1

2

"Getting to buy something from the Scholastic Book Fair."

3

"McDonald’s. I knew we were living well when my parents took me through the drive thru. No Happy meals though. It’s cheaper to get a hamburger and fries. “You have toys at home.”"

4

"Getting new clothes at Christmas from relatives. I don’t know if that is exactly a luxury or the kind of answer you are looking for, but we never had a lot of money when I was in middle school. I went an entire year wearing the same pants every 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 use to give me so much sh#t for wearing the same pants every day."

5

"After growing up in a home where every unexpected problem was a financial emergency, my idea of wealthy became “I just want enough money that if something breaks I don’t get anxiety about how to deal with it.”"

6

"Going out for pizza was a big deal. Those free mini pizzas for reading books were huge."

7

"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 the school, we just sat in a room and did extra work like it was detention."

8

"Being able to turn on the heat in the cold and pay a professional to fix damaged appliances, plumbing, and other issues."

9

"Towels. Honestly, I was almost 10 When I realized people didn’t just put back on their dirty clothes after a shower because my family was so large (12 kids total including myself) and extremely poor. 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 folding her towels. I remember laughing and thinking she must be rich."

10

"Kraft Macaroni and Cheese as opposed to store brand."

11

"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."

12

"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 can never forget it."

13

"Just getting some god dang crafts, man. I was the kid you could entertain the rest of the night with popsicle sticks, glitter, and glue.

You know what I never got to do? Crafts, because the only popsicle sticks we ever got were NONE, the glue was for school only (“don’t let your friends borrow your glue/crayons/pencils we can’t buy more ’til income tax!”), and glitter meant more electricity vacuuming it up."

14

"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."

15

"Christmas decorations. We used to just put tinsel on a fan and that was our tree."

16

"Going places during school vacation. The kids would be all like “what!? you’ve never been to xyz amusement park!?” No, Trisha. My family doesn’t even have a car.” Which is another luxury to me."

17

"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."

18

"A meal out in a restaurant (not even a fancy one)."

19

"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 20’s. Needless to say, I spent a fortune on my teeth. I made sure my kids always had dental care from them on."

20

"Lunchables! Or being able to buy school lunch. Later on we were poor enough to qualify for free lunch but before that if my mom gave me the $2 it was a good day."