Champagne taste on a beer income

The title is a saying that my grandmother uses, it doesn’t really apply to me much anymore as I have a job with a decent wage (ok, well…kinda) and I can (generally – let’s not get carried away here) afford whatever I want.

I don’t think of myself as a snob. But if you analyse it, perhaps I am. I blame my mother – snobs after all are made not born. This is why…

My sister, a tiny tot at the time, maybe 3ish, before she was at school, rushed in to tell mum some fantastic news. (For background I am 24 years older than her, just in case you think my memory is outstanding, it wasn’t that long ago for me).

“Mummy, I can spell car!” An impressive statement for someone so young.

So to call her bluff, ‘Ok then Sweetpea, spell car for me’.

Wait for it…..

“B M W” 3’s happy, smiling face showing how smart she thinks she is… (Once again for background, at the time mum’s car was a BMW, black, sunroof, the works, very nice… and the little chicken was reading back the letters written across the back of the car – smart kid really).

But, what can I say she’s doomed…… we’re all doomed!

Now this brings me to the point that in my family we’re all brought up this way, had a good life, lots of nice things (mostly – nothing is perfect) and then are cast to the world to fend for ourselves (ok we are usually 17 or 18 before this happens).

Now I have lived in Pov (erty) alley, I have flatted with others where we have eaten a can of potatoes (did you know they came in cans? Neither did we, but we found one in the back of the cupboard) with some cheese melted on them as a meal – isn’t it funny how you always seem to have cheese, maybe because it just lasts for so long.

Now both my brothers are at this stage one is 18 and a student, the other, 20 dropped out, oh sorry, my mistake, “took a year off” his studies to work as a cook for a certain fried chicken chain.

Now 20 constantly complains about how mum always has the nicest of things and that he can’t afford to buy any of this (oh, poor, poor 20 – get a better job! Cooking fried chicken, surprisingly enough, actually doesn’t pay all that well…). But don’t feel too sorry for him. Both of my brothers live together, in a house the parents bought (and yes it was for them) they pay a pittance of rent and whenever mum goes to visit (which is fortnightly) she buys their groceries. Am I bitter? Nooooooo…..I’m not like that at all.