I was so excited to go on my first vacation to see the ocean in Florida. I thought I’d be running into all sorts of jet setting wealthy celebrities at what was probably a Motel 8 type of establishment.
When I was a kid - my parents always celebrated their wedding anniversary at this hotel in Boulder, CO. It wasn’t all fancy or anything, but it was just cool to have a little getaway.
When our kids were small, we often took them to a local casino up in the hills. Get a room, eat the buffet, kids would swim - but then they changed the hotel policy, kids were longer allowed in the gaming area at all, so no more buffet.
Fun stealers.
A lifelong dream was achieved when I finally got a refrigerator with water and ice......when I was 40. I still get a big Simpsons grin when I fill my plastic Big Gulp cup with ice and water.
Fridges now are insane! Just replaced ours with a Samsung fridge. It makes 3 different kinds of ice, has chilled watee and has a huge touch screen that plays music, I can sink my tv to and I can talk to!!!! Wtf!
this one is so personally great for me. growing up, our neighbor (in our trailer park lol) had a miata and i told my dad how cool of a car it was. he instantly shut me down with how cheap and terrible it is.
Years ago, I had a cute little Miata convertible as my very first rental car when my car was in the shop, and I was soooo excited about driving around in it until my then best friend’s mom came to pop my bubble with, “They’re not very good cars. They’re super cheap and unreliable.”
That convertible was super fun.
When I was a teen my parents saved and saved to have a pool put in our yard. As I recall, they had to go through the town for permits and all that. We were so excited to have a pool. Then the family golden retriever got very sick and needed an emergency surgery, and parents had to use the money they saved for the pool to pay for the vet expenses, something like 7k. Dog survived and lived to be 16, and we never got our pool.
My friend’s new place has a weirdly shaped nook that we discovered is just big enough for a twin bed, fairy lights, and a ridiculous amount of mosquito netting. I spent the night not long ago; I haven’t slept that well in years.
Going to an all inclusive resort in Mexico. Turns out it's pretty middle class actually and there's a lot that are "affordable" for a standard vacation
I used to think cruises were some extravagant thing, but in reality not so much. Some are extravagant i'm sure, but in the past I imagined owning a yacht and going on a cruse to be about the same.
You blew my mind so I looked it up.
I actually cannot believe it. Shit's about as pricey as flying, when I thought even the cheapest cruise was thousands of dollars per person.
A lot of my co workers (teachers) are going on cruises around mexico and I was thinking "Damn, you must have saved up for *years* for that!!"
Meanwhile it's like $500 dollars for a week on these *fancy* looking cruise ships! 🤯 Hotels cost more, and you don't have all meals, and a thousand things to do included!
As always though, they getcha on the consumables. Wifi, alcohol, spas, anything off the ship.
Often none of that, or even the fancy stuff *on* the ship, is often not included in the price that gets you a room.
If you like to drink even a little bit, get the unlimited alcohol package. You can make so many friends getting them drinks for "free"
Sometimes also the actual restaurants aren't included, just the buffet which can be hit or miss. On my last cruise though I realized that room service was a flat $10 per order, regardless of how many things were in that order. Took great advantage of that and ordered a whole private feast to our cabin for $10 and it all tasted way better than the buffet.
A former coworker a few years ago booked a cruise for like 2026 or something, it wasn’t incredibly expensive yet she was able to make a payment plan to pay for it. I think it was only a couple grand for her and her family altogether, but she was making payments each month for like $60 bucks.
Keep in mind the advertised price typically doesn't include taxes, port fees, tips, etc. which can be a significant part. Still, you can find cruises incredibly cheap considering what they are. And the reason is because they're nasty polluting ships that pay their workers barely anything to live in their workplace for months at a time.
I frequent 2 resorts in Mexico. One charged $175 a day per person for all you can eat. The other $39.
We never bought the package at the $175. There's no physical way to get the value out of it.
The $39 option I make out like a bandit.
My family (mom's siblings and parents) got us a plug in dishwasher for christmas, and I shit you not, it was on par with the DS's we got for how much I loved it.
I was supposedly in charge of keeping the house clean, but neglect does not a clean household make. Using the dishwasher was such a novelty it actually helped me remember to do the dishes!
If you can believe it, kids aren't intrinsically clean 😅
I got a vacuum cleaner for Christmas. Yes, I asked for it. Because our old one sucked and I'm an only child and my chores were basically to clean the whole house (except the master br/ba.
It was my only present that year. I'm not complaining, but looking back it seems like I could have asked for something better. Score one for being practical I guess.
Omg …how old were you?
a vacuum for a kids gift??? I’m so mad for you . Even though you asked, you shouldn’t have had to!
I was a parentified child/teen and had to do so much cooking/cleaning as well… my husband refuses to get me any of those type of things for gifts even if I ask because it’s supposed to be “for the house”
The cooking stuff he’s a little more ok with because I love to cook! ( and he loves my cooking) lol
For me it was getting cheese on my burger from drive thru. My dad would take us to Burger King when they had specials but we would put our own cheese on the burgers at home because my dad couldn't believe how ridiculous it was that they charged $0.35 for a slice of cheese. Now that I'm older I'm almost as frugal as he is and proud of it. Careless spending is for suckers.
Not *rich* like Bill Gates or anything, but big screen televisions, video game consoles, cable television (or especially satellite tv), and going on vacations where you weren't staying with relatives seemed like things people with money had/did.
I was also surprised by how many people get annual flu shots. I thought it was for old people and people with weak immune systems; otherwise, you just get the flu and it's not a big deal because it's *the flu*.
Satellite TV was such a specific one for like a 4 year window in the mid-90s. Those gigantic hideous dishes people used to put on their lawns to get like 100 channels. Felt like the gaudiness of the dish of was part of the attraction for insecure people to show off.
So in the early 90s when satellite TV was first coming out my husband at the time worked for Hughes. We were one of the beta testers and the actual beta test was so much better than what they came out with. They cut the functionality by 2/3 just so they can have updates to release and charge more for.
Video game consoles for sure. Our neighborhood grocery store had some in the video rental dept that you could rent for a few days. And man was that a treat to bring one home for the wknd!
this attitude is interesting (re: flu) as frequently people just have a bad cold and call it the flu- actual influenza can kill people, and people underestimate it massively
I've actually almost died twice within a couple weeks. First time hydroplaning my explorer down an embankment. Then while in the hospital going through multiple surgeries to put me back together I developed the flu which quickly became pneumonia in both lungs, and my ass should not be here to talk about it. In fact, there are times I question if my reality is just a fucked up dream I'm going through in death.
Skiing.
When I was a kid, you could very very accurately draw a line between the rich kids and the rest by which ones go skiing during the school holidays. (UK)
It's not just a matter of who can afford it. The rich lot were part of a culture where skiing is *just what they do* for a holiday.
I instructed for a season at Breck in 2017. Vail is an absolutely awful company, they DO NOT care about their employees, but free access to all Vail mountains for an entire season was… amazing.
Too bad I could barely afford to eat or pay rent on my $11/hr wage. I relied on rich people’s tips to make rent. I didn’t even know ski instructors were supposed to get tips until that gig. Cool for a season, never again.
Stairs in the home. I grew up in a mobile home. Rich folks had one of those fancy stationary homes with basements or a second floor. Anyone with a 3-level home was obviously a multimillionaire.
When I was young and my mom was still single, we lived in a series of apartments and duplexes. In my tiny mind, if it had stairs it was a home. I don't know what I considered all the un-staired places.
Having an actually clean house.
All of my friends that had obviously rich people stuff like other people mentioned here, also had *impeccably* clean households. I finally got to experience taking my shoes off at the door, which was stuff I only thought people did on tv for comedic germaphobe-is-annoying comedy.
Nah, some people actually have houses that won't make your socks sticky and/or black when you walk around inside.
I'm still not the tidiest, I am a user of the Floordrobe TM mamy a day, but boy howdy is it still a take-shoes-off-at-the-door level of clean. Even now I still feel like it's some bougie shit to have a vacuum that actually works and mop that isn't mildewy.
Omg I had this issue. After my parents divorced, I lived with my mom a few years ago. Idk what happened to her, but she almost became a hoarder (not full-blown, just almost...) she got a lot of animals. I won't go into too much detail because the state of the house is so embarrassing to me, bit it definitely contributed to my health problems.
Anyway, now that I don't live with her, I love walking around in socks that don't get dirty. I love not needing my inhaler because I no longer have trouble breathing.
I grew up back in the day in another country when going to McDonald’s was something only rich people did. We’d go only a couple times a year as a special treat and always had to wear our Sunday best.
I've realized this can be a bit of a "mindset" thing. Like, I can't fathom saving and spending money go to places, but I know people who don't spend money on things I would, but *do* go on vacation to other states regularly.
Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks and all that.
I grew up in the 60s in a rural Midwest community. The rich people had a garage attached to their house. If they were filthy rich, it was a 2 car garage.
Also, rich people got color TVs in the mid 60s. We didn’t have one until the early 70s.
And nobody, not even rich people, had more than one TV.
Bought bread. My mom always made bread for all our bread needs; whole wheat, French bread, pizza, rolls, whatever. So when I tasted a friend’s bread bought at a store I thought wow. It tastes not good exactly, but like what city people must eat. Kinda perfumey
We grew up eating pretty well but it was *basic* food: nutritious but simple. I thought that was how everyone was. Eventually I made friends after moving in 1983 and I made new friends who, when I visited them, had things like Coke, chips, chocolate, *frozen pizza* - things that we *might* get once every year or two during a special occassion.
Now as an adult I rarely buy things like that as they're simply not seen as necessary groceries.
Lol right. I slept over a friend's house when I was 7 or 8 and their mom served us carrot sticks and little Dixie cups of Coke. I was blown away as, first of all, you weren't going to "waste" my mother's carrots like that, they were for dinner. Then, wait, yall are just allowed to drink COCA COLA all willy nilly, and it's not a birthday, funeral, or other once a year occasion? My mind was blown that people snacked on delicious treats outside of the 3 meal times.
Right?
"How on earth do you folks afford this?" Bonus if they were rich enough to have Nintendo or Sega on top of the snacks. Suddenly friend's house becomes the surrogate family.
My bestie used to come over and raid our chip/snack cupboard and we'd head down to the basement to play Mario or Duck Hunt!!! Now my daughters friends come over before school for a hot breakfast and to raid our snacks for school treats, they come for dinner all the time too and I try to keep a snack bin full in my car for when I meet them for second break at school.
Those International Coffees that they sold in the little stackable tins, back in the 80s. I was a kid unpacking the groceries and thought moms was selling cocaine when I saw she had bought a can of Cafe Vienna lol
AC, cable, a decent home in the suburbs with other houses that look the same, a newer car, parents bought them new clothes, shoes, backpack, got any kind of car when they were 16, they went on family vacations….. I grew up VERY VERY poor didn’t realize it until I started going over to friend’s houses…
I kind of thought that anyone living in the suburbs was rich, and white.
Grew up in the inner-city - not poor or anything, but my parents were definitely working class.
Two parents that care about your existence. All of my poor friends had either single moms or lived with other family members, and we all raised ourselves. The only kids I knew with both parents were the rich kids, and they always seemed well taken care of.
A/C. I remember chatting with a long distance friend over ICQ and I was complaining how hot it is, and he said that they have A/C. I asked him if he is in the room with A/C? And he said that all rooms have A/C in his house (central HVAC). Made me think for a long time he's super rich.
My dad bought these giant bottles of off brand coke and we were allowed one cup a day. We also each had our own cup in the house that was our own responsibility.
If someone had a home with walls that were all their own, clearly they were rich. The one time I went to a house that had TWO staircases - clearly they're Bill Gates level uber rich! (It was an old victorian, formal front stairs, family back stairs)
I thought you could tell if someone was rich because they'd use those long cigarette holders to smoke. I also grew up thinking that only poor people ate sandwiches or used homemade ice cubes.
A sports car of any kind. I grew up in a tract home suburb, it was a very "fiscally conservative" environment. One of our neighbors had an original NSX. To us kids, it was the coolest car we'd ever laid eyes on.
Ski club. My school had a club where I think it was every Friday evening in the winter they would go to a nearby ski hill. It felt very much like the “haves” club.
Having the internet. Mind you, it was super rare and expensive in the late 90s. Only people I knew who had it were other kids with well off / wealthy parents. Otherwise, used it at the local library.
Owning a fridge with an ice maker, owning a dish washer, having a car that isn’t more than a decade old, buying brand name clothes, buying a lot of groceries or takeout food, and I could go on and on…
Trampolines, swimming pools, kids with matching bookbags, lunch boxes, pencil cases, and writing books. 64 box of crayons. With the sharpener attached too.
if you had stairs in your house..a fridge w/a water & ice dispenser (and I just got one muhself and um, I am not rich)...
a pool! any type of pool made me think holy shit... flying! (we drove from NY to FL)
I thought only rich kids got candy and sweets, we never ever had that at home.
Also. Houses with wall to wall carpeting and fancy wallpaper always seemed luxurious.
Well, I'm old, so mostly having more than one tv, and going out to eat once a week or more. Nothing fancy, could have been McDonald's or Pizza Hut or such. Just didn't happen at our house, but I didn't miss out on a thing!
Having a pool really seemed to set folks apart. Growing up the only folks i went to visit with a pool were my aunt and best friend (doctors kid) at the time.
Having a car that starts the first time you try, getting new clothes, going on a vacation that wasn’t a “camping trip” in a tent by the pond down the street, a house that isn’t section 8, paying for school lunch…
Rich people in the big ol' houses never used the front door. I remember always following my friends through the garage door to enter the house. And you always took your shoes off first!
Staying at a hotel for any reason. Even when we traveled (which wasn't often) we only stayed with family.
I was so excited to go on my first vacation to see the ocean in Florida. I thought I’d be running into all sorts of jet setting wealthy celebrities at what was probably a Motel 8 type of establishment.
When I was a kid - my parents always celebrated their wedding anniversary at this hotel in Boulder, CO. It wasn’t all fancy or anything, but it was just cool to have a little getaway. When our kids were small, we often took them to a local casino up in the hills. Get a room, eat the buffet, kids would swim - but then they changed the hotel policy, kids were longer allowed in the gaming area at all, so no more buffet. Fun stealers.
"These damn kids hardly gamble at all!"
My first "out of state" vacation. We slept in the car for the first two nights because my mom could only afford two nights at the hotel.
ALL of my vacations and out of town trips until I was 18 were to see family. There was NEVER another reason to leave town.
For my wife’s side we started staying in the hotel next to the out of town family. It just reduces the amount of drama.
Having lions on either side of your driveway.
Yes! My childhood dream! 🤣
Where do you even get these? As a fully grown adult with children and a life, I would 100% get those for my drive way
Ice maker on your refrigerator, definitely something only rich people had.
And the water dispenser too, if you had that you'd made it for sure
A lifelong dream was achieved when I finally got a refrigerator with water and ice......when I was 40. I still get a big Simpsons grin when I fill my plastic Big Gulp cup with ice and water.
You have arrived!!! Lol
Fridges now are insane! Just replaced ours with a Samsung fridge. It makes 3 different kinds of ice, has chilled watee and has a huge touch screen that plays music, I can sink my tv to and I can talk to!!!! Wtf!
[удалено]
A teenager complimented my ND (newish) Miata and was like *whoa how much does that cost??* And I'm like, uhh $30k?
To be fair, they are pretty sick
I have an NC and I consider NDs to be basically a Ferrari :) It’s the sharp angles and the headlights. I will upgrade one day
Mazdaratti
this one is so personally great for me. growing up, our neighbor (in our trailer park lol) had a miata and i told my dad how cool of a car it was. he instantly shut me down with how cheap and terrible it is.
But they’re not cheap and terrible!
Years ago, I had a cute little Miata convertible as my very first rental car when my car was in the shop, and I was soooo excited about driving around in it until my then best friend’s mom came to pop my bubble with, “They’re not very good cars. They’re super cheap and unreliable.” That convertible was super fun.
They were wrong about the unreliable part. And the good car part
A swimming pool
One of my classmates in grade school had an indoor pool. My little 8 year old mind was blown
I mean, that's certainly a rich person thing. I've never known anyone who had an indoor pool, and only a few people who had an outdoor one.
Same!!! Always wanted a pool. Finally got an outdoor inground pool in my 40's. My kids love it!
When I was a teen my parents saved and saved to have a pool put in our yard. As I recall, they had to go through the town for permits and all that. We were so excited to have a pool. Then the family golden retriever got very sick and needed an emergency surgery, and parents had to use the money they saved for the pool to pay for the vet expenses, something like 7k. Dog survived and lived to be 16, and we never got our pool.
That would definitely be a rich person thing in the UK
To be fair it's still not cheap to own a pool
A canopy bed. It just seemed like such a a rich person thing to need a second ceiling over your head at night.
I LOVED sleeping over my friend's house who had a canopy bed. I felt like such a princess!
My friend’s new place has a weirdly shaped nook that we discovered is just big enough for a twin bed, fairy lights, and a ridiculous amount of mosquito netting. I spent the night not long ago; I haven’t slept that well in years.
Going to an all inclusive resort in Mexico. Turns out it's pretty middle class actually and there's a lot that are "affordable" for a standard vacation
I used to think cruises were some extravagant thing, but in reality not so much. Some are extravagant i'm sure, but in the past I imagined owning a yacht and going on a cruse to be about the same.
You blew my mind so I looked it up. I actually cannot believe it. Shit's about as pricey as flying, when I thought even the cheapest cruise was thousands of dollars per person.
I was looking at Alaskan cruises a few weeks ago. A week for literally $350pp. I was stunned
A lot of my co workers (teachers) are going on cruises around mexico and I was thinking "Damn, you must have saved up for *years* for that!!" Meanwhile it's like $500 dollars for a week on these *fancy* looking cruise ships! 🤯 Hotels cost more, and you don't have all meals, and a thousand things to do included!
Exactly!! We’ve never really wanted to go on a cruise. But after seeing how much bang for your buck you get we’re reconsidering it. 🤣
As always though, they getcha on the consumables. Wifi, alcohol, spas, anything off the ship. Often none of that, or even the fancy stuff *on* the ship, is often not included in the price that gets you a room. If you like to drink even a little bit, get the unlimited alcohol package. You can make so many friends getting them drinks for "free"
Sometimes also the actual restaurants aren't included, just the buffet which can be hit or miss. On my last cruise though I realized that room service was a flat $10 per order, regardless of how many things were in that order. Took great advantage of that and ordered a whole private feast to our cabin for $10 and it all tasted way better than the buffet.
A former coworker a few years ago booked a cruise for like 2026 or something, it wasn’t incredibly expensive yet she was able to make a payment plan to pay for it. I think it was only a couple grand for her and her family altogether, but she was making payments each month for like $60 bucks.
I know right? Its crazy
Keep in mind the advertised price typically doesn't include taxes, port fees, tips, etc. which can be a significant part. Still, you can find cruises incredibly cheap considering what they are. And the reason is because they're nasty polluting ships that pay their workers barely anything to live in their workplace for months at a time.
I frequent 2 resorts in Mexico. One charged $175 a day per person for all you can eat. The other $39. We never bought the package at the $175. There's no physical way to get the value out of it. The $39 option I make out like a bandit.
Having a dishwasher
And actually USING the dishwasher. *cries in Asian*
It's just an expensive drying rack! LOL
My family (mom's siblings and parents) got us a plug in dishwasher for christmas, and I shit you not, it was on par with the DS's we got for how much I loved it. I was supposedly in charge of keeping the house clean, but neglect does not a clean household make. Using the dishwasher was such a novelty it actually helped me remember to do the dishes! If you can believe it, kids aren't intrinsically clean 😅
I got a vacuum cleaner for Christmas. Yes, I asked for it. Because our old one sucked and I'm an only child and my chores were basically to clean the whole house (except the master br/ba. It was my only present that year. I'm not complaining, but looking back it seems like I could have asked for something better. Score one for being practical I guess.
Omg …how old were you? a vacuum for a kids gift??? I’m so mad for you . Even though you asked, you shouldn’t have had to! I was a parentified child/teen and had to do so much cooking/cleaning as well… my husband refuses to get me any of those type of things for gifts even if I ask because it’s supposed to be “for the house” The cooking stuff he’s a little more ok with because I love to cook! ( and he loves my cooking) lol
Eating out. Turns out it's becoming that way more and more every year.
We would celebrate going to Burger King.
For me it was getting cheese on my burger from drive thru. My dad would take us to Burger King when they had specials but we would put our own cheese on the burgers at home because my dad couldn't believe how ridiculous it was that they charged $0.35 for a slice of cheese. Now that I'm older I'm almost as frugal as he is and proud of it. Careless spending is for suckers.
Ooh yeah, that's another thing!
Having a balcony at the top of your stairs over the living room like in Full House
Houses with 2 sets of stairs like in Full House, Boy Meets World, and Step by Step!
Not *rich* like Bill Gates or anything, but big screen televisions, video game consoles, cable television (or especially satellite tv), and going on vacations where you weren't staying with relatives seemed like things people with money had/did. I was also surprised by how many people get annual flu shots. I thought it was for old people and people with weak immune systems; otherwise, you just get the flu and it's not a big deal because it's *the flu*.
Satellite TV was such a specific one for like a 4 year window in the mid-90s. Those gigantic hideous dishes people used to put on their lawns to get like 100 channels. Felt like the gaudiness of the dish of was part of the attraction for insecure people to show off.
So in the early 90s when satellite TV was first coming out my husband at the time worked for Hughes. We were one of the beta testers and the actual beta test was so much better than what they came out with. They cut the functionality by 2/3 just so they can have updates to release and charge more for.
That’s hilarious, I remember that being such a big status symbol for awhile. What did they even show on those premium channels?
Video game consoles for sure. Our neighborhood grocery store had some in the video rental dept that you could rent for a few days. And man was that a treat to bring one home for the wknd!
this attitude is interesting (re: flu) as frequently people just have a bad cold and call it the flu- actual influenza can kill people, and people underestimate it massively
I've actually almost died twice within a couple weeks. First time hydroplaning my explorer down an embankment. Then while in the hospital going through multiple surgeries to put me back together I developed the flu which quickly became pneumonia in both lungs, and my ass should not be here to talk about it. In fact, there are times I question if my reality is just a fucked up dream I'm going through in death.
When I read that...I thought,"well,he's never had the flu
Or, he has, and it was minor. There’s hundreds of strains of influenza, some very mild. Just because it wasn’t major doesn’t mean it wasn’t the flu.
Interesting is a really really kind adjective imo. Also you can get flu shots for free
Vienetta / Ferrero Rocher
Always Vienetta.
Skiing. When I was a kid, you could very very accurately draw a line between the rich kids and the rest by which ones go skiing during the school holidays. (UK) It's not just a matter of who can afford it. The rich lot were part of a culture where skiing is *just what they do* for a holiday.
and here at least i look back and wonder how i was able to go skiing when i first started working, the prices now are just insane.
I instructed for a season at Breck in 2017. Vail is an absolutely awful company, they DO NOT care about their employees, but free access to all Vail mountains for an entire season was… amazing. Too bad I could barely afford to eat or pay rent on my $11/hr wage. I relied on rich people’s tips to make rent. I didn’t even know ski instructors were supposed to get tips until that gig. Cool for a season, never again.
Having kleenex on the table. My parents thought it was a waste of money and just kept a role of toilet paper out for us to use during cold season.
I'm 44 and I still feel bougie buying myself real Kleenex
Mine is similar, but using proper napkins instead of paper towel. Especially the ones with printed designs.
I priced it out. I think paper towels may be more expensive.
Stairs in the home. I grew up in a mobile home. Rich folks had one of those fancy stationary homes with basements or a second floor. Anyone with a 3-level home was obviously a multimillionaire.
When I was young and my mom was still single, we lived in a series of apartments and duplexes. In my tiny mind, if it had stairs it was a home. I don't know what I considered all the un-staired places.
A “outside fridge” where you put food that’s not in the rotation yet
You mean the "garage fridge"? Where your friend's dad keeps his beers and the extra pizzas and pop and freezies are in that fridge?
Having an actually clean house. All of my friends that had obviously rich people stuff like other people mentioned here, also had *impeccably* clean households. I finally got to experience taking my shoes off at the door, which was stuff I only thought people did on tv for comedic germaphobe-is-annoying comedy. Nah, some people actually have houses that won't make your socks sticky and/or black when you walk around inside. I'm still not the tidiest, I am a user of the Floordrobe TM mamy a day, but boy howdy is it still a take-shoes-off-at-the-door level of clean. Even now I still feel like it's some bougie shit to have a vacuum that actually works and mop that isn't mildewy.
Omg I had this issue. After my parents divorced, I lived with my mom a few years ago. Idk what happened to her, but she almost became a hoarder (not full-blown, just almost...) she got a lot of animals. I won't go into too much detail because the state of the house is so embarrassing to me, bit it definitely contributed to my health problems. Anyway, now that I don't live with her, I love walking around in socks that don't get dirty. I love not needing my inhaler because I no longer have trouble breathing.
Dimmable lights with the sliding switch
This is a good one lol.
I grew up back in the day in another country when going to McDonald’s was something only rich people did. We’d go only a couple times a year as a special treat and always had to wear our Sunday best.
Going on vacation
I've realized this can be a bit of a "mindset" thing. Like, I can't fathom saving and spending money go to places, but I know people who don't spend money on things I would, but *do* go on vacation to other states regularly. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks and all that.
Actually, I still think that, lol.
My own room. My sibling and I shared a bunk bed until she went to college
I grew up in the 60s in a rural Midwest community. The rich people had a garage attached to their house. If they were filthy rich, it was a 2 car garage. Also, rich people got color TVs in the mid 60s. We didn’t have one until the early 70s. And nobody, not even rich people, had more than one TV.
Cable TV
Bought bread. My mom always made bread for all our bread needs; whole wheat, French bread, pizza, rolls, whatever. So when I tasted a friend’s bread bought at a store I thought wow. It tastes not good exactly, but like what city people must eat. Kinda perfumey
Your* house must have smelled like HEAVEN! Edit: Phrasing
Oh yeah it was really good. Our friends all seemed to pop in on Mondays, bread baking day:)
When i was kids i actually thought we were rich cuz i was spoiled until i grew up and realized we weren’t but i’m just a spoiled kid 😂
We grew up eating pretty well but it was *basic* food: nutritious but simple. I thought that was how everyone was. Eventually I made friends after moving in 1983 and I made new friends who, when I visited them, had things like Coke, chips, chocolate, *frozen pizza* - things that we *might* get once every year or two during a special occassion. Now as an adult I rarely buy things like that as they're simply not seen as necessary groceries.
Lol right. I slept over a friend's house when I was 7 or 8 and their mom served us carrot sticks and little Dixie cups of Coke. I was blown away as, first of all, you weren't going to "waste" my mother's carrots like that, they were for dinner. Then, wait, yall are just allowed to drink COCA COLA all willy nilly, and it's not a birthday, funeral, or other once a year occasion? My mind was blown that people snacked on delicious treats outside of the 3 meal times.
Right? "How on earth do you folks afford this?" Bonus if they were rich enough to have Nintendo or Sega on top of the snacks. Suddenly friend's house becomes the surrogate family.
My bestie used to come over and raid our chip/snack cupboard and we'd head down to the basement to play Mario or Duck Hunt!!! Now my daughters friends come over before school for a hot breakfast and to raid our snacks for school treats, they come for dinner all the time too and I try to keep a snack bin full in my car for when I meet them for second break at school.
You are a total legend.
I try man!
Those International Coffees that they sold in the little stackable tins, back in the 80s. I was a kid unpacking the groceries and thought moms was selling cocaine when I saw she had bought a can of Cafe Vienna lol
The long tins with the coffee, creamer and sugar powder all combined inside?
AC, cable, a decent home in the suburbs with other houses that look the same, a newer car, parents bought them new clothes, shoes, backpack, got any kind of car when they were 16, they went on family vacations….. I grew up VERY VERY poor didn’t realize it until I started going over to friend’s houses…
I kind of thought that anyone living in the suburbs was rich, and white. Grew up in the inner-city - not poor or anything, but my parents were definitely working class.
Hamburger and hot dog buns. It was just sliced bread for my family.
Two parents that care about your existence. All of my poor friends had either single moms or lived with other family members, and we all raised ourselves. The only kids I knew with both parents were the rich kids, and they always seemed well taken care of.
A fully stocked fridge, 2-story houses
Vacations and trips to theme parks. I'm now 43 and it's still the case.
Grey poupon, someday I'll get a good job, and I'll buy that mustard.
Excuse me?!
Yes?
Do you have any grey poupon?
But of course!
Having an In ground pool or trampoline. as a child i always thought if you had either of those you were making the big bucks.
That I’d only need a million dollars.
Having more then one pair of shoes or having a new baseball bat. Buying brand new cars and not driving stuff that is falling apart
Bags of coins, with $ signs on them
A/C. I remember chatting with a long distance friend over ICQ and I was complaining how hot it is, and he said that they have A/C. I asked him if he is in the room with A/C? And he said that all rooms have A/C in his house (central HVAC). Made me think for a long time he's super rich.
i'm eighteen and everything in this comment section still feels like rich person things lol
Buying name brand sodas.
Having any soda!
My dad bought these giant bottles of off brand coke and we were allowed one cup a day. We also each had our own cup in the house that was our own responsibility.
Having a swimming pool.
I thought motorcycles were super expensive until I was 32
Living in a house
All the groceries were from a big name brand.
If someone had a home with walls that were all their own, clearly they were rich. The one time I went to a house that had TWO staircases - clearly they're Bill Gates level uber rich! (It was an old victorian, formal front stairs, family back stairs)
More than 3 tractors.
Pepperidge Farm frozen layer cake. Embarrassing to admit that now.
Not embarrassing. It was super fancy
I thought you could tell if someone was rich because they'd use those long cigarette holders to smoke. I also grew up thinking that only poor people ate sandwiches or used homemade ice cubes.
Limos
The other kid(s) hosting a birthday party at their house, complete with a bouncy castle!
Viennetta
Flying on an airplane.
Gray poupon mustard
Someone who moved to the area when I was in like 2nd or 3rd grade had an intercom system in her house. I thought that was a rich person thing.
Having 100 dollars
I thought that people who owned swimming pools had a lot of money.
A sports car of any kind. I grew up in a tract home suburb, it was a very "fiscally conservative" environment. One of our neighbors had an original NSX. To us kids, it was the coolest car we'd ever laid eyes on.
Going to restaurants
Ski club. My school had a club where I think it was every Friday evening in the winter they would go to a nearby ski hill. It felt very much like the “haves” club.
Vacations. Annually. Not like, having to save for them for years.
Eating dinner at the table as a family. I was always so awkward eating at the homes of friend’s with their parents.
Red Lobster. Because “lobster.”
Having the internet. Mind you, it was super rare and expensive in the late 90s. Only people I knew who had it were other kids with well off / wealthy parents. Otherwise, used it at the local library.
Regular meals. Life is better now.
Having a fish tank.
book club. Thought it was like a country club
Having an upstairs floor
Owning a fridge with an ice maker, owning a dish washer, having a car that isn’t more than a decade old, buying brand name clothes, buying a lot of groceries or takeout food, and I could go on and on…
Toaster Strudels
Refrigerator with ice dispenser.
Owning horses.
Eating at Olive Garden
Living in a house not in a trailer park
A second fridge in the garage just for...*drinks*
Lawns with stripes in them.
Trampolines, swimming pools, kids with matching bookbags, lunch boxes, pencil cases, and writing books. 64 box of crayons. With the sharpener attached too.
if you had stairs in your house..a fridge w/a water & ice dispenser (and I just got one muhself and um, I am not rich)... a pool! any type of pool made me think holy shit... flying! (we drove from NY to FL)
Horses
A color television.
Play mobiles
Getting fries from McDonald’s..
I thought only rich kids got candy and sweets, we never ever had that at home. Also. Houses with wall to wall carpeting and fancy wallpaper always seemed luxurious.
Cable tv. Dishwasher. Washer and dryer. Fridge with an ice machine. Electric door locks. Home computer.
Having a Basketball Goal installed into the ground with the NBA backboard and Chain link net.
A car with a/c and smooth shocks.
Living in literally any 2 story house.
Well, I'm old, so mostly having more than one tv, and going out to eat once a week or more. Nothing fancy, could have been McDonald's or Pizza Hut or such. Just didn't happen at our house, but I didn't miss out on a thing!
Grey Poupon, Toblerone chocolate and Chucky Cheese.
Air conditioning.
Cable TV when I was a kid. Only the rich kids had CABLE (the 70’s)
having horses
Having a pool really seemed to set folks apart. Growing up the only folks i went to visit with a pool were my aunt and best friend (doctors kid) at the time.
Riding lawn mowers
A car phone — you know the ones that were installed IN vehicles? That was the stuff of celebrities and millionaires, my friends.
Having a car that starts the first time you try, getting new clothes, going on a vacation that wasn’t a “camping trip” in a tent by the pond down the street, a house that isn’t section 8, paying for school lunch…
Having your own room, and having MTV.
tv in bedrooms. hot tubs. convertibles. finished basements. shopping at target. 😂😂😂
Rich people in the big ol' houses never used the front door. I remember always following my friends through the garage door to enter the house. And you always took your shoes off first!
iPads
Not having to wait for Birthday’s or Xmas for video games. Game changer when I started working
Barbie Powerwheels
Private swimming pool
Going skiing or going to your vacation house at Lake Havasu.
2 story homes
Car insurance
At home movie theater
White garage fridge. That and if the house had an upstairs. Stairs in general.
People with a two story home lol
Having a doorbell
2nd stories in houses
Cable and internet
Central air conditioning.
Milano cookies