Not everybody who lives in this nation has the good fortune to be able to survive on a high income.
In fact, some households are maintained with a very small or modest budget every month. Some houses with multiple children often worry about putting food on their kids' tables. Some people don't have basic amenities that we took for granted, such as TV.
u/BigDaddyCoolDeisel asked:
Photo by Mathieu Stern on Unsplash
Here were some of the answers.
Outsourcing
When you can start to hire people to do things for you to save you time. Nannies, shoppers, cleaners, dog walkers, etc.
Heat Control
Turning the heating on. Lived most of my winter life wearing hoodies, multiple pair of socks on, sipping tea, carrying a hot water bottle with me from one room to the other (reheating the same water). Cool trick: wrap your clean clothes/underwear around a hot water bootle when you're showering, the feeling of putting them on warm is priceless.
Just Plain Old Self Care
Regular doctor's office visits or seeing a dentist at all for anything other than an emergency.
Real Cereal
Having name-brand anything. Clothing, food, toys. We only had hand-me-downs, thrift store items, and dented off-brand canned goods. We rarely had meat with meals, and also "split" everything when there wasn't enough to go around.
I loved sleep overs at my friend's houses, as we could play video games with real game controllers and accessories, and have name-brand cereal in the morning.
Learning Curve
Being able to not only eat at a "fancy restaurant" like Outback Steakhouse or Pappadeuxs.. but being able to order anything and as much as you like from the menu.
Growing up, we only went out to eat a handful of times and it was to pizza places.
The first several times I went to an actual restaurant after college, I was extremely intimidated by prices and etiquette, to the point that I didn't enjoy it. Because of this I made sure my kids were very comfortable going out to eat.
Impending Doom
Not telling the difference between the start and the end of the month. Ofc there are some differences today (I'm not THAT rich obviously) but it's not so obvious as it was when i was a kid.
Pri. Vil. Ege.
I had a friend who was surprised that I've never been skiing and said that all people should know how to ski. I had to remind her that not everyone has a second house near the mountains nor do they have money to even visit the mountains for the weekend
The Necessities Of Life
New clothing. Not secondhand.
I was one of the poorer kids in a poor school. The other kids would talk about going to KMart or Target for new clothes, and it just blew my mind.
We'd go to the thrift shop, only buy things on sale...and when we couldn't even afford that, our parents would ask friends with kids around our age for hand-me-downs.
Even now, buying new clothing seems like an extravagant luxury (and again, I'm talking about clothing from Target, not Nordstrom). I'm very glad that my son enjoys thrifting and putting together weird outfits because he's a weird artsy kid...but if only one of us can get new clothing, it's him.
A Real Excess
Wasting food in a restaurant, that's rich people for me. We never waste a single bite of food, but those people who waste that much food must be too rich.
Fair Weather Life
Proper health insurance, the ability to afford to take your pets to the VET. Having full coverage insurance on your car, a car that isn't 20 years old, the ability to take said car to the mechanic for repairs.
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