Did you think you were poor growing up?

That brings back a happy memory for me, my nanna used to make all the squash we drank at home, every time we visited her we did a bottle exchange, my mum gave her back our empties and she gave us filled bottles. It was always in Tree Top squash bottles with the big white lids. I haven’t thought about that for years.

Absolutely! Orange squash and biscuits were rarities, birthday parties. At Christmas there would be a box of biscuits, otherwise a biscuit free household other than Jacobs crackers. I had a friend whose parents owned/ran the nearby Cricketers. When visiting out of hours, her mum would give us an Orangina and Smiths Crisps with the little packet of blue salt. Needless to say I loved visiting her we played in the pub garden.

I wouldn’t say ‘poor’, but I was aware from a very early age that there was no spare cash for anything, so it was no use asking for sweets or treats when we were out shopping.

I often longed for things like ballet or riding lessons, which a lot of the girls at school had, but knew it was no use asking.

OTOH I knew we weren’t ‘poor’ - we had a nice house, and usually a U.K. seaside holiday - it was more a case of MC skint. Dh’s family was much the same - one of things we had in common when we first met was that we only ever had orange squash and chocolate biscuits at birthday parties! (Or at other people’s houses.)

It is strange because I always considered myself (as a child) as being in a well-off family. Very far from the truth!!
I was born in 1941, we returned to London as soon as war ended as my Dad worked in the fur trade and that is where it w

as based. For the first few years we (including my much older brother), lived in four attic rooms at the top of a large house. Then when I was 9 years old we moved to a house on one of the new council housing schemes just outside London.
My Dad worked very many hours, and with the travelling was hardly ever around (when I was awake), Mum worked part-time as a clerk. After school and holidays I spent by myself.

I never went hungry - had some new clothes Spring and Autumn, (Mum used to buy extra clothing rations from anyone willing to sell them). Had a good nutritious diet, all home cooked. My parents never had a car, but I went to classes for speech and dancing, etc.
Holidays when I was small I was sent to a residential holiday school, later on holidays was a 2 week rental at a Seaside resort (I was allowed to take a school friend with me for company).
As my brother left home, I was like an only child, and seemed to have so much more than most of the other children on our Council Estate.
My parents never owned their own home, never had a car, on once went on a holiday abroad, never had central heating. They died (in the 80's) in 1984 and 1990.

Wrong thread!

Yipeee!!!

Most of us would be described as ‘poor’ in post war London. No carpets, rationing still in place and not many clothes. Freezing at night with inadequate heating and just coal fires in one room downstairs. No fridges,phones or washing machines and tv not invented. We were all pretty much the same,though, so we didn’t really think about it.

I never gave it a thought, and it certainly wouldn't have been dicussed in front of me.
I knew some people had bigger houses, or nicer clothes, but it never occured to me to me to wonder why.

Outside toilets, sculleries, one coal fire and no bathroom were the norm,

This was certainly the case during my Liverpool childhood in the 1940s and 1950s. There was one income coming in because my father (a factory worker) considered it a disgrace for his wife to "have" to work. My parents constantly argued about money. When I went to secondary school my uniform was bought in the second hand market (affectionately known as Paddy's market) and there was a time when I had cardboard in the soles of my shoes.

Eventually when I was about 14 my father reluctantly allowed my mother to get a part time job in Vernon's pools (where they processed the weekly football scores). When I entered the civil service as a clerical officer at 16 it was considered a posh job. All my friends got jobs as shop assistants, hairdressing apprentices and secretaries. Staying on to do A levels was vetoed by my parents. Going to university (even though it was free in those days) would have been considered a romantic dream.

I was the first in my family to go to uni and I was in my early 40s before it happened. Only one other family member ever made it.

We were extremely poor even by the standards of the 50s and 60s. My mother’s three relationships produced five girls and three boys. The girls all worked hard, eventually having good careers and becoming comfortably middle class, the boys didn’t do quite so well, but better than our parents. Two of my siblings have died, one has remained single, and the remainder are all happily married.

My own children have only an inkling of how difficult my childhood was, and that suits me fine. ☺️

A loving, happy childhood.
Mum came from a very poor family, got married at 19 to my Dad, who was 45, and top of the legal profession (a Judge). My Dad’s first wife passed away, leaving one son, who was roughly the same age as my Mum.
My parents had 9 children. I was the youngest. Sadly I am the only one left now.

I was born in 1948, an only child. My Dad returned from WW2 to drive buses and Mum was the homemaker. I had a wonderfully happy childhood but money must have been tight. My parents saved for extras like a TV and a fridge. People were satisfied with a lot less than today's young parents and their children.
Compared to some I may have been poor, growing up where material things were concerned but in the important things in life like love, care and kindness I was a millionaire.

Mum knitted us new jumpers and cardigans for Easter and Christmas but the majority of my clothes and shoes came from jumble sales. I was thrilled to get them too!

At primary school there was no uniform but I wore hand me down Posh Irish convent school uniform. My wealthier cousins outgrown stuff! 🤣

Everybody's standard of living was lower in the past. Almost without exception we lived in houses without central heating, went to bed in cold unheated bedrooms, had a narrower choice of food and smaller portions, far fewer clothes. I can remember having my first non-school uniform winter coat as a 13th birthday present - and my father was an army officer. We lived in army furnished uarters, or hirings until he left the army.

Holidays were hit and miss depending on where we were living but would be one or two weeks in modest seaside hotels in the UK. Although when I was in my late teens we were living in Germany and my father bought a caravan. Then we went to France, Denmark, Italy. But that was normal middle income living at the time.

Compared with how we live nowadays, all of us lived in comparative poverty.

[sorry] little sign that the mothers resented it,

There was very little money coming in and I remember mum crying when her purse was empty. Two up, two down, no bathroom, outside loo, but dad grew veg, fruit and salads so we ate healthily. Dad’s work then brought other privileges, phone, use of a car etc despite low pay. Second hand school uniform, few presents, no money for school trips, but always books, music, six weeks away with parents for Dad’s work in the summer.
Also very poor in the early days of my first marriage.

It’s interesting how happy many families were when mothers stayed at home, and little sign that the mo

MartavTaurus

Sorry, one lower than working class.
I should have proof read, but I'm watching Murder on the Orient Express!

Definitely not poor, but until we moved south and my parents bought their house, I thought we were poor before then, I didn’t realise they were saving, so we lived economically.
We moved, few carpets, but had parquet flooring in the hall, my Mum loved that floor and kept it so well.
Dad did have a car and in my very early teens their financial situation improved marginally and continued to do so.
I remember my Mum having screaming nightmares for a good while, I found out when I was a lot older it was financial pressures.

Sorry, one lower than working class.
I should have proof read, but I'm watching Murder on the Orient Express!

Bridget park
It’s always with me, I wish it wasn’t…I’m a glass half empty.

JaneJudge

I think some people/MPs are proud of being working class which I think is different from being poor or living in poverty

But they often seek to go one lower than middle class to make them sound hard done by.
For example, the Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson, droned on about how she was bullied at school because she was poor, how parents didn't want their children to come and play at her house because it wasn't great. Apparently it turns out she wasn't exactly poverty-stricken as she makes out as a child.

We didn't have a car or a TV, but my parents were buying their house and we used to manage a week's holiday by the sea every year. After my grandfather died we moved in with my grandmother and sold our house. It meant we now had a car and could hire a TV, but things like uniform when I went to grammar school were still a stretch.

I think some people/MPs are proud of being working class which I think is different from being poor or living in poverty

Sheebeel, I had similar experience. 10 of us children, no money although Dad did work most of the time. But they were feckless and selfish, at the pub every weekend, not worrying about anything us kids would need. Mom got a part time job as an auxilliary nurse. She needed something away from the house, but it didn't mean any extra money for meals or clothes. I have mentioned on other threads before, I loved them, but cannot forgive them for the shame and humiliation we faced every day. We did not realise at the time, that we were the talk of the nieghbourhood, for all the wrong reasons. What would it have cost them to at least make sure we were clean when we left the house, cleaned our teeth and had clean clothes? But half of us have gone on to have meaningful careers, and a good standard of living.
So my beloved three children had a warm safe nurturing upbringing, and I am very proud of the adults they have become. But it is horrible remembering the things we didn't have and the poverty we endured. But as adults we are close, and that is truly wonderful and rewarding.