Though I didn't realize it at the time, we grew up poor..at least in terms of buying stuff. My idea of rich was if you, the kid, had a TV in your room. I grew up on a small farm. And between being able to go outside whenever you liked, having friends that didn't make a deal out of what they had and folks who were creative In repurposing things for Xmas and birthdays, I can honestly say I never felt like we didn't have money. So maybe the correct way to see this is I didn't grow up poor. Though we didn't have a lot of money, I never felt it's absence.

What did "rich" people have/do? - A Nintendo Entertainment System and a PC. (We had an Atari 2600) - Rich families had an upstairs. (We could only afford one-story rentals.) - They shopped for clothes at the mall. (We shopped at K-Mart.) - They had a new car. (Our cars were always clunkers that my Dad fixed up quite nicely.) - They ate at non-fast food restaurants. (Our best was Burger King.) - Their Mom stayed home. (Our Mom worked as much as our Dad.) - New swingsets. (Our Dad refurbished ours from parts. It was safe, though!) - Fake Halloween costumes. (Our Mom made ours. Oddly, they turned out far better than the other kids'...) - Rich kids got to buy burgers, hot dogs, and pizza for lunch. (We ate 'tray food'.) - They flew to their vacation spots. (We drove or took the bus.) - They had new TVs. (Ours were older and used.) - They had a new couch and beds. (Ours were second-hand.) - They bought new pants when they wore holes in them. (Mom patched ours.) We eventually got out of poverty, but only after our parents divorced and took separate paths in life. Secondary education and pure luck helped. ...a LOT.

Reading these I'm reminded of how weird my upbringing was, cause - long story as short as possible: I started out with growing up in a huge house, upper middleclass, expensive toys and stuff, high fashion clothes, and all that, and then my parents divorced and my mom got sole custody of me and she never had a job at all, and we survived on my dad's alimony so I was suddenly the poor kid with divorced parents, and later also the outsider as my mom abused me til I ran away from home, and I got to live with my dad instead who had a good job and a good pay and I ended up living as a regular middleclass now as an adult.

Was so envious of families that went on vacations. We never went on a single one. That was the height of wealth to me, watching classmates leave for disneyland :( I hope to take my kids next year if covid can get under control in the US

Being able to buy books and not just get them from the library. I thought it must be amazing to have the your have your favorites always on hand.

Buying a creamsicle. It cost five cents. We didn't have five cents. My dad was going to med school and we lived in a 30 dollar a month housing project where most of the med students and their families lived. Candy was only at Christmas when we got a Christmas package from our grandparents.

As a kid growing up in the 2000s and 2010s these were mine: Wearing store bought clothes not second hand, Really owning any new products (furniture, cars, toys), Central air, A house with stairs and more than one story ,Non-generic food products , and Braces As a young adult now my family is doing a lot better but I still buy mostly second hand products for environmental in addition to some financial reasons. I think my one remaining rich people thing is therapy and being able to pay for college without loans. Also kids who enter college at 18 and had never had a job before it still blows my mind. Everyone in my hometown had a job by 16 or so!

For me rich people went on summer vacations to exoctic places like Wisconsin or Michigan. My parents both worked for the airlines at O'Hare. Every summer it was the same old thing, shipped over to England to be with the grandparents. Obviously as I got older I realized how very fortunate we were to have the opportunity to travel and spend so much time abroad. When I married though the vacations my kids went on that they still talk about are the ones to Wisconsin because they were the special ones.

My grandma had a collection of perfumed dusting powders with beautiful puffs. When I was a child, I would smell and try on the powders. She lived to be 94 years old. ❤️

A house with stairs, a phone in your bedroom, other flavoured ice creams that weren't vanilla, having a drink bottle at school, more than one telly, a remote control for the telly or video machine, having a microwave...