I didn't really miss not having name brand snacks, but I desperately wanted Crayola crayons.
On a good day, I got Rose Art. On a bad one there was nothing.
I was always jealous of the kids at school that had the giant Crayola pack with the built-in sharpener.
My 3rd grade teacher gave me a simple 8 pack of Crayolas and I guarded that shit like it was the Holy Grail.
Yes! I feel this deeply. When I was a kid I got the bare minimum supplies. That 64 pack of Crayola's with the sharpener was a dream...
Imagine my surprise finding a used 64 pack of Crayola's with the sharpener at a garage sale for only a dime. I jumped on that and I was so happy, like truly ELATED, and I've been chasing that high ever since.
The 64 count Crayola box with the built in sharpener was always on my wish list. If you had one in 2nd grade you suddenly became popular! That’s how my 9 year old mind interpreted it 😊😊
Man, I was the same way! I lusted after that 64-count Crayola crayons with the built-in sharpener box for years!! As an adult in my 30s and with two daughters of my own, I bought myself a box during Back-to-School one year. I kept them in my undies drawer and loved to open the box and smell them from time-to-time. Then several years later, school time came and I didn't have the money to buy all the school supplies needed that year, so I gave the box to my younger daughter after telling her how special they were to me! I never did get to use that sharpener!
We did not eat in restaurants. We had fast food maybe once a year. I had no idea what restaurant food was, outside of McDonald’s or Burger King, until high school, and even then, I didn’t have the opportunity to try it.
Same. Growing up, my dad took us for pizza once. I think I was 13 or 14.. He only took us because all the kids our age were getting it all the time, and we felt so left out. That one time is the only time my parents took us for pizza.
We didn't eat out when I was a kid. We sometimes went to parks and had chicken cooked at home. If BBQ grills at the park we might fix hamburgers or hotdogs. Chips or canned veggies heated over grill. Quite the treat! Or we had sandwiches and chips. Water to drink or later or when we had a bit more money cokes (but this was infrequent). Parents were nondrinkers due to their upbringing. One income family. I was lucky to have dedicated, loving parents.
Always wanted Rock em Sock em Robots at Christmas.
Never once.
Until brother and I were 50+ and somehow my mom found them and we played the entire christmas day on the floor.
They were as cool as we'd hoped.
When raising my kids I also baked because I couldn't afford store bought stuff. Years later one of my sons friends told me he will never forget coming to MY house for homemade goodies. He said he never got that n it was a treat for him. Gave me a new perspective. All those days about feeling like my kids were missing our was for nothing.
Yes! I didn't appreciate the homemade stuff as a kid! It was hard work too! My mom would fry chicken legs in our old silver electric skillet. She'd squal every so often when she would get burned by the hot grease. She would make homemade gravy to dip our chicken in. Man. It was the bomb! I still make her cook that every couple of months.
In my family (Deep South-Louisiana) they were called the scrumps! Rhymes with pumps. Omgosh to be able to fight with my little brother over the scrumps at great grandmothers house!
you know it feels weird getting that stuff as an adult but it does heal you a little.
I grew up poor and a restaurant for me was going into a fast food place which we rarely did. I heard KFC was having a sale with buckets of chicken. When I was a kid I always wanted to eat chicken out the bucket. So one day I just ordered the special through the app and thought to myself this is dumb it's just a bucket with chicken in it. I thought I'm going to get this and feel really dumb. When I got to KFC and saw them actually putting chicken in the bucket something inside me just felt like fk I made it. I was legit happy in my car like wholy fk I got a bucket of chicken. I ate a nice bit of it over a couple days it was only 8 pieces. I literally did it once and never again but once was all I needed.
I ordered a pizza for the first time in my life a couple of weeks ago (I am over 50) something about that knock on the door and a dude handing me a box with a pizza in it made me irrationally happy.
Dominoes delivered here last week too! I ate only one piece, all I could eat, but it was so worth it. Sadly they just aren’t the same cold the next day.
Air fryer, 3 minutes. May have to do it a little longer - just depends on how cold it is. I don't have an air fryer but my son does and that's the only way they heat up leftover pizza. He says it tastes as delicious as day before when piping hot.
I HATED hot dogs with bread. I still get irrationally angry about it and I don't eat it anymore. I get buns. But oh how I used to get so mad when I found out we had no buns, just bread.
My mother would do the same thing with hamburgers. First off she’d cook them into basically charcoal briquettes and then serve them on a piece of white bread cut in two. The sad thing is that my step-dad butchered a cow each year (PT farmer) so we always had good cuts of meat but my mom didn’t even try to cook it decently and it was all either burnt or leathery. I was in my 20s before I discovered scrambled eggs shouldn’t be cooked until they were browned.
I actually like bread better than hot dog buns because the buns have too much bread. Lol!
I love burgers so much that I'll eat them with or without bread. I'll use buns, bread, tortillas, or a fork.
Honestly I’ll take the buns over bread today. Ever made a ham sandwich on a hamburger bun, or even hotdog bun. Also the buns last longer. Sometimes we skip the bread all together and buy just buns. 🤷🏻♀️
I love toasting the buns in my toaster too and have with just butter or sometimes I make small garlic breads from them too. And then there’s tuna melts too!
I always wanted a packed lunch for school because all the "cool" kids with money never ate school lunch. Their moms would pack theirs with all the good snacks. I had free lunch every day and was always embarrassed because of it. Only because other kids would make fun of me for it. Also, it's not food but we didn't have cable tv and I remember kids talking about watching South Park when it first came out and other shows that I had never seen and kids would ask if I watched it the night before and I would always say yes even though I didn't Lol
Our school district everyone gets free breakfast and lunch now so no one gets made fun of for that here. You went to school with a bunch of leaky hemorrhoids. Boy I want to be little and go back and pop one in the nose for you
I’m fascinated by how time period and/or location can impact perception/significance of having school lunch! I’m older and where I lived if a kid got school lunch, it meant their family was rich and could afford to pay for it (school lunches weren’t subsidized). So, you were poor if you brought lunch - or nothing. And if you forgot your lunch, oh well. You just sat through lunch while everyone else ate. But I get what you’re saying. Where I currently live, the schools are set up to feed all the children free lunches (they even offer a program during the summer so no child goes hungry. I LOVE that they do this.) But based on what you shared, I can see how if a kid brought their lunch to school ANYway, it would definitely send a message of ‘My folks have the money to foot the bill to send me to school with what I want to eat rather than eat something offered to me at no cost to them’. It’s very much a Claire-from-The-Breakfast-Club vibe.
Yes, this! When I was growing up, buying a school lunch was like getting a fast food meal. A packed lunch was basically "we have food at home" (ie it's cheaper lol).
Sugary cereal. My mom purchased Cheerios, cornflakes and rice crispies. Went I went to college there was a giant row of sugary cereal in dispensers in the dining hall. I tried them all.
Sunny D. Lunchables. Dunkaroos. Gushers. All those neat things kids had in their lunch boxes that weren't single slice balogna on white bread with margarine.
You must be around my girls' ages (51 & 42) b/c those are things I put in their lunches. I couldn't always afford them, but felt like such a good Mama when I could!
I didn’t even know these things even existed when I was a kid. I’m 54. I only found out about them when I had kids of my own.
Doritos and Kraft blue box were something we did have at home on the rare occasion though.
Love to hear that. I was the oldest of 6, mom cooked, just not enough. I can legit say we were starving, took me years to “slow down” when eating anything in front of people.
Love to hear that. I was the oldest of 6, mom cooked, just not enough. I can legit say we were starving, took me years to “slow down” when eating anything in front of people.
My Dad took us out for Chinese food once and I was a little apprehensive. I just LOVED it. Egg rolls, crispy chicken cow mein, sweet and sour chicken balls, etc. Hell, even the vegetables tasted good! I ate till I was almost sick. To this day, I save going out for Chinese for very special occasions.
Yes! I always wanted a McDonald's birthday cake! They used to make them. I always got a homemade cake. I love those now, but back then I really wanted Ronald and Grimace on my cake 🤣🤣🤣
Name brand ANYTHING! I grew up on the generic version of Oreo’s..Moreo’s among other generics. I now know there isn’t much difference and will buy the generics/store brands with most things I buy. But as a teenager I loved going to friends houses with a closet full of Twinkie’s, Ho ho’s, Doritos etc. and eating anything I wanted without having to ration.
Yep! I never invited friends over. I didn't have anything good for them to snack on. It's sad. It warped me mentally. I have a severe shopping addiction. My kids eat the best and dress the best. Even when I can't afford it. It really had an effect on me. I was bullied. One time, my mom bought a 2 liter of name brand pop. It was for a treat. She would get one cup. Fill it up. We lined up and my 3 siblings and I got one drink from it. My mom was young. She was 15 when she had me. She did the best she could. I just don't want my kids to have the memories I had.
I could have written your response. I rarely had friends over except the few that knew my situation (parents died very young, my maternal grandmother raised me and my 2 siblings) so money was tight. I know my grandmother did her best.
Funny story though..we got government cheese among other things. My friends would come over and ask for “that good cheese!” It made the best grilled cheese sandwiches. 😂😂
🤣🤣🤣 oh man what I wouldn't give to have a block of that cheese! That stuff was better than any cheese around. The rich folk didn't get that. That was our poor club gift! Lol
I volunteer at a food pantry and we mostly have regular cheese but every now and then we get a shipment of 'government cheese'...that processed orange stuff only really good for melting and pouring over stuff. The old timers are always like ...hey..
REAL government cheese like the olden days. Lolol
We received government cheese in the 80’s when my husband was it grad school. Very poor at the time. We either got a 2-3 lb (not really sure of the weight) brick of cheddar or american. Preferred the cheddar but the american was good too. We got the flour and powered milk, big jug of honey, lots of butter, probably a few other items. I made a lot of desserts. Sometimes we only had melted cheese for dinner. Income was less than $3000 a year. Helped that it was short term, and we were very appreciative of the program. The last 5 months before graduation and a new job we used food stamps as I was expecting and money went to paying for that. When applying for food stamps we told them it was only for 5 months. I don’t think they heard that often, confused by it. Another big help and very careful to only buy food for meals, no snack or treats. Those I made. The best was black raspberry pie. We had a small wooded area behind our house the it was full of them. Soooo good.
It's still around. It was and still is a program to help dairy farmers. Hopefully the link will work.
https://www.farmlinkproject.org/stories-and-features/cheese-caves-and-food-surpluses-why-the-u-s-government-currently-stores-1-4-billion-lbs-of-cheese#:~:text=Hundreds%20of%20feet%20below%20the,billion%20pounds%20of%20surplus%20cheese.
I didn't grow up poor (maybe lower middle class?), but I still didn't eat these foods because my parents made me eat healthier snacks. I don't think I had any Hostess products until adulthood, and I honestly found them pretty overrated! If anything, a lot of rich people eat really healthy because they can afford the best ingredients and someone to cook and clean for them.
I grew up rich, so I have the opposite, [upper middle class] My mother made foods like egg rolls with fish sauce, pork and vermicelli, and eggplant parmigana, 7 layer taco dip, and vegetable cream cheese "pizza" on puff pastry and other fancy dishes for her parties. We were given cheap food on daily basis like Life Cereal and bologna sandwiches, but remember some of those dishes. I used to want eggs and other better foods then the daily crummy food, but got to have some of the good stuff at the parties sometimes.
I had this weird obsession with Perrier water. All the country club kids down the street had it. [I was 70s and 80s kid, Perrier was big among the preppies]
When we had better times as adults I would buy mineral water. But then I couldn't drink it anymore because it gave me kidney stones. I got some weird food tastes from being around rich friends in college, loved caviar, and used to get smoked salmon when I could, but allergic to all seafood now. I had caviar only three times when I ate at their fancy restaurants. :p Strange to think about that, hadn't in a long time. Now I wish I could afford coffee, [just can't its way beyond the budget even the coffee shop].
I was born in 72! As an adult, I've had the luxury of eating in some of the best restaurants. But, being from Kentucky and growing up poor, my tastes pretty much stayed the same. I don't like uppity foods. I guess I just got used to country cooking. I still make my garlic bread with white bread, butter, garlic salt and pop in the oven. We still can green beans, chow chow, tomatoes, soup stock, etc..I do love crab legs, shrimp and a good steak. I hate sparkling water, except for Clearly Canadians. Do you remember those?? Kroger still sells them.
Glad you got to eat in some of the best restaurants. Welcome to a fellow Gen Xer too. :) Country cooking can be great, I had church members and others fix me country meals in my very rural town and had a country grandmother, she was 'stingy' with food with me personally [long story] but there were some family meals.
I remember foods like venison, chicken and dumplings and macaroni salad. Chicago oddly had the best food, had soul food and other foods, that place was crazy but they should name it the food capital of America as far as tasty food goes. I miss steak and seafood but those are good. I remember Clearly Canadians. I like weird drinks even love kombucha but can only afford maybe 1 can a month.
Honestly? Just having fresh fruit and vegetables. Just to snack. My household was canned and frozen vegetables only, only really meant for dinner, and fresh fruit was a rare treat that was always gone in a couple days.
As an adult, if I don't have a head of lettuce, some tomatoes, some cucumber, and bell peppers in the fridge, and at least some bananas or something on the counter, I feel like I'm failing.
For me it was cereal that wasn't generic Raisin Bran, sandwiches that weren't PB&J, and bacon. Dinner often consisted of either Mac and Cheese or Beans with cut up hot dogs in them. It would have been nice to have an actual dinner once or twice a week.
As a teenager, things weren't quite as bad, but in grade school it sucked.
Also would have been nice to be able to have a summer vacation story at the beginning of the school year.
Yes, some things changed when I got in high school. But I got a job too. After school. I was tired of having the bare minimum of clothes and shoes. I really wanted that Electric Youth perfume by Debbie Gibson. I'm still salty about that. 🤣
This is exactly how I grew up.
I remember my family was invited to one of my dad’s coworker’s house for a cookout. They served cocktail shrimp and I had never had it before. I thought it was the best thing I’d ever eaten and my dad had to tell me to leave some for the other guests. lol
I just told my husband yesterday that I had not eaten salmon or seafood (besides crabs on very rare occasions) and many other foods until after he and I started dating.
Funny you ask, told my son this story earlier.
Little Debbie’s used to be $1. Not only were we on welfare, but we were granolas too, so mom would never let me have those. We had this great creek that runs through town, where kids that don’t have cabins or go on vacations could swim, etc. we would get enough change between 3-5 people and buy a box, then hide it in the ledges around the creek.
I was never poor like that, thank goodness. The wanting never ends though. I wanted other things beyond my grasp as well. I don't really like to dwell on it now because again, the wanting never ends. No matter what we get, we want more until we learn not to want.
I love powdered milk and it's no longer cost effective in my area. 8 quarts is 2 gallons. I can buy a gallon of regular whole milk for $3 so $6 for two. The same equivalent of dry powder (makes 8 quarts) is over $12.
Pop tarts, McDonald's (or any other fastfood) hamburger helper (my parents said it was overpriced). I never once had any of these things until I reached adulthood. Now I can generic Pop tarts, generic hamburger helper, and the cheeseburger bundle at McDonald's. If you don't know what it is, look it up. It's a good amount of food for the money, and the only thing I can afford right now.
I still buy generic stuff. It's bred into me now. I don't buy certain things generic though. I refuse to buy generic dish soap, toilet paper, hot dogs, ketchup and mayonnaise.
I am just like you are. I mostly buy generic brands, but I buy the items you mentioned name brand as well. My oldest son insist on buying name brand French's mustard. He swears he can tell the difference, but it is all the same to me.
We share some of the same shopping list. We buy brand name dish soap, laundry soap, bread, TP, ketchup and mayo. We don't buy hot dogs - we buy name brand smoked sausage which is the same size and shape. Otherwise, we buy what is least expensive. Oh, and brand name coffee for hubs. He's a little spoiled.
I really feel sorry for the younger generations that are growing up poor. The kids nowadays are so inundated with “must have” stuff. The hottest video games, the newest cellphones. So much more for them to see other kids having and I think a greater sense of knowing how poor they are. I didn’t realize until my teen years that we had been poor. I didn’t feel poor. My mom did an amazing job with that. I’m a poor adult and feel the pangs of wanting things I can’t have. I am so glad I was so blissfully unaware as a kid.
Fruit snacks like we never had fruit roll ups type snacks but when I look back I think my dad did an amazing job we always had some things in bulk like sugar, flour, macaroni and spaghetti type stuff and spices and all I had to do was look around there was something to cook: I didn’t realize how lucky we were until noticed a few homes in my area where they mostly had bulk potatoes 🥔 or a childhood friend I went to school with wrote a book and she mentioned not having enough food at home which I had no idea about I try hard to remember if I even ate when I spent the night at her home when I was growing up and I don’t remember much of that time but I do remember one person who was in a foster home she didn’t have any food to eat neither did her siblings from the home she was living in so I was lucky,
Probably sounds weird but as a poor kid I only ever yearned for fruit and vegetables, specifically strawberries and broccoli. One summer when I was about 5 or 6, my truck driver dad was delivering produce to some nearby market and came home with a few pounds of strawberries. My sister and I sat outside on the sunny porch with a bowl of them and it was absolute heaven. Didn’t have them again until I was a teenager with a paycheck.
All I wanted was name brand sweet breakfast cereals. To this day I do not eat corn flakes, rice crispies, puffed rice or puffed wheat. Cocoa Puffs and Captain Crunch forever!!!!
I grew up middle class, but my mom’s cooking was just ok. She would give me the same things in my lunch box every day. One thing was the Little Debbie Star Crunches. I hated those things! I would always trade for a “healthier” snack, and kids were so happy to trade. Drink was always the Hawaiian Punch boxes, odd square shape.
We only got to go out to eat at tax time. When they got money back on me from filing. The major thing I always wanted, was soda. I remember going to friends houses with stocked fridges and pantries, like it was a mini store. Yogurts, pudding, jello, chips, cookies.. our house had koolaid for about a week til we ran out of sugar. Then tap water. I guess on the worst days, I still drink a lot of tap and koolaid. I try to remind myself other people are leas fortunate and do not have any of the things I do have, though.
Pizza Hut was a “once in a while” treat in my house.. it was expensive and my working class parents couldn’t afford to order out a lot. We didn’t go hungry, but we ate home cooked meals and leftovers 99.9% of the time.
I remember playing at a friend’s house one afternoon and their mom ordered Pizza Hut in the middle of the day. I was convinced they were wealthy because who the hell could afford to just order pizza like that?
We didn’t eat out. My mom was a great baker so all cookies and cakes were homemade (& good). But I envied others who had Oreo cookies or a birthday cake from the grocery store bakery. I know this is really messed up.
It's weird because when I was kid I didn't realize what I was missing out on food wise. But I do now realize I have an eating disorder due to food insecurity. We weren't starving but everything was home cooked and snack cakes and such was something grandparents did.
But man did I wish I could have had things like pound puppies and Breyer horses like my friends did. Certain things were only for holidays. When I was financially stable for awhile I did end up buying a lot of the breyers I had wanted as a child
We weren’t poor at all but my parents frugal with 4 kids. Pepsi and sugared cereal were our special vices. My grandma always had a cold 6 of Pepsi in the big glass bottles in her fridge. Man I can still remember the taste of that like it was yesterday.
I wanted clothes that weren’t hand me downs or too small. I think I wore the same four outfits all through junior high (and my one pair of sergio valenti jeans).
I had the inverse experience where i was raised by impoverished family until age 7 and then adopted by middle-class-rich grandparents who took me to do a lot of things and basically got me any snack or food i requested, EXCEPT fruit and vegetables and nuts etc. like healthy food thats “expensive” (it costs its actual worth. Fight me. Food that has INNATE value can cost a bit more, its worth it)
I went from a house that was poor but would eat nuts and fruit all the time, i missed that the most. It pissed me off too, knowing they could afford it but had been brainwashed to think theyre “overpriced” and “not worth it” like so many other Baby Boomers, who are WEIRDLY against buying any real whole food and do nothing but complain about how expensive meat fruit nuts AND veg are… like wtf else are u supposed to eat 💀🖐🏻
I've come to realize that all economic backgrounds had good and bad childhoods. Yes, I'm angry a bit about how I was treated at school because I was poor, and I did nle my parents for a long time. But, I wouldn't change a thing. It made me stronger.
My mother (long since passed away) grew up during the depression and was raised by her maternal grandparents, her own parents having passed away when she was a baby. Money was tight for everyone and she recalled various aunts and uncles coming and going, sometimes renting space in their home for a few months. Many of them played instruments and music was a regular form of entertainment. People never had money beyond what was necessary for the essentials, but everyone had a roof over their heads, clothes to wear and enough to eat, and my mother remembered a very happy childhood.
That is great. My childhood was happy. There are things that could have been different. But as a parent, I know the struggle. My parents did the best they could. My dad worked for 9.00 an hour then. There were 4 of us kids to provide for. He got sick early on with cancer. My mom put me babysitting at an early age, so she could put herself through nursing school. I lost alot if childhood being the parent to siblings at that young age. My dad was building our house at that time. I remember sleeping in what was going to be our bedroom and looking up to the sky from my sleeping bag. The rafters were all that was up. When it rained, we all slept in a closet area that had the roof actually attached. It was wild. But my dad worked and built that house from the ground up. He passed 2 years ago. It absolutely killed me. My mom is alive and we are extremely close, but she's starting to show signs of dementia. She doesn't think so. She doesn't see the changes.
We didn't have much but I can say we weren't hungry. We had a small farm so at least that. Going to a Supermarket was like going to Disneyland for me. I remember us only buying a handful of things we couldn't or won't make ourselves because it wasn't worth it. Example- tomato paste. We made our own sauces and canned tomatoes but paste took a lot of electric or gas to make
So yeah- anything from a Supermarket was magic to me.
We didn't go hungry either. My parents had a garden. They canned everything! We had good food. We didn't think so as kids! We didn't want to eat meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes, macaroni and tomatoes. I absolutely love that stuff now, and my kids are all adopted, but I was blessed that they love that kind of food. The way this world is, our kids are not going to be able to afford to live on their own and survive. I believe we are headed for a major depression 🫥
Can't eat the cheap lunch meat ham especially. Or those cheese singles.
My mom would make grilled cheeses with this super cheap .50c/1lb brown sugar ham. Turn it into grilled cheese. The smell would make me gag.
I can't eat that cheese now at almost 40.
I can't stand ham on pizza or macaroni. 🤮
And I can't do grilled cheese with that cheese and white bread.
I know exactly how you feel about wanting certain things to eat or drink. I'm trying to think of what I lusted after. I wanted brand name Cheetos, but got store brand instead. They were what we had, so I don't know if they tasted the same, better or worse than the real thing! We did have Tang at my Grandma's house, but, instead of having it for breakfast, we'd have it at night with popcorn as a snack! I was allowed to try Jiffy-Pop a couple of times, but burned them up both times! I always wanted to bring Hostess cupcakes in my lunch, but Mama said they were too expensive. She would send me a small apple in my bag instead of a cupcake. I was always so jealous of the kids with cupcakes for lunch!
Mama usually sent me a bologna sandwich with fried bologna instead of the regular bologna I wanted, some chips in a Baggie, and my apple! I bought milk (only white was offered) for a nickel. That was lunch! (An entire lunch back then, in 1962, was $1 for the week.) Oh! I forgot to say that I LOVED (and still do!) PB & J sandwiches, but I want(ed) crunchy PB with grape jelly! Mama fixed creamy PB with apple jelly and mixed them together in a bowl, then put the mixture on bread. I HATED that; ya can't really taste the jelly! I was always wanting what other kids had, but didn't want to seem ungrateful for what we had, so I tried not to complain. I preferred to buy my lunch at school b/c I was kinda spoiled by the hot lunches Grandma had fixed us every day while Mama worked. I think my favorite lunch was fish sticks in elementary school. I've never found any other fish sticks that tasted like the school's fish sticks And their ketchup was better, too! I enjoyed their homemade vegetable soup with the crusty bread they served with it. YUMMY! One thing I despised that they insisted on serving regularly was that carrot/raisin salad. I would have eaten the raisins or eaten the carrots, but not mixed together. ICK!!!! In high school, I got hooked on their homemade rolls, so I'd have 2 of those with butter and maybe a dessert with a Dr. Pepper. No wonder I was a little pudgy!
Crunchy peanut butter and grape jelly is elite! I still love it. The schools pizza was amazing! I miss that. In school we had a thing called The Snack Shack. During lunch and breaks, you could buy chips, pop and candy. I never had money for that until my junior year when I got a job after school. Dr. Pepper is my true love..lol..I tell everyone Dr. Pepper is my primary doctor lol. I was stick thin all through school. I gained a ton of weight when I got older and could buy what I wanted. I stayed home and ate abd read harlequin romance books 🤣🤣🤣
Honestly we ate well it's things we didn't do like movies or trips or stuff like that. We are a lot of caught meat so we often had cash for the other stuff like drinks flour salt all that fun stuff you need to cook with.
meat everyday. any kind of meat (even if was a little bit) and chocolate (everyday too. i know it's not good for healthy, buuuuut a dream is a dream).
still don't have any of these (i'm 24 now)
I would have loved to try McDonald's when I was a kid. That was not an option for us back then. Now it's a last resort when traveling and nothing else is available!
Gushers. Once in a while we got the generic gummy snacks but nothing name brand. The liquid filling seemed like the coolest thing ever.
Also dunkaroos.
This thread blows my mind. Growing up we were not well off. Like everyone would have killed for the store bought stuff. Then when I left the house binged on that stuff whenever I could and was never as happy with it as I was the stuff mom made. Then when I had kids I worked twice as hard so the kids could have the home made stuff over the store bought. Lesson is we all think we are missing out, but sometimes it isn't what we think
We weren't really poor, we always had enough to eat and clean clothes to wear.
But the food was mostly generic along with home canned fruit and veggies. Most clothes were from yard sales and thrift stores.
I can remember telling my mom that when I grew up my goal was to be able to buy food with labels in color. This was on the 70's-80's when generic items came in packages with black and white labels with the name of the item in big letters like PEACHES or CORN FLAKES.
When I was turning 10, my Mom took me to a little soup cafe as a birthday present. It was our first time in a restaurant in years and it would be years after before we ever did it again. It was so special to me and I'll never forget it.
As for foods I wished we had... One time I spent the night at a friend's house who was pretty wealthy, and her Mom made us a fancy charcuterie board with perfectly green grapes, expensive meats and cheeses, fancy crackers... I'd never seen anything like it. I was mind blown and pined for it after that day. We never had fruits or veggies, maybe an apple or two and canned peas/green beans/corn but that was it. I am so thankful that I'm able to provide healthy/quality food to my daughter now. I know my Mom was doing the best she could, and she kept us alive.
food in general. I lived with my mom, and although we got child support she used it only for herself and provided us the bare minimum. She would hide food in her room. And because I was the youngest I really didnt have much to eat. My mom only got food from food banks and that was already what people didnt want.
I really miss the Philadelphia cheesecake bars! The strawberry ones were beyond amazing and I was practically living off of those as an underweight kid due to having an ED (bulimia), thanks to my very jealous aunt, who couldn't stand to see me happy eating in general.
I'll somewhat forgive her for trying to get me to eat healthier, but I will never forget the damage she caused me throughout my childhood. If it wasn't for my mom and the doctor telling me I wouldn't make it to puberty, I wouldn't be who I am today.
I still have quite a ways to go diet-wise, but I do have better self confidence when it comes to counting my blessings for the things my body can do in general.
Thanks for reading!
I heard something this week that may help you OP- To really have a full, happy adult life-you truly have to let your unhappy, difficult, or abusive childhood go, once and for all. If it pops into your mind, don't let it stay there. Don't entertain negative thoughts. To take it a step further, if you think about one of those items on your list-turn it into a positive by saying "I'm going to pickup a package of DingDongs tomorrow." Don't think about you didn't have it in your childhood, just think about getting some, enjoy one when you do. And be grateful as an adult you can treat yourself now and again to the things you want!
We rarely ate out, McDonald's was a special treat (back then McDonald's didn't hire women) , Easter was the only time we ate at a sit down style restaurant and it was always The Denver Drumstick. They had a train that ran around the walls.
We only got 3 pairs of shoes a year. Tennis shoes and nice shoes at the beginning of school and sandals for Easter.
Not only were my clothes all hand me down, but they were made by my grandma. I got my first jeans in the 5th grade(bell bottoms) because a classmate felt sorry for me.
a pre made cake from a bakery. I was always jealous of kids who got a fancy birthday cake and a party.
We never owned a BBQ, and I always wanted a BBQ hotdog instead of one boiled in water on the stove.
We weren't exactly "poor" but my we lived paycheck to paycheck. I think overall my dad had a lower middle class salary, but there were 7 kids. Going out to eat meant going to ponderosa and getting the all you can eat salad bar. Never a main course, just the salad bar. But the salad bar was humongous.
We didn't have snacks except maybe popcorn, we didn't have soda, but had flav'r'aid. Meals were mostly healthy (spagetti, hamburgers, hotdogs, etc, with veggies and/or potaotes), but definitely frugal.
I only wish now that we had more snacks things, not because I think we missed out. But because now when I do buy those things, I have no impulse control. I can't buy a bag of chips and eat just one, but the whole bag. I can't buy a bulk container of m&m because I will eat them till I feel sick and then eat more. I allow myslef 2 boxes of thin mint cookies per year, and I eat thise in one day. So for the most part, I still don't have snacks in my house. My other siblings are basically the same way.
My brother married a lady that came from a well to do family. They had great snacks. They can all just eat a fun size snickers or a few m&ms and be satisfied. I say "fun sized? That is not very fun!"
The first time I ever tried a poptart was magical. The closest I’d ever had was toast with margarine and grape jelly. I don’t think I’ve ever forgotten that.
I didn't really miss not having name brand snacks, but I desperately wanted Crayola crayons. On a good day, I got Rose Art. On a bad one there was nothing. I was always jealous of the kids at school that had the giant Crayola pack with the built-in sharpener. My 3rd grade teacher gave me a simple 8 pack of Crayolas and I guarded that shit like it was the Holy Grail.
Yes! I feel this deeply. When I was a kid I got the bare minimum supplies. That 64 pack of Crayola's with the sharpener was a dream... Imagine my surprise finding a used 64 pack of Crayola's with the sharpener at a garage sale for only a dime. I jumped on that and I was so happy, like truly ELATED, and I've been chasing that high ever since.
Chasing that crayola dragon 🖍️ 🐉
🥰🥰🤣🤣🤣
The 64 count Crayola box with the built in sharpener was always on my wish list. If you had one in 2nd grade you suddenly became popular! That’s how my 9 year old mind interpreted it 😊😊
My daughter always wanted a big box of these crayons. I bought it for her for Christmas when she was in her mid 30’s she was elsted
Yes! That 64 box of crayons with the sharpener taunted me as a kid! 🤣🤣
I recently bought one for me!! Actually, I used points to make it free 🤩
I gifted two of my former coworkers a box of those when they said they never had them. I felt special when I got a box
Man, I was the same way! I lusted after that 64-count Crayola crayons with the built-in sharpener box for years!! As an adult in my 30s and with two daughters of my own, I bought myself a box during Back-to-School one year. I kept them in my undies drawer and loved to open the box and smell them from time-to-time. Then several years later, school time came and I didn't have the money to buy all the school supplies needed that year, so I gave the box to my younger daughter after telling her how special they were to me! I never did get to use that sharpener!
They've got a 96 pack now! I just saw it yesterday. It's like, $8.
O.o I'm tempted to go get some and use them on a canvass
Man generic crayons are a real mf. My kids have no idea what poor is.. we’ve spoiled the shit out of them.
We did not eat in restaurants. We had fast food maybe once a year. I had no idea what restaurant food was, outside of McDonald’s or Burger King, until high school, and even then, I didn’t have the opportunity to try it.
Same. Growing up, my dad took us for pizza once. I think I was 13 or 14.. He only took us because all the kids our age were getting it all the time, and we felt so left out. That one time is the only time my parents took us for pizza.
God bless your dad. God bless your parents. Hopefully poverty did not mean absebce of affection and caring in the household.
Same!!!!
We didn't eat out when I was a kid. We sometimes went to parks and had chicken cooked at home. If BBQ grills at the park we might fix hamburgers or hotdogs. Chips or canned veggies heated over grill. Quite the treat! Or we had sandwiches and chips. Water to drink or later or when we had a bit more money cokes (but this was infrequent). Parents were nondrinkers due to their upbringing. One income family. I was lucky to have dedicated, loving parents.
Viennetta Ice Cream, lunchables, kudos bars
They brought back the vienetta ice cream! I've yet to find it!
Aldi has a dupe of vienetta once a year.
Oh! I fmgo to Aldi once a month. I'll check!
Back when I was a kid, Lunchables were called Lunch and Munches!
Always wanted Rock em Sock em Robots at Christmas. Never once. Until brother and I were 50+ and somehow my mom found them and we played the entire christmas day on the floor. They were as cool as we'd hoped.
This made me smile. Your mom is awesome.
I would love to see the pics from that Christmas. I just love it when grownups get right back to little kid basics and have fun. <3
My husband got me the rock tumbler I always wanted as a kid 🥰
Similar story here with an American Girl doll.
Hostess snacks. Though I didn’t realize how lucky we were that my mom had homemade cookies and cake waiting for us when we came home from school.
Nothing beats homemade cookies
Except back as a kid, I would have traded every homemade cookie for a Little Debbie.
When raising my kids I also baked because I couldn't afford store bought stuff. Years later one of my sons friends told me he will never forget coming to MY house for homemade goodies. He said he never got that n it was a treat for him. Gave me a new perspective. All those days about feeling like my kids were missing our was for nothing.
Yes! I didn't appreciate the homemade stuff as a kid! It was hard work too! My mom would fry chicken legs in our old silver electric skillet. She'd squal every so often when she would get burned by the hot grease. She would make homemade gravy to dip our chicken in. Man. It was the bomb! I still make her cook that every couple of months.
My Grandma used her electric skillet for frying chicken, too! I can still see her standing by the washer where she set it up to cook.
Those skillets made the best fried chicken! Those pieces we called the brickle was elite!
And fried potatoes. Heaven.
In my family (Deep South-Louisiana) they were called the scrumps! Rhymes with pumps. Omgosh to be able to fight with my little brother over the scrumps at great grandmothers house!
But there's nothing like a Hostess cupcake!
you know it feels weird getting that stuff as an adult but it does heal you a little. I grew up poor and a restaurant for me was going into a fast food place which we rarely did. I heard KFC was having a sale with buckets of chicken. When I was a kid I always wanted to eat chicken out the bucket. So one day I just ordered the special through the app and thought to myself this is dumb it's just a bucket with chicken in it. I thought I'm going to get this and feel really dumb. When I got to KFC and saw them actually putting chicken in the bucket something inside me just felt like fk I made it. I was legit happy in my car like wholy fk I got a bucket of chicken. I ate a nice bit of it over a couple days it was only 8 pieces. I literally did it once and never again but once was all I needed.
I ordered a pizza for the first time in my life a couple of weeks ago (I am over 50) something about that knock on the door and a dude handing me a box with a pizza in it made me irrationally happy.
Dominoes delivered here last week too! I ate only one piece, all I could eat, but it was so worth it. Sadly they just aren’t the same cold the next day.
Actually, I think they are better cold the next day. I'll eat them for breakfast or lunch.
I nuke mine. Some people say to put the leftovers in a skillet and heat them up
That’s worth the try! I have some teeth that are bothering me and cold is just too much work, I’ll try the skillet tho! Thanks!
Air fryer, 3 minutes. May have to do it a little longer - just depends on how cold it is. I don't have an air fryer but my son does and that's the only way they heat up leftover pizza. He says it tastes as delicious as day before when piping hot.
It is awesome :) I used to order it on my birthday in my 30s.
Yes! You have to try the one thing you wanted so bad at least once!
This is so fucking bad ass! Hell yeah you made it!
This was so wholesome I got tears in my eyes. Congrats dude-you HAVE made it. Good on you man.
Soda, pizza, hotdog buns (we had to use bread only), cheese slices (we only had a loaf of Velvetta), pop tarts, Doritos.
I HATED hot dogs with bread. I still get irrationally angry about it and I don't eat it anymore. I get buns. But oh how I used to get so mad when I found out we had no buns, just bread.
My mother would do the same thing with hamburgers. First off she’d cook them into basically charcoal briquettes and then serve them on a piece of white bread cut in two. The sad thing is that my step-dad butchered a cow each year (PT farmer) so we always had good cuts of meat but my mom didn’t even try to cook it decently and it was all either burnt or leathery. I was in my 20s before I discovered scrambled eggs shouldn’t be cooked until they were browned.
I actually like bread better than hot dog buns because the buns have too much bread. Lol! I love burgers so much that I'll eat them with or without bread. I'll use buns, bread, tortillas, or a fork.
Hot dogs and bread was the worst. I live alone and I’ll still waste an 8 pack of buns just to have one real bun with my dog.
😐
Put the leftover buns in the freezer-then just pull one out as you need it!
Honestly I’ll take the buns over bread today. Ever made a ham sandwich on a hamburger bun, or even hotdog bun. Also the buns last longer. Sometimes we skip the bread all together and buy just buns. 🤷🏻♀️
I love toasting the buns in my toaster too and have with just butter or sometimes I make small garlic breads from them too. And then there’s tuna melts too!
I always wanted a packed lunch for school because all the "cool" kids with money never ate school lunch. Their moms would pack theirs with all the good snacks. I had free lunch every day and was always embarrassed because of it. Only because other kids would make fun of me for it. Also, it's not food but we didn't have cable tv and I remember kids talking about watching South Park when it first came out and other shows that I had never seen and kids would ask if I watched it the night before and I would always say yes even though I didn't Lol
Our school district everyone gets free breakfast and lunch now so no one gets made fun of for that here. You went to school with a bunch of leaky hemorrhoids. Boy I want to be little and go back and pop one in the nose for you
I’m fascinated by how time period and/or location can impact perception/significance of having school lunch! I’m older and where I lived if a kid got school lunch, it meant their family was rich and could afford to pay for it (school lunches weren’t subsidized). So, you were poor if you brought lunch - or nothing. And if you forgot your lunch, oh well. You just sat through lunch while everyone else ate. But I get what you’re saying. Where I currently live, the schools are set up to feed all the children free lunches (they even offer a program during the summer so no child goes hungry. I LOVE that they do this.) But based on what you shared, I can see how if a kid brought their lunch to school ANYway, it would definitely send a message of ‘My folks have the money to foot the bill to send me to school with what I want to eat rather than eat something offered to me at no cost to them’. It’s very much a Claire-from-The-Breakfast-Club vibe.
Yes, this! When I was growing up, buying a school lunch was like getting a fast food meal. A packed lunch was basically "we have food at home" (ie it's cheaper lol).
My kids beg to pack lunches to school. I do let them on occasion.
Sugary cereal. My mom purchased Cheerios, cornflakes and rice crispies. Went I went to college there was a giant row of sugary cereal in dispensers in the dining hall. I tried them all.
Same!
Honestly, all I wanted was to be able to afford to go to the doctor when I was sick. I didn’t care about anything else.
Sunny D. Lunchables. Dunkaroos. Gushers. All those neat things kids had in their lunch boxes that weren't single slice balogna on white bread with margarine.
You must be around my girls' ages (51 & 42) b/c those are things I put in their lunches. I couldn't always afford them, but felt like such a good Mama when I could!
Yesssss!
Omg I forgot about these!
I didn’t even know these things even existed when I was a kid. I’m 54. I only found out about them when I had kids of my own. Doritos and Kraft blue box were something we did have at home on the rare occasion though.
As a kid, I thought if you were allowed to open the fridge…ever…you had money.
Yep! No in between snacks for us. But we did eat good. I can't complain. My mom cooked every meal!
Love to hear that. I was the oldest of 6, mom cooked, just not enough. I can legit say we were starving, took me years to “slow down” when eating anything in front of people.
Love to hear that. I was the oldest of 6, mom cooked, just not enough. I can legit say we were starving, took me years to “slow down” when eating anything in front of people.
😔😭😭
My Dad took us out for Chinese food once and I was a little apprehensive. I just LOVED it. Egg rolls, crispy chicken cow mein, sweet and sour chicken balls, etc. Hell, even the vegetables tasted good! I ate till I was almost sick. To this day, I save going out for Chinese for very special occasions.
A birthday party. Not even a fancy one. My mum just couldn't afford to have a class of kids eat snacks.
Yes! I always wanted a McDonald's birthday cake! They used to make them. I always got a homemade cake. I love those now, but back then I really wanted Ronald and Grimace on my cake 🤣🤣🤣
My birthday is in July, so I never got to have a class party!
Ah, yep. I have never had a birthday party. Most years not even a cake.
Name brand ANYTHING! I grew up on the generic version of Oreo’s..Moreo’s among other generics. I now know there isn’t much difference and will buy the generics/store brands with most things I buy. But as a teenager I loved going to friends houses with a closet full of Twinkie’s, Ho ho’s, Doritos etc. and eating anything I wanted without having to ration.
Yep! I never invited friends over. I didn't have anything good for them to snack on. It's sad. It warped me mentally. I have a severe shopping addiction. My kids eat the best and dress the best. Even when I can't afford it. It really had an effect on me. I was bullied. One time, my mom bought a 2 liter of name brand pop. It was for a treat. She would get one cup. Fill it up. We lined up and my 3 siblings and I got one drink from it. My mom was young. She was 15 when she had me. She did the best she could. I just don't want my kids to have the memories I had.
I could have written your response. I rarely had friends over except the few that knew my situation (parents died very young, my maternal grandmother raised me and my 2 siblings) so money was tight. I know my grandmother did her best. Funny story though..we got government cheese among other things. My friends would come over and ask for “that good cheese!” It made the best grilled cheese sandwiches. 😂😂
🤣🤣🤣 oh man what I wouldn't give to have a block of that cheese! That stuff was better than any cheese around. The rich folk didn't get that. That was our poor club gift! Lol
I volunteer at a food pantry and we mostly have regular cheese but every now and then we get a shipment of 'government cheese'...that processed orange stuff only really good for melting and pouring over stuff. The old timers are always like ...hey.. REAL government cheese like the olden days. Lolol
Yes! We will never see that good cheese again. It was soooo good.
We received government cheese in the 80’s when my husband was it grad school. Very poor at the time. We either got a 2-3 lb (not really sure of the weight) brick of cheddar or american. Preferred the cheddar but the american was good too. We got the flour and powered milk, big jug of honey, lots of butter, probably a few other items. I made a lot of desserts. Sometimes we only had melted cheese for dinner. Income was less than $3000 a year. Helped that it was short term, and we were very appreciative of the program. The last 5 months before graduation and a new job we used food stamps as I was expecting and money went to paying for that. When applying for food stamps we told them it was only for 5 months. I don’t think they heard that often, confused by it. Another big help and very careful to only buy food for meals, no snack or treats. Those I made. The best was black raspberry pie. We had a small wooded area behind our house the it was full of them. Soooo good.
It's still around. It was and still is a program to help dairy farmers. Hopefully the link will work. https://www.farmlinkproject.org/stories-and-features/cheese-caves-and-food-surpluses-why-the-u-s-government-currently-stores-1-4-billion-lbs-of-cheese#:~:text=Hundreds%20of%20feet%20below%20the,billion%20pounds%20of%20surplus%20cheese.
Oh!!!! Thank you!!!! 😊
Government cheese was the BEST!!!
💯💯💯
Bongards
Always pizza and to go out and get ice cream, it was a rare treat
My best friends parents took me to pizza hut once. I about died at how good that stuff was.
Pizza is beyond delicious
I didn't grow up poor (maybe lower middle class?), but I still didn't eat these foods because my parents made me eat healthier snacks. I don't think I had any Hostess products until adulthood, and I honestly found them pretty overrated! If anything, a lot of rich people eat really healthy because they can afford the best ingredients and someone to cook and clean for them.
You missed out on some great snacks! 🤣
I grew up rich, so I have the opposite, [upper middle class] My mother made foods like egg rolls with fish sauce, pork and vermicelli, and eggplant parmigana, 7 layer taco dip, and vegetable cream cheese "pizza" on puff pastry and other fancy dishes for her parties. We were given cheap food on daily basis like Life Cereal and bologna sandwiches, but remember some of those dishes. I used to want eggs and other better foods then the daily crummy food, but got to have some of the good stuff at the parties sometimes. I had this weird obsession with Perrier water. All the country club kids down the street had it. [I was 70s and 80s kid, Perrier was big among the preppies] When we had better times as adults I would buy mineral water. But then I couldn't drink it anymore because it gave me kidney stones. I got some weird food tastes from being around rich friends in college, loved caviar, and used to get smoked salmon when I could, but allergic to all seafood now. I had caviar only three times when I ate at their fancy restaurants. :p Strange to think about that, hadn't in a long time. Now I wish I could afford coffee, [just can't its way beyond the budget even the coffee shop].
I was born in 72! As an adult, I've had the luxury of eating in some of the best restaurants. But, being from Kentucky and growing up poor, my tastes pretty much stayed the same. I don't like uppity foods. I guess I just got used to country cooking. I still make my garlic bread with white bread, butter, garlic salt and pop in the oven. We still can green beans, chow chow, tomatoes, soup stock, etc..I do love crab legs, shrimp and a good steak. I hate sparkling water, except for Clearly Canadians. Do you remember those?? Kroger still sells them.
Glad you got to eat in some of the best restaurants. Welcome to a fellow Gen Xer too. :) Country cooking can be great, I had church members and others fix me country meals in my very rural town and had a country grandmother, she was 'stingy' with food with me personally [long story] but there were some family meals. I remember foods like venison, chicken and dumplings and macaroni salad. Chicago oddly had the best food, had soul food and other foods, that place was crazy but they should name it the food capital of America as far as tasty food goes. I miss steak and seafood but those are good. I remember Clearly Canadians. I like weird drinks even love kombucha but can only afford maybe 1 can a month.
I'm was born in Chicago. All my family are still there. The food there is excellent! So much to choose from!
Honestly? Just having fresh fruit and vegetables. Just to snack. My household was canned and frozen vegetables only, only really meant for dinner, and fresh fruit was a rare treat that was always gone in a couple days. As an adult, if I don't have a head of lettuce, some tomatoes, some cucumber, and bell peppers in the fridge, and at least some bananas or something on the counter, I feel like I'm failing.
For me it was cereal that wasn't generic Raisin Bran, sandwiches that weren't PB&J, and bacon. Dinner often consisted of either Mac and Cheese or Beans with cut up hot dogs in them. It would have been nice to have an actual dinner once or twice a week. As a teenager, things weren't quite as bad, but in grade school it sucked. Also would have been nice to be able to have a summer vacation story at the beginning of the school year.
Yes, some things changed when I got in high school. But I got a job too. After school. I was tired of having the bare minimum of clothes and shoes. I really wanted that Electric Youth perfume by Debbie Gibson. I'm still salty about that. 🤣
This is exactly how I grew up. I remember my family was invited to one of my dad’s coworker’s house for a cookout. They served cocktail shrimp and I had never had it before. I thought it was the best thing I’d ever eaten and my dad had to tell me to leave some for the other guests. lol I just told my husband yesterday that I had not eaten salmon or seafood (besides crabs on very rare occasions) and many other foods until after he and I started dating.
Funny you ask, told my son this story earlier. Little Debbie’s used to be $1. Not only were we on welfare, but we were granolas too, so mom would never let me have those. We had this great creek that runs through town, where kids that don’t have cabins or go on vacations could swim, etc. we would get enough change between 3-5 people and buy a box, then hide it in the ledges around the creek.
I was never poor like that, thank goodness. The wanting never ends though. I wanted other things beyond my grasp as well. I don't really like to dwell on it now because again, the wanting never ends. No matter what we get, we want more until we learn not to want.
I wanted KFC, I thought only rich people could eat kentucky fried chicken lol
Snoopy snow cone machine, My husband got me one when we were dating
Oohh I found a snoopy machine still in the box at a thrift store! I got it for $3
What a phenomenal deal!
I know! I dared my kids to even touch it. Lol
I wanted real milk, not the powdered crap out of a box that you added water to...
I love powdered milk and it's no longer cost effective in my area. 8 quarts is 2 gallons. I can buy a gallon of regular whole milk for $3 so $6 for two. The same equivalent of dry powder (makes 8 quarts) is over $12.
I love powdered milk. I think that makes us gremlins
It has this "milky" cooked taste I absolutely love. I'll be a milk goblin, sure.
Did y'all ever have powdered eggs? Grandma used them in cooking and baking.
Oh! I remember that! They actually still sell it.
Pop tarts, McDonald's (or any other fastfood) hamburger helper (my parents said it was overpriced). I never once had any of these things until I reached adulthood. Now I can generic Pop tarts, generic hamburger helper, and the cheeseburger bundle at McDonald's. If you don't know what it is, look it up. It's a good amount of food for the money, and the only thing I can afford right now.
I still buy generic stuff. It's bred into me now. I don't buy certain things generic though. I refuse to buy generic dish soap, toilet paper, hot dogs, ketchup and mayonnaise.
Man, I used to LOVE and prefer the generic mayo!
I am just like you are. I mostly buy generic brands, but I buy the items you mentioned name brand as well. My oldest son insist on buying name brand French's mustard. He swears he can tell the difference, but it is all the same to me.
The reason I buy name brand mustard is because the lid is so much better! Ha!
Yes! This is the only difference and it's a big one.
That’s about my brand name list as well. Lol
Me too, it’s the same thing honestly, maybe I’m just used to the taste
We share some of the same shopping list. We buy brand name dish soap, laundry soap, bread, TP, ketchup and mayo. We don't buy hot dogs - we buy name brand smoked sausage which is the same size and shape. Otherwise, we buy what is least expensive. Oh, and brand name coffee for hubs. He's a little spoiled.
Yes! I love Hilshire Farms cheese polish sausages! I just can't do generic on some things. You actually waste your money buying the generic sometimes.
I really feel sorry for the younger generations that are growing up poor. The kids nowadays are so inundated with “must have” stuff. The hottest video games, the newest cellphones. So much more for them to see other kids having and I think a greater sense of knowing how poor they are. I didn’t realize until my teen years that we had been poor. I didn’t feel poor. My mom did an amazing job with that. I’m a poor adult and feel the pangs of wanting things I can’t have. I am so glad I was so blissfully unaware as a kid.
Fruit snacks like we never had fruit roll ups type snacks but when I look back I think my dad did an amazing job we always had some things in bulk like sugar, flour, macaroni and spaghetti type stuff and spices and all I had to do was look around there was something to cook: I didn’t realize how lucky we were until noticed a few homes in my area where they mostly had bulk potatoes 🥔 or a childhood friend I went to school with wrote a book and she mentioned not having enough food at home which I had no idea about I try hard to remember if I even ate when I spent the night at her home when I was growing up and I don’t remember much of that time but I do remember one person who was in a foster home she didn’t have any food to eat neither did her siblings from the home she was living in so I was lucky,
Probably sounds weird but as a poor kid I only ever yearned for fruit and vegetables, specifically strawberries and broccoli. One summer when I was about 5 or 6, my truck driver dad was delivering produce to some nearby market and came home with a few pounds of strawberries. My sister and I sat outside on the sunny porch with a bowl of them and it was absolute heaven. Didn’t have them again until I was a teenager with a paycheck.
Come to think of it, we didn't get a lot of fruit. We didn't get many desserts either.
I'd have been over the moon to be able to eat steak with kool-aid
Me too! As a kid it would have been epic!
Chinese takeout. I never had it until I was an adult
All I wanted was name brand sweet breakfast cereals. To this day I do not eat corn flakes, rice crispies, puffed rice or puffed wheat. Cocoa Puffs and Captain Crunch forever!!!!
I would have liked to have any food. There was never anything in our fridge but beer. Sometimes I would walk to the store and get noodles to eat.
😪😔
I’m so sorry. I hope you are doing well for yourself now.
Soda. All we ever had to drink was sweet tea, milk or water.
I love sweet tea. We drank alot of water and kool-aid
Steak. I loved steak as a kid. I had it maybe once a year.
I wanted lunch meat from the deli
Never got it lol
Oooo yeah instead of the Carl buddig lol
We only had budding meat when it was chpped up into slivers and cooked I to the milk gravy to top toast or bread. And we loved it!
I grew up middle class, but my mom’s cooking was just ok. She would give me the same things in my lunch box every day. One thing was the Little Debbie Star Crunches. I hated those things! I would always trade for a “healthier” snack, and kids were so happy to trade. Drink was always the Hawaiian Punch boxes, odd square shape.
We only got to go out to eat at tax time. When they got money back on me from filing. The major thing I always wanted, was soda. I remember going to friends houses with stocked fridges and pantries, like it was a mini store. Yogurts, pudding, jello, chips, cookies.. our house had koolaid for about a week til we ran out of sugar. Then tap water. I guess on the worst days, I still drink a lot of tap and koolaid. I try to remind myself other people are leas fortunate and do not have any of the things I do have, though.
Pizza Hut was a “once in a while” treat in my house.. it was expensive and my working class parents couldn’t afford to order out a lot. We didn’t go hungry, but we ate home cooked meals and leftovers 99.9% of the time. I remember playing at a friend’s house one afternoon and their mom ordered Pizza Hut in the middle of the day. I was convinced they were wealthy because who the hell could afford to just order pizza like that?
We didn’t eat out. My mom was a great baker so all cookies and cakes were homemade (& good). But I envied others who had Oreo cookies or a birthday cake from the grocery store bakery. I know this is really messed up.
Looking back i did not appreciate my sandwiches on homemade bread with homemade jam and homemade applesauce in a reusable container.
We did not eat out, so when McDonalds offered a cheeseburger if you got an A, I scored one every year!
Cheese from the deli. Turkey and ham sandwich meat. Steak. Ice cream. Everyday we ate a big bowl of rice and whatever meat we had (hotdogs).
Hamburger and hotdog buns, not just bread slices.
It's weird because when I was kid I didn't realize what I was missing out on food wise. But I do now realize I have an eating disorder due to food insecurity. We weren't starving but everything was home cooked and snack cakes and such was something grandparents did. But man did I wish I could have had things like pound puppies and Breyer horses like my friends did. Certain things were only for holidays. When I was financially stable for awhile I did end up buying a lot of the breyers I had wanted as a child
Me too. I didn't buy generic anything until I had kids..lol
We weren’t poor at all but my parents frugal with 4 kids. Pepsi and sugared cereal were our special vices. My grandma always had a cold 6 of Pepsi in the big glass bottles in her fridge. Man I can still remember the taste of that like it was yesterday.
Those glass bottles hit different! Occasionally I buy the small cokes in a bottle and put peanuts in them. We did that as a kid!
I wanted clothes that weren’t hand me downs or too small. I think I wore the same four outfits all through junior high (and my one pair of sergio valenti jeans).
I had the inverse experience where i was raised by impoverished family until age 7 and then adopted by middle-class-rich grandparents who took me to do a lot of things and basically got me any snack or food i requested, EXCEPT fruit and vegetables and nuts etc. like healthy food thats “expensive” (it costs its actual worth. Fight me. Food that has INNATE value can cost a bit more, its worth it) I went from a house that was poor but would eat nuts and fruit all the time, i missed that the most. It pissed me off too, knowing they could afford it but had been brainwashed to think theyre “overpriced” and “not worth it” like so many other Baby Boomers, who are WEIRDLY against buying any real whole food and do nothing but complain about how expensive meat fruit nuts AND veg are… like wtf else are u supposed to eat 💀🖐🏻
I've come to realize that all economic backgrounds had good and bad childhoods. Yes, I'm angry a bit about how I was treated at school because I was poor, and I did nle my parents for a long time. But, I wouldn't change a thing. It made me stronger.
My mother (long since passed away) grew up during the depression and was raised by her maternal grandparents, her own parents having passed away when she was a baby. Money was tight for everyone and she recalled various aunts and uncles coming and going, sometimes renting space in their home for a few months. Many of them played instruments and music was a regular form of entertainment. People never had money beyond what was necessary for the essentials, but everyone had a roof over their heads, clothes to wear and enough to eat, and my mother remembered a very happy childhood.
That is great. My childhood was happy. There are things that could have been different. But as a parent, I know the struggle. My parents did the best they could. My dad worked for 9.00 an hour then. There were 4 of us kids to provide for. He got sick early on with cancer. My mom put me babysitting at an early age, so she could put herself through nursing school. I lost alot if childhood being the parent to siblings at that young age. My dad was building our house at that time. I remember sleeping in what was going to be our bedroom and looking up to the sky from my sleeping bag. The rafters were all that was up. When it rained, we all slept in a closet area that had the roof actually attached. It was wild. But my dad worked and built that house from the ground up. He passed 2 years ago. It absolutely killed me. My mom is alive and we are extremely close, but she's starting to show signs of dementia. She doesn't think so. She doesn't see the changes.
We didn't have much but I can say we weren't hungry. We had a small farm so at least that. Going to a Supermarket was like going to Disneyland for me. I remember us only buying a handful of things we couldn't or won't make ourselves because it wasn't worth it. Example- tomato paste. We made our own sauces and canned tomatoes but paste took a lot of electric or gas to make So yeah- anything from a Supermarket was magic to me.
We didn't go hungry either. My parents had a garden. They canned everything! We had good food. We didn't think so as kids! We didn't want to eat meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, mashed potatoes, macaroni and tomatoes. I absolutely love that stuff now, and my kids are all adopted, but I was blessed that they love that kind of food. The way this world is, our kids are not going to be able to afford to live on their own and survive. I believe we are headed for a major depression 🫥
Literally anything but grilled cheese sandwiches. I still won’t eat one and don’t think I have in 30 years. I hate white bread and cheese singles.
Can't eat the cheap lunch meat ham especially. Or those cheese singles. My mom would make grilled cheeses with this super cheap .50c/1lb brown sugar ham. Turn it into grilled cheese. The smell would make me gag. I can't eat that cheese now at almost 40. I can't stand ham on pizza or macaroni. 🤮 And I can't do grilled cheese with that cheese and white bread.
I totally understand. I don't think any kids that lived in extreme poverty came out unscathed in some way.
I know exactly how you feel about wanting certain things to eat or drink. I'm trying to think of what I lusted after. I wanted brand name Cheetos, but got store brand instead. They were what we had, so I don't know if they tasted the same, better or worse than the real thing! We did have Tang at my Grandma's house, but, instead of having it for breakfast, we'd have it at night with popcorn as a snack! I was allowed to try Jiffy-Pop a couple of times, but burned them up both times! I always wanted to bring Hostess cupcakes in my lunch, but Mama said they were too expensive. She would send me a small apple in my bag instead of a cupcake. I was always so jealous of the kids with cupcakes for lunch! Mama usually sent me a bologna sandwich with fried bologna instead of the regular bologna I wanted, some chips in a Baggie, and my apple! I bought milk (only white was offered) for a nickel. That was lunch! (An entire lunch back then, in 1962, was $1 for the week.) Oh! I forgot to say that I LOVED (and still do!) PB & J sandwiches, but I want(ed) crunchy PB with grape jelly! Mama fixed creamy PB with apple jelly and mixed them together in a bowl, then put the mixture on bread. I HATED that; ya can't really taste the jelly! I was always wanting what other kids had, but didn't want to seem ungrateful for what we had, so I tried not to complain. I preferred to buy my lunch at school b/c I was kinda spoiled by the hot lunches Grandma had fixed us every day while Mama worked. I think my favorite lunch was fish sticks in elementary school. I've never found any other fish sticks that tasted like the school's fish sticks And their ketchup was better, too! I enjoyed their homemade vegetable soup with the crusty bread they served with it. YUMMY! One thing I despised that they insisted on serving regularly was that carrot/raisin salad. I would have eaten the raisins or eaten the carrots, but not mixed together. ICK!!!! In high school, I got hooked on their homemade rolls, so I'd have 2 of those with butter and maybe a dessert with a Dr. Pepper. No wonder I was a little pudgy!
Crunchy peanut butter and grape jelly is elite! I still love it. The schools pizza was amazing! I miss that. In school we had a thing called The Snack Shack. During lunch and breaks, you could buy chips, pop and candy. I never had money for that until my junior year when I got a job after school. Dr. Pepper is my true love..lol..I tell everyone Dr. Pepper is my primary doctor lol. I was stick thin all through school. I gained a ton of weight when I got older and could buy what I wanted. I stayed home and ate abd read harlequin romance books 🤣🤣🤣
Our school had pizza, too, but I had never had pizza, and never did til in my 20s. My friend, Kathy, had pizza almost every day during school.
Milk
Name brand cereal and soda
Honestly we ate well it's things we didn't do like movies or trips or stuff like that. We are a lot of caught meat so we often had cash for the other stuff like drinks flour salt all that fun stuff you need to cook with.
meat everyday. any kind of meat (even if was a little bit) and chocolate (everyday too. i know it's not good for healthy, buuuuut a dream is a dream). still don't have any of these (i'm 24 now)
Junk food of any kind. And snacks - in the pantry to eat when you wanted to.
Pizza. The only pizza we ever got was from the free school lunches.
I would have loved to try McDonald's when I was a kid. That was not an option for us back then. Now it's a last resort when traveling and nothing else is available!
Name brand cereal. Remember those big bags of cereal that were generic with funny names? Nice shoes? Polo sweaters. A trip somewhere, anywhere.
Hostess, ding dongs, and honestly I wanted paper towels so bad!
Gushers. Once in a while we got the generic gummy snacks but nothing name brand. The liquid filling seemed like the coolest thing ever. Also dunkaroos.
This thread blows my mind. Growing up we were not well off. Like everyone would have killed for the store bought stuff. Then when I left the house binged on that stuff whenever I could and was never as happy with it as I was the stuff mom made. Then when I had kids I worked twice as hard so the kids could have the home made stuff over the store bought. Lesson is we all think we are missing out, but sometimes it isn't what we think
We weren't really poor, we always had enough to eat and clean clothes to wear. But the food was mostly generic along with home canned fruit and veggies. Most clothes were from yard sales and thrift stores. I can remember telling my mom that when I grew up my goal was to be able to buy food with labels in color. This was on the 70's-80's when generic items came in packages with black and white labels with the name of the item in big letters like PEACHES or CORN FLAKES.
Fruit snacks. I always buy like 20 boxes when I'm donating more boring and meal type food to the food pantry.
When I was turning 10, my Mom took me to a little soup cafe as a birthday present. It was our first time in a restaurant in years and it would be years after before we ever did it again. It was so special to me and I'll never forget it. As for foods I wished we had... One time I spent the night at a friend's house who was pretty wealthy, and her Mom made us a fancy charcuterie board with perfectly green grapes, expensive meats and cheeses, fancy crackers... I'd never seen anything like it. I was mind blown and pined for it after that day. We never had fruits or veggies, maybe an apple or two and canned peas/green beans/corn but that was it. I am so thankful that I'm able to provide healthy/quality food to my daughter now. I know my Mom was doing the best she could, and she kept us alive.
Ice cream. The few times we had it, it lasted 3 seconds.
A good mechanical pencil and gushers candy......
Shoes. Literally, any new shoes.
food in general. I lived with my mom, and although we got child support she used it only for herself and provided us the bare minimum. She would hide food in her room. And because I was the youngest I really didnt have much to eat. My mom only got food from food banks and that was already what people didnt want.
I really miss the Philadelphia cheesecake bars! The strawberry ones were beyond amazing and I was practically living off of those as an underweight kid due to having an ED (bulimia), thanks to my very jealous aunt, who couldn't stand to see me happy eating in general. I'll somewhat forgive her for trying to get me to eat healthier, but I will never forget the damage she caused me throughout my childhood. If it wasn't for my mom and the doctor telling me I wouldn't make it to puberty, I wouldn't be who I am today. I still have quite a ways to go diet-wise, but I do have better self confidence when it comes to counting my blessings for the things my body can do in general. Thanks for reading!
Pizza
I heard something this week that may help you OP- To really have a full, happy adult life-you truly have to let your unhappy, difficult, or abusive childhood go, once and for all. If it pops into your mind, don't let it stay there. Don't entertain negative thoughts. To take it a step further, if you think about one of those items on your list-turn it into a positive by saying "I'm going to pickup a package of DingDongs tomorrow." Don't think about you didn't have it in your childhood, just think about getting some, enjoy one when you do. And be grateful as an adult you can treat yourself now and again to the things you want!
We rarely ate out, McDonald's was a special treat (back then McDonald's didn't hire women) , Easter was the only time we ate at a sit down style restaurant and it was always The Denver Drumstick. They had a train that ran around the walls. We only got 3 pairs of shoes a year. Tennis shoes and nice shoes at the beginning of school and sandals for Easter. Not only were my clothes all hand me down, but they were made by my grandma. I got my first jeans in the 5th grade(bell bottoms) because a classmate felt sorry for me.
a pre made cake from a bakery. I was always jealous of kids who got a fancy birthday cake and a party. We never owned a BBQ, and I always wanted a BBQ hotdog instead of one boiled in water on the stove.
Jiffy Pop popcorn. My mother never bought it for us. We had homemade popcorn on top of the stove. I'm sure it was just as good if not better.
We weren't exactly "poor" but my we lived paycheck to paycheck. I think overall my dad had a lower middle class salary, but there were 7 kids. Going out to eat meant going to ponderosa and getting the all you can eat salad bar. Never a main course, just the salad bar. But the salad bar was humongous. We didn't have snacks except maybe popcorn, we didn't have soda, but had flav'r'aid. Meals were mostly healthy (spagetti, hamburgers, hotdogs, etc, with veggies and/or potaotes), but definitely frugal. I only wish now that we had more snacks things, not because I think we missed out. But because now when I do buy those things, I have no impulse control. I can't buy a bag of chips and eat just one, but the whole bag. I can't buy a bulk container of m&m because I will eat them till I feel sick and then eat more. I allow myslef 2 boxes of thin mint cookies per year, and I eat thise in one day. So for the most part, I still don't have snacks in my house. My other siblings are basically the same way. My brother married a lady that came from a well to do family. They had great snacks. They can all just eat a fun size snickers or a few m&ms and be satisfied. I say "fun sized? That is not very fun!"
The first time I ever tried a poptart was magical. The closest I’d ever had was toast with margarine and grape jelly. I don’t think I’ve ever forgotten that.
💔❤️❤️