Many of today’s common expenses are taken for granted. But some of those line items in household budgets didn’t exist over 40 years ago.
Find Out: 8 Things You Must Do When Your Savings Reach $50,000
Discover More: Suze Orman Reveals the No. 1 Bill You Should Pay First Each Month
That’s because they all stem from advances in technology that slowly worked their way into daily life and eventually into household budgets. GOBankingRates takes a look at four everyday expenses and bills and how they evolved over the last four decades.
Home Internet
Home internet wasn’t part of the vast majority of household budgets over 40 years ago. In 1983, only 1.4% of U.S. adults used it, so most families didn’t have a monthly internet bill or even any knowledge of what it was, according to Pew Research Center. As internet access became more popular, its cost became part of people’s budgets. Today, 96% of American adults use the internet.
Learn More: New Law Could Make Electricity Bills Skyrocket in These 4 States
Cell Phone
Over four decades ago, phone calls only happened by landline for most Americans. Although the first cell phone was launched for consumers in 1983, only 1,200 units were sold that year.
Widespread cell phone ownership didn’t happen until decades later. In 2011, 83% of U.S. adults owned some type of cell phone, per Pew Research Center. Today, over 98% of U.S. adults own a cell phone, and service plans are a recurring cost, according to Consumer Affairs.
Streaming Subscriptions
Forty years ago, watching TV didn’t come with multiple monthly bills. Households relied on broadcast television or cable, not separate streaming subscriptions. Streaming services came much later and expanded as internet access became more common.
A pivotal moment was when Netflix introduced its streaming platform in 2007. Today, 83% of U.S. adults pay for streaming services, and some pay for more than one at a time, according to Pew Research.
Software Subscriptions
In the early 80s, paying monthly fees to use software wasn’t a thing. Programs were purchased once, if they were used at all, and many homes didn’t own a personal computer, business expert and author Tony Summerlin wrote on his website. U.S. Census data shows only about 8% of U.S. households reported having a PC in 1984.
Today, many households pay ongoing fees for office software, including photo editing tools, antivirus protection and personal finance management tools. As of 2024, the average consumer had 4.1 software subscriptions, and that figure is expected to increase by 29% by 2027, per Recurly.
More From GOBankingRates
- Mark Cuban Just Exposed a Social Security Flaw That Every Senior Needs To Watch For
- What Will the Average Social Security Check Be for Retirees in 2026?
- How Middle-Class Earners Are Quietly Becoming Millionaires -- and How You Can, Too
- 6 Safe Accounts Proven to Grow Your Money Up to 13x Faster
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 4 Common Expenses That Didn’t Exist Over 40 Years Ago
