What were your "wow we're poor" or "wow we are well off" moments when you were a kid?

I don't necessarily consider them "beat-up", but I consider them relatively old.

I was actually very ignorant of our family finances, and had no real comparison.

Looking back on it growing up we rather well of, I realized that we went abroad(pretty much everywhere) over fifty times in a five year period, and travelled up and down the UK every other weekend, which must have cost my parents a bomb and a half.(And also explains where my dads military pension went).

But then times got hard, jobs were lost and lesser paying ones gained and it wasn't till I was Seventeen that I realized that we were cutting back on everything, but then I up and leaft home anyway so it didn't effect me >.>.

Another point which will probably make me seem stuck-up. When shopping, financial situations become much more aware.

For example: I always seem to get strange looks from a few strangers whenever I am holding a Harvey Nichols' bag, or a Waitrose bag.

It just makes one aware that many people cannot go to 'good' shops, and that many luxuries are taken advantage of, even in good areas of cities, in the 21st century.

Only recently did I discover that most people do not spend £125 on a pair of trousers...

At Christmas my parents would easily spend over £600 on me, one year I got an XBOX 360 with a kinect, several games, a designer bag, as well as countless other presents. They had to put them in 2 rooms because they wouldn't fit in 1. I got paid £100 per GCSE I got and would regularly get expensive perfumes and makeup bought for me.

Wow I feel like an ******* typing that

Very refreshing to see this type of thread, thank you for creating You're welcome :3

One lesson i learnt during my childhood + from parents is to save up and little by little - it'll grow and be worth something one day even if it means very few (if any) "new" stuff. The second lesson i learnt thru childhood is never to envy others cos you don't know their "story" and appearance is often misleading then we start to make assumptions like "what-ifs we had ...." and "imagine being that kid with ...".

My dad worked in a corner shop since 18, now 47, and still does but saved any money he had from day 1. I appreciate that he works all year round only holidays being Christmas day, Boxing day and New Years day (i think loln). At first when we were younger we lived with family and friends at 2/3 different places and then moved into a terrace same street as the shop. It was nice that older cousins passed on stuff to us mainly lego lol. But i think because most people around us were similar in terms of situation we sorta didn't have anything to compare it too + it helped we had uniform at primary and high school. Cricket and football in the street with anyone around and about most days was more fun than anything else. One thing that people may find odd is that my younger brother (2 years younger) passed his clothes down (or up :P) to me and they still fit lol.

Still remember during high school, old/ancient golf VW that used to squeal (painful to the ears) every time you braked/slowed down/moved the wheel (getting very anxious when being picked up/dropped off at high school) - But mainly after saving up and sacrificing in the short-term at 12/13 we moved into a bigger house (very quiet/posh area) and and bought new stuff like clothes - still fit to this date (19 now) and better car

Also it's not for me to judge what type of childhood (try hard not to compare) however overall i'm glad we were able to see the difference so that we can appreciate it when you do have a laptop or an ipod or able to go to the store and buy fruit(still too expensive imo - should be free!) you understand and feel how lucky you are - then once in that position be able to help others.

Sorry for the long(ish) post. It's nice to reminisce whilst writing (maybe cathartic??). Writing for me more than anything else (using Eminem lyrics, different context) so to reduce the chances of "my ego inflating".

Yeah he's had it for about 15 yrs now and he still hasn't really got it 100% under control he gets about now and walks ok most of the time but you can see in his face that every step is a struggle and he's on some of the strongest painkillers out there and a lot of the time it doesn't make much of a difference to the pain. He doesn't let it get him down any more. I suppose after a while you just accept it? Sorry to hear your mum has it too my gran has it as well but just in her hands so its nowhere near as bad as my papa since he pretty much has it in all his joints.

When we had to stop burning £50 notes and make do with £20s instead.

Yeah I don't know what Harvey Nichols is but I think even if I had a lot of money I probably still wouldn't shop at wai rose, I went with my ex boyfriend and his family once and the quality of the food didn't seem very much different but was much more expensive. I'd still just shop at aldi and asda and put the money I would have spent at waitrose towards something else.

As for the £125 trousers...that's a big contrast to the around £5 I'll spend on clothes on ebay

when i was younger i grew up in Jersey and going across to france for lunch on the weekends was a common occurance. It didn't seem a big deal to just pop over and get some nice moules in St Malo before catching the ferry back again later.

When i met people that at 16 had never left the country i realised it was more unusual...

Harvey Nichols is a department store, it is similar to Selfridges.

Shopping at Waitrose and purchasing their own branded food will only cost you a few more pounds than if you shopped at another store.

The reason people find it more expensive is that the other 'branded' food which they stock is of much higher quality, and is usually more expensive. That is what I find anyway. Also, when going around Waitrose, it is impossible not to pick up items which one did not come in for, it is too tempting not to (the selection is amazing).

For example: Buying the Essential Waitrose Jam (if there is such a thing) will cost less than say, Essex Jam. But the Essex Jam is much nicer.

It's good you got experience so much travel I hope to one day

The vast majority of it was the inside of Sports Halls and the Hotel we stayed in prior to driving to the afor mentioned sports halls.

Not all though >.>

Oh so you're a very sporty person then? I was always picked last in sports in school

I don't think there were any indications that we were particularly well off when I was in primary school - my parents would very rarely buy me things that I said I wanted. I had to wait until birthdays or Christmas and even then it wasn't guaranteed.

I guess the turning point was in year 7 when a friend came over to hang out and the first thing he said was 'you live in a mansion'. To be fair, it is a pretty big house but it's in the middle of nowhere and has had a lot of extensions over the years my parents have lived there (i.e. they've added a garage, two double bedrooms, a conservatory and a kitchen) so it's not like it was particularly big or expensive when they bought it.
I used to have a friend in primary school who lived in a legitimately big house though, with probably 25+ rooms so I suppose I had that as my perspective.