17 People That Grew in Poverty Spoke About the Things That Felt Like a Luxury

Many families have hard times when they don’t have enough money for even the most basic things. And children don’t always notice these struggles. It’s only when they grow up that they realize that many of the things their families could never buy are actually affordable.

We at CHEERY don’t like counting other people’s money, but like listening to their stories. This is why we couldn’t walk past the stories of online users about the things that seemed like a luxury to them in the past.

• Getting new clothes at Christmas from relatives felt like a luxury. I went an entire year wearing the same pants every day. Every single day. The funny thing was my parents didn’t even buy them for me. I got them for Christmas from my grandparents. All the kids used to laugh at me for wearing the same pants every day. I always told them that I had 5 of the same pair, which made me feel good inside and kind of made them ease off, even though I know they didn’t believe me. I remember I fell on the school bus one day and the jagged floor cut a hole right in the knee cap, and the panic that went over me was just insane. Needless to say, I could not wait for the last month of school to end. © themagicman_1231 / Reddit

• After growing up in a home where every unexpected problem was a financial emergency, my idea of wealth became “I just want enough money so that if something breaks, I don’t get anxiety about how to deal with it.” © Obiwan_ca_blowme / Reddit
• I am from a small island in the Pacific. While I mostly still take cold showers, I have always felt that a hot shower is the finest luxury one can experience. I had my first hot shower when I was 22 years old, and I will never forget it. © FSMPIO / Reddit
• Towels. Honestly, I was almost 10 when I realized people didn’t just put back on their dirty clothes. I thought towels were just for hotels or were maybe a prop on television. I went to a friend’s house, and she asked for my help to fold her towels. I remember laughing and thinking she must be rich. Long story short, I wasn’t sure which way to fold the towels, and begged my mom to buy them after I revealed that my friend, Simone, had them. She bought a box of used ones from a local auction and I walked around with them on my head, feeling like an empress after that. © shakezula1025 / Reddit

• Summer camp, or basically any school trips that had to be paid for. At my school, the kids who couldn’t afford to go on trips that happened during school hours still had to come to school. We just sat in a room and did extra work like it was detention. © Helpful_Yams / Reddit
• Grew up poor, and when I was a kid, I used to think you were rich if you had a dishwasher and a millionaire if you had one of those refrigerators that have a button for ice. © chinderella***** / Reddit
• Having the heating on. We used to go to bed in our sleeping bags in winter which was really cool back then, but pretty depressing now. © pm_me_boooba / Reddit
• Oh absolutely, I don’t think I could ever forget the feeling of when we’d wake up at 5 a.m. freezing and trying to keep as much warmth under the blanket as possible. © ooobats / Reddit

• I grew up super poor and never ate out. When I was 13 and at a sleepover, my friend’s parents took us to a restaurant for dinner. I thought it was the fanciest place. Looking back, it was an ordinary local diner, but I will never forget that meal.
  I was also never allowed to have friends sleep over at my house because we didn’t have enough food for an extra mouth. The summer between 7th and 8th grade, my best friend’s mom figured that out and would send me home with grocery bags full of food she “didn’t need any more”. What an amazing woman. © MrsMaxxMurray / Reddit
• Making pads from school toilet paper when I was 10 was a depressingly daily occurrence. When I got caught (some kid stole some other kid’s stuff and we all had to open our backpacks for the teacher), I was sent to the office and I cried the whole walk there thinking I was going to get in trouble. The nurse just gave me a pad and I had to pretend that one was all I needed. © purplhouse / Reddit

• Dental and medical care. Dental insurance was a huge luxury. I didn’t have an employer that offered that until I was in my late 20s. Needless to say, I spent a fortune on my teeth. I made sure my kids always had dental care from them on. © iRunthesehills / Reddit
• I went to the dentist for the first time at 27 because my wife-to-be made the appointment. Her dentist was warm and friendly, and she had warned him that I was embarrassed at seeing one for the first time at my age. He took good care of me. I also remember we got yearly dental exams in school, just check-ups, no treatment. They would always ask me when I had seen the dentist last, and I would lie. They would yell at me and tell me I needed to see a dentist regularly. Hey, I’m 9 years old, do you think I don’t go because I’m lazy? © DadsRGR8 / Reddit

• Going to the grocery store and feeling able to buy pretty much anything I want within reason. I still compare cents differences in name brands vs. store brands vs. sale items; or do I really need this? © crosleyxj / Reddit
• At the end of the season, sometimes the grocery store would have peck baskets of peaches on sale for a dime to clear them out before they went bad. And if mom had a spare dime, she’d buy them and tell us to eat all we wanted — normally fruit was limited to one a day if there was any at all. Man, we’d hit those peaches like a plague of locusts. © HowdyDoobie / Reddit
• I grew up broke and am incredibly fortunate to have money as an adult. Meals out when I was a kid were something huge, I think I only really remember three in my whole childhood, so as an adult who does largely whatever I like, going out to dinner still thrills me, always get dressed up, make the most of it, etc. © Vegetable-Ad-647 / Reddit

• Anything I could live without. Especially skincare. My skin has become amazing since I’ve had the disposable income to buy better products. It still makes me feel bad though. © crowwarden / Reddit
• I remember one time in 7th grade when I got my period and had to use a washcloth. Problem was, I also didn’t have any underwear, so I was keeping this washcloth in place by constantly keeping my thighs clenched and trying to “hold in” my period. Worked fine up until PE. I knew it was 100% going to be an issue, so I asked my PE teacher if I could sit the class out due to my period. Of course, she said no, that I’d be fine. I realized I wouldn’t be able to get her to understand because my situation wasn’t one that most girls ever had to deal with. © shyJasmin / Reddit

What seemed like a luxury to you when you were a child, but now it’s affordable?