Did your parents ever make something seem overly expensive? What was that thing?

1. One of those plastic kiddie pools you can get from a toy store. My sister an I asked for one when we were kids, but our parents said no. We made our own damned “pool” from cinder blocks and a tarp (it’s basically our “walking home uphill both ways in the snow” childhood story). We are both adults and out of the house now and our parents just got a kiddie pool for the dog ಠ_ಠ
   — olallieberrie


2. Tin foil. My mother would take it off a casserole dish, wash it, fold it and put it in a special drawer. If you tore a piece while getting leftovers it was your ass! A box of tin foil lasted about a year at our house.
   — igotdickfordays


3. Everything we owned. My mom is selling our family home and its disconcerting seeing her sell the "nice/ expensive" furniture for $20, or not being able to sell it at all and donating it instead. Even worse is finding out the actual value of various collectibles/antiques that she kept safe for the last 25 years thinking that they'd be super valuable one day. They are not.
   — CalvinFishoeder






4. Haircuts. I got them rarely and my dad said to always get it cut really short to get your money's worth. He later cut my hair himself and was really good at it.
   — swingerofbirch


5. Tape. To this day I still feel guilty if using too much tape.
   — iheartgin


6. My mom acts like trash bags are spun with the hair of angels and buys them from the dollar store in boxes of five, then wonders why we never have any trash bags in the house. But if I buy one of those giant boxes of name-brand trash bags for like $8 it's "OH HO LOOK AT MR. BIG SPENDER WITH HIS FANCY TRASH BAGS!" like I'm the asshole for not using a paper thin trashbag that leaks when exposed to air. Likewise, Band-Aids. If you cut yourself, she'll spend 20 minutes rummaging in the bathroom while you bleed out then triumphantly hold up a dry-rotted GI Joe Band-Aid from 1986 like "See? You didn't need to spend all that money!" Last time I got a cut, I went to Walgreen's and bought a box of regular Band-Aids and she was sniffing like I insulted her personally. "Well, we HAVE Band-Aids but I guess they're not GOOD ENOUGH!" On the other hand, the dogs all have special diets and get hot home-cooked meals with organic, grain free ingredients every night.
   — SurpriseSlamDrunk






7. Leaving the light on in the basement. HUNDREDS added to the bill if left on overnight. Oh, and caller ID when that was a thing.
   — parmsisreal


8. My entire existence. "You live in MY house, eating MY food, drinking MY water, breathing MY air..!"
   — Verdict_US


9. lights.. my dad said that shit was a dollar a minute LMAO
   — YoshioR






10. In general my mother made life seem more expensive than it is. We were poor growing up so any and every purchase was a struggle but now that I'm out there I can see that she was just shitty with her money.
    — Casual_Username


11. Strawberry jelly. My parents would only ever buy grape jelly because it was cheaper. I used to love going to breakfast restaurants because I'd get those delicious little packets of strawberry jelly.
    — IntergalacticCatLady


12. I’d try draw cows when I was younger on printer paper but NO that shit is quality and killed 40 trees per sheet. I’m pretty sure I now call plain paper ‘printer paper’ as a result now I think about it.
    — PingusApprentice






13. My mom drove it into my head that paper towels were expensive to the point that I just stopped using them growing up. I'm 24 and have only been buying paper towels for like a year.
    — [deleted]