Things that used to be rare/ luxury/ unusual but now really common

[Chubbychic]

When tablets (iPads etc.) Came out, I thought what on earth is the point. There's phones and laptops why would you need basically a combo. No way anyone but tbe very rich will own them...

And now I have one, dh has one, ds and dd have one.

Also lip fillers/ botox
Back in the day only celebs had it done. Now nearly every other person on my Facebook have had their lips done and quite a few have had botox.

Contract phones actually too. Used to all be pay as you go but that seems really rare these days!

I had actually forgotten grapes had seeds in them .....

Eating out
Spaghetti
Fresh pasta
Having a car
Holidays
Branded supermarket not buying your food from places where you weighed it out with a scoop
Different pairs of shoes not just one school pair and one other pair
Non charity shop clothes
Net curtains
Having a house with front and side gardens
Not having a local accent

What about things that weren't posh but are now ?

Yes to:

Owning a horse
Cashew nuts
Non nescafe coffee
Pedigree dogs

On the fruit thing. I thought certain fruits were really expensive as my mother would say we couldn't have certain things.

I got grapes once when I was ill, it was a real treat.

But what was actually happening was my mum, and many others, were refusing to buy South African products.

I'm old so computers at all used to be a huge luxury let alone dd and I basically having 2 each 1 of which we can carry everywhere easily, such a huge change in a relatively short period of time!

LOL at old. I remember when my school bought their first computer. 16 of us did Computer Studies O Level using a commodore pet.

My parents flew to the States for a holiday in 1972. The idea of leisure international air travel was still fairly unusual back then, so much so that the son of a family friend, who was a child at the time and very impressionable, still sometimes mentions how glamourous he thought it all was

"LOL at old. I remember when my school bought their first computer. 16 of us did Computer Studies O Level using a commodore pet." Mention of O level does suggest you're slightly older than me but I suspect not much, I was in the first year to take GCSEs only 2 computers in the computer studies classroom and one seemed permanently "broken". I'm 46.

Graphista

I'm 53 this year so yes a few years older.

Yoghurt. When I was in my teens it was considered weird and exotic. In our small town, you could only buy it in the Health Food Shop, as it was (in tones of general disapproval) called.

• HollowTalk

I remember my mum making a pizza - recipe from a magazine - it involved a packet scone mix and patting it into a rectangular swiss roll tin. She served it with mashed potatoes and peas and would not have it that a) pizzas were generally round b) they were not made with scone mix and c) that they were never served with mashed potatoes.*
Omg this is so like my parents/in laws.😂😂

Yes, I was at the 'certain breeds'.

My list's like many others. Orange juice - we got it daily for breakfast but in a tiny glass. Real coffee, which was unheard of at first and then appeared in our house in my teens, kept in the fridge and only drunk on Sundays. Avocado (or 'avocado pear') was another one - served as a starter at Christmas, or occasionally when my parents had friends round.

New shoes. School shoes were bought twice a year (from Clarks, natch) and I sometimes had wellies and once or twice trainers but often I didn't have a second pair of shoes to wear (we were comfortably off, as well) - that may have changed, at least in the summer, when I left non-uniform primary and went up to black-shoes-only secondary.

New soft furnishings was another. My parents bought one three-piece suite in the course of my entire childhood and studenthood. None of this replacing the sofa every few years malarkey. Same went for carpets - they were fitted but very, very rarely replaced.

I was going to say orange juice too. We had tiny glasses as a starter on holiday, now DS drinks it by the litre.

Also travel. I remember my grandparents going on “days out” to a town about 15 miles away. All massively planned in advance, food packed, car fully checked over, etc. Now I nip over there on a whim as it is the closest Lakeland and has good parking! And even now my Dad can’t quite get his head round me doing a business trip to Germany in a day. He used to travel for business himself but would go for weeks at a time.

Ham was a special treat in our house when I was young - I think I was in late teens before the processed stuff came into being. We only had ham at Christmas or special occasions and it was proper ham on the bone from the butchers. We had lots of cheese as that was really cheap - unlike nowadays! Lots of eggs too as it was pre Edwina Currie scaring the bejeezus out of everyone

Multipack or family sizes bags of crisps didn't exist. Neither did supersize chocolate bars. We rarely had fizzy drinks - I think coke was a Christmas treat in the mid 1980s.

Yes to the new shoes - only had Clarks or Startrite to choose from and we only had a new pair for new school year then a pair of sandals in the summer. Along with our Dunlop wellies -(choice of colour Green Green or Green ) and school plimsolls for indoor and outdoor use, whatever the weather.

I remember the first Sainsburys opening in my local suburb town and everyone was really excited!!

How would that be @Absolutepowercorrupts ? Please do expand.

TeaAddict235

Don't worry, no one else thought you were being racist.

I would still think owning a horse is luxury/unusual....? Maybe it depends where you live...

Dogs that aren't breed mix/mutt/57 varieties

Digital cameras. I bought one when I was made redundant in 2001. It cost over £300 for a 3 megapixel camera and another £100 for a SD card that held about another 20 pics...lol.

Nowadays even the most basic phones have a better camera than that. It sits in a cupboard with other obsolete electrical items.

Anything to do with technology as I think it spoils us rather than make our lives easier.

It took me an age to get my first smart phone and that was the first time I had access to the Internet at home instead of using the Internet at work.
This was only 3 years ago and now I can't remember life without it.

How about food being delivered?

First takeaways got delivered rather than having to pick up.

Now restaurants use delivery services as well as all types of takeaway outlets.

Supermarket food deliveries. I remember 20 odd years ago some company started doing food deliveries. They didn't have shops. They gave you a magazine and all choices were photographed and listed and then you could ring up and give your order. It got delivered when they did your area. They didn't last long. It was a massive faff. I did it once or twice.