Cheap things your family did when you were growing up (and maybe you still do)

[aja8888]

We were poor and lived in a housing project (slum, actually). Myself and two sisters left home at about age 17 as dad was an alcoholic and was not nice to mom (but that's another story). I thought everyone ate baloney sandwiches as a main course. The military changed me (thank you!).

I've moved up to good Italian salami.

 

[folivier]

Dad was a kid in the depression but his dad was a farmer so they had plenty to eat. But no money. So him growing up like that caused him to be like most other dad's. Even though he was successful and had his own insurance agency. My first bike was a used one he fixed up.
I'm sitting at his oak desk now and remember him having a drawer full of used up carbon paper. When he needed to make a copy he'd ruffle through the stack and find one with a small area of carbon left to use. Sometimes it'd take a few papers to make a copy of his signature. We lived and ate like others around us because of our parents upbringing.
BTW I still enjoy a potted meat sandwich.

 

[athena53]

Another thought: Mom used to buy produce "reduced for quick sale"- she'd take it home and cook it to add to something within the next day or two before it went bad. I cook with a lot of vegetables and would be happy to buy reduced-price produce but never see it anymore.

And does anyone remember collecting bottles and returning them for deposits? We used our "earnings" to buy candy. Some states (Iowa, last I checked) still have places where you can return bottles and cans for deposits.

Hand-me-downs were common in our family but they've all but disappeared now. "Fast fashion" is so flimsy it won't last long enough for a second kid to use it.

 

[DuluthGA]

And does anyone remember collecting bottles and returning them for deposits? We used our "earnings" to buy candy. Some states (Iowa, last I checked) still have places where you can return bottles and cans for deposits.

In GA during the late 60’s you could get ,03 for returning a coke bottle. We would walk the country roads and pick up bottles and return for candy money, i guess folks knew someone would pick it up and would toss the bottle out the window when done. Those croaker sacks got heavy! Good memories.

 

[braumeister]

Late DH grew up poor and had a classmate who brought lard sandwiches to school for lunch.

My dad used to always say he did the same thing, growing up in a rural area. We were always a bit skeptical, but no way to check until his mother visited us for the first time (I was about 14 so I was excited to meet her at last). I asked about it and she just laughed, "He never had a lard sandwich in his life!"

 

[iloveyoga]

It is just all so different these days. Eating at a restaurant was a big deal. Normally at the A&W at the end of our street. I would get a foot long coney dog. I should look like one I ate so many of them over the years. I still like them and I'm near 60! My parents (god rest their souls) would be appalled at a $15 burger which seems the norm these days.

Someone mentioned graduating to paper lunch bags when lunch boxes were no longer cool to be seen with. My BIL asked for and received a Roy Rogers lunch box (with thermos btw) for xmass. I received a picture of him and said box proudly eating in the company lunch room yesterday!

I may have missed it but am I the only one that drank TANG everyday?

I remember watching "the dukes of hazard" on Friday nights with Tang and popcorn (jiffy pop that one made on the stove, that enlarged up the foil!!!!). On rich weekends mom bought Doritos! BTW I recently watched an episode of Dukes and I can not believe how fake everything was. Sitting in paarked car with movie of moving countryside in back window. I can't believe I bought into all that as a youngster!

Someone mentioned shoes until there was a hole in the sole. I remember going "school" shopping late summer. Mom would purchase my once a year white leather sneakers. I want to say they were reebox but I can't be sure. By spring they were a medium grey.

I remember wearing bread bags inside my boots in winter to keep dry. In reality I probably sweat more than my feet would have gotten wet.

Good memories peeps, Keep them coming.

PS: anyone else have a pool cue under couch to turn off tv?

You were living fancy!

 

[Stormy Kromer]

Fishing bullheads in a river near our farm. We'd pick our own night crawlers and catch our own frogs for bait and catch whatever swam by.

I still do.

 

[GrayHare]

Patches on clothing. Sometimes it seemed my pants consisted of more patches than pants.

 

[RetiredHappy]

Patches on clothing. Sometimes it seemed my pants consisted of more patches than pants.

About 20 years it became fashionable and pants cost alot more with patches than without. You could have sold them for $$$$.

 

[FedRetired50]

About 20 years it became fashionable and pants cost alot more with patches than without. You could have sold them for $$$$.

Heck, the last 15+ years it's been fashionable to walk around with huge holes in your jeans. I was hoping that would go away, but it hasn't. Never understood that.

 

[FedRetired50]

Keeping gift bags and bows for reuse, a multi-generational family tradition. Kids get the cheapest beat-up car as their first (which ends up even more beat-up when they are done). I hated that when I was a kid when so many other kids around me got new cars from their parents and grandparents, but I did the same for my kids. I kinda miss my first car. All immediate family members keep cars until the wheels come off.

We lived very cheaply for many years when I was young since my father lost his bank job a couple of years after we moved into a brand-new house. He did odd jobs and I think Mom worked so we didn't feel poor, and we kept the house. But we grew a lot of food, canned, did cheap activities, and I started mowing lawns in my early teens. Then Dad got a new good-paying job that turned into a great-paying job. I saw his SS statement years ago and he had several peak earning years in the late 80s well into 6 figures. So I experienced a bit of both ends of the spectrum. Not like my Dad though who grew up poor, so good for him moving upward. But with his upbringing even during those peak earning years we didn't have pay TV or A/C when everyone else had both. I went to my best friend's house a lot to enjoy both. My parents got A/C and pay TV right after I moved out, LOL.

 

[ksr]

Keeping gift bags and bows for reuse, a multi-generational family tradition.

I have to admit that I still do this.

 

[ransil]

I went to the Navy at 18 came home on leave one time and the house had air conditioning.
Me and my brothers room was in the remodeled attic, it was hot up there in the summer time, I sept in the unfinished basement many nights.

we were not poor or rich we did ok , ate lots of potatoes , I don't eat them now, never ate out or vacationed in hotels always tents. we had government cheese.

wife was mostly poor mostly from crappy mother and not so financial savvy dad that was out to sea mostly, then step mom came along and now there are 6 kids combined so they decide to have another one, always money for beer and cigarettes, couple of the sisters ran away so that helped out.

We are cheap but will buy nice stuff , not expensive stuff.
wife just sewed a patch on my $15 Walmart jeans, good for at least another year.