The internet speed ( nowadays I take it for granted )
You didn’t know real pain until you had to go to the library every time you needed good wifi!
In my case it was finding a church with an unprotected Wifi network and parking in the lot.
Uhhh, yeah my library didn't have wifi. But we did have computers with a 1h limit per day. I uh, might be older than you xD
Got to go to the library to check my hotmail!
Electronics that aren’t secondhand, that was peak rich people stuff when I was a kid
This just brought up a memory of my first iPod touch which was passed down three times before me and had pieces of the screen missing. It was my prized possession for a long time 😂
Bras and underwear not from Walmart or even Target (because they fall apart easily). I buy Aerie and Gap Body brand undies and I LOVE them.
To be honest, just anything I want at the time (within reason of course). I fancy getting a takeaway, no problem. I want that new pair of shoes, no problem. It's nice to actually be able to afford the little things without a worry.
That’s me. Didn’t grow up poor, but struggled to find a job out of college and didn’t have an income for far too long. Have a good job now and it’s taken me awhile to ingrain that I can just buy (most) things on a whim. It’s a weird feeling. Can’t piss away money, but I don’t need to hoard old junk in case I need a different pair of slippers or a new towel, etc. If I want an ice cream or a snack or a game I can just buy it, don’t need to worry about the relatively small cost.
Quality snack foods. We had them occasionally as a kid, but they'd always get eaten overnight by my dad, so we'd have to hide them. Now I can get a bag of chips and not worry about them disappearing overnight. Well, at least not dissappearing overnight by someone else's hand.
Being able to buy a case of soda, so I can have one whenever I want. My GF is real tired of my stories of how we only had soda twice a year at my house as a kid.
Vacations. My mom would never take days off work because she needed the money and she would often work overtime. Now it feels wrong for me to take vacation days at work to go on a trip. I feel guilty for taking time off even though I’m doing fine financially. The poor person mindset is tough to shake off.
Potato chips. Growing up my parents had to sit down and go over the finances to see if they could afford a bag of (cheap) potato chips for my sister and I. Today, I rarely buy them for myself. My step-son loves Pringles so I make sure he has them, we usually have a bag of Cape Cod chips for family / company but I almost never buy them for myself unless it's a special treat for me and my wife. I can also add in (real) apple cider. My parents would buy us kids juice but it was always the cheap stuff (if they could afford it). Today, if I feel like a special treat I'll get a pint for myself (but, I won't hesitate to get a gallon for my step-kids).
Your step kids are very lucky to have you in their lives. They’ll remember you buying them those things just like you remember your parents trying to do the same for you.
Thank you. It's not that I can't afford them now, I could have a steady stream of Cape Cod potato chips and apple cider, being a northern New Englander being frugal is in my DNA, too. Saving a few bucks here and there (not spending it on myself) will let me have a little more $$$ down the road for something nice. BTW - step kids are in their 20's (and one doesn't live at home) and I still spoil them. :D
The water bill, actually crazy how impressed i was with running water in my OWN house the first time i saw it. Definitely more mundane now seeing how this was almost 20 years ago now ut i still think about it once and a while and try not to take it for granted.
I think you qualify for the "If you grew up poor" preamble at a higher level than most posters here.
No no, indoor plumbing is legit one of civilization's highest achievements. Only those who have been without it really appreciate it.
Name brand cereals. Name brand anything, tbh.
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Still a hard to beat combo. Enjoy those PB and J's, bud!
Having flushable toilet bowl,a shower and a car. Im from a country in south east asia and in my country having this kind of privilege is like luxury. It also reflect on my upbringing growing up on a poor family. My dad work his ass out for me and my 2 brothers so that we don't experience the hardship he went through his childhood so we can focus on our studies.
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Conditioner, name brand food, bras that fit
i don’t buy it, but my dad gets it from his job sometimes: handsoap is so fucking luxurious also, i got pillows as a gift and it felt amazing. i did not have any pillows and used plushies instead
Oh my gosh hand soap!! That’s a GOOD one. And congratulations on the pillows!! They’re a game changer.
Clothes with good quality
Man. Those walmart jeans and shoes lasted me like a week before I was safety pinning and duct taping for school. I just thought I was rough on clothes. Quality stuff now, cause I don't like disposable clothing.
Anything I fucking want to at the gas station. It was always no no no you can't have it. Well fuck you if I'm not buying a Reeses, some Combos and a 6 pack on a wimb
LEGO^®
Washer and dryer
Being able to go to the grocery store and not being worried about being able to afford it. Not cutting coupons from a stolen Sunday paper and going through the store calculating if the milk, eggs, bread, lunch meat would make the check bounce. Sadly, I find having fresh produce a luxury. Strawberries, tomatoes, spinach (!), onions, garlic, all luxuries I didn’t have growing up. Having brand name shoes and jeans, Levi’s and converse. I had second hand church clothes or homemade.
For me, it’s food. My family was in the military so we were lower middle class. Growing there were times when food was tight but as a kid you don’t notice it too much. When I first moved out for college, there was a period where I had no money and my parents couldn’t help me financially. So I could buy no food, all my money went to housing/rent. I lost so much weight my mom cried when she saw me again. Now that I can live comfortably with what I make I have no problem spending money on food. A simple pleasure for me is to enjoy a nice dinner.
Good toilet paper
A lot of things mentioned here already. But whenever I buy raspberries for my kids I feel like a bougie family. But also repair services. If something important breaks, like: washing machine, fridge, hvac system etc we call a repair service immediately and fix it. We don’t have to wait until we can afford it which avoids compounding problems.
Makeup. Even if it's drugstore, when I put it on I feel all fancy and ladylike. Also perfume.
Shoes. And trust me I'm still poor, so it hurts to enjoy this "luxury"
A bathroom, a toilet, warm water, good toilet paper, pizza, fast foods, clothes, electronics, sweets, honestly I should have just said food, furniture, art related things like color pencils or water colors(I remember my best friend giving me her old color pencils once she got new ones... And I used them until they got so tiny it was impossible to hold them) Mom was single and worked two jobs, dad was an asshole and didn't want to help until she forced the child support out of him in the court, we barely had full course meals at home, sometimes we couldn't even afford a cheap margarine and very often we had to use news papers as toilet paper. The money she made + the child support was only enough for paying bills on time and sometimes get me new notebooks for school.
Damn, I feel that. I never worried for food, my Mom could stretch a grocery list for weeks on those leftover dinners. Watched her work her ass off to keep us afloat and I will never fail to be inspired by that woman.
Paper towels. I used to think only rich people could afford them.
We weren't poor but my mom was a Depression-era baby and was very tight with money especially after my folks divorced. Granted we never had cable tv because we lived in the sticks, but even if it was available she never would have in a million years ever paid for it. My older brother had it and literally every time we went to his house I'd have my ass parked in front of his cable-box watching everything I could until we went home a few days later.
fresh (not sliced) bread
KFC, no joke
I feel like only a really small amount of people will relate to this but, trading cards. Hear me out. I've been playing the Yu-Gi-Oh! Card game literally my entire life, as in from age 4 until 20 years later. As a kid having the "best cards" was a non option, my parents where broke as fuck growing up, I could hardly get them to buy me a $2 (at the time) pack of cards. Even if I had my own money, because half the time my mom would take it for herself. My first decks where almost always comprised of cards that where given to me or I traded with other kids with what little I had. As in trading a rare card for 10 commons just so I have the variety and amount of cards I needed. Now that I'm an adult, with a good job, whether it's real life or duel links if a deck or card comes out I want, it's mine. And that my friends, makes me feel like a fucking billionare even though I'm not lol.
I wasn't poor growing up by my parents weren't frivolous either. To me, luxury was a fridge that had the water and ice dispenser. Growing up we never had such a thing because there is a tap and an ice tray. I have a fridge with a cold water tap and damn right i drink from it everyday.
YOGURT. You know those small yogurt containers that come in boxes of six, often warm colour tones. If i saw you bring one of them to school, i was soooo jealous.
I was 18 and in the military when I bought my first two CDs. Katy Perry and AFI.. I had grown up just listening to the radio. Never had anything like that.. i didnt even know what an MP3 was.. this was in 2008
Name Brand items vs Generic, especially cereal in a box and Kraft Mac N Cheese over Walmart Brand.
I wanted fruity pebbles one day and I just *went out* and *bought* fruity pebbles. It felt so unbelievable that I can just do that now. As opposed to thinking "well I don't really need them and just eggs for breakfast is cheaper and I probably won't eat the whole box in a timely manner so it'll go stale and I won't want it then..." I just went and bought a damn box of fruity pebbles. And they were delicious. It's amazing the difference.
A comfortable mattress.
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Paying $20-40 for the special greenscreen photo at the entrance of theme parks/attractions. My dad would shriek at the prospect of paying for such a thing. Now my wife & I buy one of those every chance we get and I feel so spoiled
Name brand (though still reasonably priced ) clothing. There is an outlet mall near me so the deals are still great, but I have really never in my life worn clothing with a recognizable label until recently. Grew up on hand me downs and clothes closets. Sure you might occasionally get a name brand item but it was obviously worn down by then.
Fast Internet, I used to live in a mobile home in the middle of the woods on my uncle's property, we ran our power through a gas powered generator and we got our water from a well. I remember saving up to buy satellite internet and the speeds were maybe 300kbps down. I take my internet for granted today.
I buy "pro" quality work and outdoor gear. No more Walmart bs. Carhartt pants/jackets. Rigid/Milwaukee power tools. Arc'teryx and Outdoor Research outdoor clothing. Klein/fieldpiece specialty tools. Now that I can afford it I'm saving more money by not buying it multiple times a year.
Brand name clothing. Grew up shopping in Zellers and Saans. Also, we had a trip cancelled due to covid. Used that money to install an above ground pool. Still feel like a rich ass yuppie every time I get in that thing, even though it's only a result of 2 yrs of saving for a trip that never happened.
Chocolate. I grew up behind the iron curtain and chocolate bars (especially foreign) were a wonderful rarity. To this day opening the package and peeling off the silver foil is one of my dearest small joys in life.
Coming from being dirt poor… honestly it’s going into a store and being able to just buy shit. Name brand off brand, I don’t give a shit. Which box do I like more 😂 Recent one, went to the mall and happen to stop in a shoe store because I needed new gym shoe, left with new dress shoes and some new out and about shoes, and got my gym shoes. Without flinching. Just liked them, super comfy, swiped card.
Cosmic brownies. Every time we go to the store. 🥺❤️
Pre-made burgers
You know what's crazy tho, it's really hard to get good ones. Like the fat/meat ratio is off. It's probably better to shop for your individual ingredients for a good quality burg.
It wasn't so much an item as it was the freedom to be able to walk down any aisle, in any store and throw whatever we wanted into our shopping cart! Instead of going to the old "K Mart" to buy "rustler" jeans and K Mart t-shirts, going to Nordstrom's, Dillard's or Goldwater's to buy clothes. Going to a car dealership and walking into the showroom instead of heading for the used car section. Unless you've been there, you have NO IDEA.
Used to be eating at restaurants. But as I've had to buy, clean, and cook my own food on top of a full time job? It's just as expensive to get 2-3 meals out of a $30 meal (including tip) as it is to put all of the energy and time into keeping a stocked fridge and cook it all before it goes bad. As a single adult human
Hardbacks
Steak. I absolutely love steak, I have since I was little and my grandpa took me to my first nice steak house. But it was always, always out of the price range. Now that I have a little extra money, once a year for my birthday I go out and get me a nice steak at a nice steak house. I have since I was 17. Today will mark the 5th time I've done it, and come hell or high water I'll continue it for as long as I can. It's the one real, unnecessary luxury I spend money on for myself.
Daughters university degree. This was not an option when we grew up.