If you grew up poor (or at least relatively poor), some of the things you and your family did (or didn’t do) because of this have probably stuck with you through the years. Even if you’ve found a better life and aren’t poor now, it’s quite likely that you still remember all of the things your family did differently compared to some other well-off families.
Well, Redditors have recently got together to share their stories on this topic. Reddit user u/SnooBeaz went to r/AskReddit to ask everyone who grew up poor what was a thing that they considered a luxury. Over 26,000 people responded in the comments (and the post itself got over 60,000 upvotes), explaining some of the most interesting things that they considered a luxury back in the day.
Bored Panda has collected some of the best answers and made it into a list. Scroll down to read them all, and upvote as well as comment on the ones you liked or related to the most! Oh, and if this isn’t enough, you can check out our other list on the same topic here.
#21
Pancakes
But now as an adult and knowing how cheap pancakes really are, I think my mom just didn't want to make them
Report
124points
#22
Man, new school supplies! An actual Trapper Keeper is all I wanted.
Report
113points
#25
Being allowed to turn on the heat during the winter, and also being able to hire a professional to fix broken appliances, plumbing, etc
Report
103points
#26
My mom bought me the bag of chips I wanted as a birthday present.
Report
102points
#29
Being able to get candy at a store.
New school supplies.
Brand name food.
Report
97points
#30
Honestly didn't know that pasta roni was 1$ until I was a grown ass man. I thought that was some gourmet s***.
Report
96points
#31
McDonald's
Clothes that fit
Soda
Having a toy that other kids thought was cool
Report
90points
#33
Taking a bath. I mean we bathed every night, but it was by heating up water (that we would go to the park down the road to get in 5 gallon jugs) and filling up a mop bucket to wash off with. Staying over at a friend or family members house and getting to take an actual shower was amazing though.
Report
87points
#35
It's a long time ago - but when I was young (about 6-8 years old) back in the early 1960's we had meat once a week for the family dinner - on Sundays.
Report
82points
#36
For my school's spirit week, they had a "thrift shop" day, where most everyone dressed in old ratty clothes, or the weirdest stuff they could find in a thrift shop. Needless to say, as someone who's clothes were 80% second hand, it was an eye opener.
Report
78points
#37
Renting a movie from blockbuster the first weekend of every month. My brother and I got to pick any movie we wanted as long as it wasn’t rated R. On really special nights, we even got a 2-liter bottle of Sprite for the family to share.
Report
76points
#38
Having breakfast. It's gotten to the point where I can't eat in the morning because my body is so used to waiting
Report
76points
#39
Air conditioning.
Sometimes we had a jacked up old window unit that would cool down my parents room on the hottest of summer nights and we would sleep in sleeping bags on their floor.
Sometimes it was broke.
Sometimes it just wasn't hot enough to justify running it.
Never during the day though, that's what the library was for.
Report
75points
#40
A new winter coat. I don’t remember having a new winter coat until I was probably 14 or 15, they had always been hand-me-downs from my cousins. They were usually at least ten years old by the time I got them and the stuffing would be all clumped up.
Report
68points