History Main / MundaneLuxury

** Having a pet dog in the manga is treated as a weird thing only rich people do. The anime changes the dog to a less mundane [[BigCreepyCrawlies dog-sized giant beetle]] (as a way to censor [[EatTheDog Kosuna eating it]]).

* ''Literature/CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory'': Poor Charlie Bucket treasures his annual birthday present of a Wonka chocolate bar so much that once he starts actually eating it, he nibbles only a tiny bit each day.
** The iconic [[Film/WillyWonkaAndTheChocolateFactory 1971 film version]] might not have had the nibbling part, but everything else applies.

--> ''There was no soap, no matches, no looking-glass--except a metal one, about as powerful as a pail of water. And not a chromo [a color picture].... There was no gas, there were no candles.... There were no books, pens, paper or ink, and no glass in the openings they believed to be windows.... But perhaps the worst of all as, that there wasn't any sugar, coffee, tea or tobacco.''

* In ''[[Literature/DragonridersOfPern Dragonflight]]'', Lessa has spent the last ten years of her life as a drudge at Ruatha, eating poorly and putting up with [[ThePigPen filthy hygiene]] (the latter of which it's implied she cultivated to discourage [[RapeAsDrama unwanted attention]]), so when F'Lar brings her to Benden Weyr, she's a bit shocked when he casually offers her what she considers to be considerable luxuries. He orders her a simple meal and even derides its quality, but it's more than she's used to in a single day, and she's thrilled at the opportunity to bathe in a large pool. Even after she [[spoiler:Impresses Ramoth to become Weyrwoman]] and adjusts to life in the weyr, she still takes ''two baths a day'' just to luxuriate in the cleanliness. F'Lar notes that she's "going to scrub her skin off".

* In the story ''The Long Rain'' by Creator/RayBradbury, several soldiers are walking through the eternal rain of Venus desperately searching for a Sun Dome; eventually almost all of them go mad and the only one who finds the Sun Dome finds the luxuries of hot chocolate with marshmallows, freshly made sandwiches, hot coffee and fresh towels to dry himself off with.

** Sheridan, when arriving on the titular station, raves about his quarters having "...an ''actual'' shower, with ''actual'' water!" which was not the case on the ship he commanded previously.
*** Later in the series, he claims that the two things that make commanding a station rather than a ship worthwhile are the water shower, and that he occasionally can get his hands on enough oranges at once to make worthwhile quantities of orange juice.

* One episode in ''Series/ElChavoDelOcho'' involves Doña Florinda buying a strange appliance, then the other characters being in awe that it's a washing machine. For reference, until that point [[StatusQuoIsGod (and after it, as El Chavo breaks the machine)]] everyone had to wash their clothes in a sink that is outside of their households.
* ''Series/{{Cheers}}:'' In one early episode, Carla laments that since she lives in a cramped apartment with her ever-increasing number of children, she's forgotten what it's like to be able to use the bathroom uninterrupted.

* In ''Series/TheCloser'', a family was murdered by someone in a fit of rage. The squad finds that the father was [[spoiler: a bigamist with two separate families, one of which was fairly affluent and the other had many fewer luxuries. The murderer was the son of the second family who found out about the first family, and was jealous of the things that the son in the first family took completely for granted. When he confronted his father, things did not go well.]]

** In "Voyage of the Damned", Mr. Copper discovers thanks to a miscalculation of exchange rates he has enough Earth money (British pounds, natch) to make him a millionaire. He then cries with joy at the thought of being able to own not just his own house, but his own ''plates''.

* ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'': One of the great advantages of settling on Earth for the Race, LizardFolk from a dry, hot planet, is the massive quantities of water. They ''adore'' hot showers.

** Russian president Boris Yeltsin became convinced that communism was doomed when he visited Texas in 1989 to see a NASA base in the city of Houston. The thing that most intimidated Yeltsin wasn't the American space program, but what he saw during [[http://www.chron.com/neighborhood/bayarea/news/article/When-Boris-Yeltsin-went-grocery-shopping-in-Clear-5759129.php an unscheduled twenty-minute visit to a grocery store in the nearby town of Clear Lake]]. Yeltsin was astounded at the abundance and variety of foods available to the typical American, which even members of the Politburo back in Russia didn't have access to. The trip included several now-famous photos of Yeltsin wandering through the store, looking in exasperation at the kinds of things that the average American would see as ordinary, such as multiple different flavors of ice cream and the sheer amount of produce on sale.

* During the Russo-Ukrainian War of 2022, [[https://www.rferl.org/a/ukraine-villagers-describe-russian-troops-/31960860.html Russian soldiers were reportedly "astonished" by the standard of living]] amongst the people of Ukraine. There were reports of Russian soldiers either being shocked that Ukrainians had easy access to things like chocolate and televisions, or chose to believe that [[IRejectYourReality this was some sort of trick as a way to try to make the Russians think that the standard of living in Ukraine was higher than their own]].

* During UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, a German commander finally realized the Axis war effort was doomed to fail when he captured an abandoned American encampment and found a chocolate cake shipped in from a bakery in New York. The cake was something the Americans were able to obtain with relative ease, while the German couldn't even get basic supplies delivered to him.

* Contrary to popular belief, Last Meals in prison are not always elaborate and expensive dishes like lobster or steak. Many prisoners will request pizza, ice cream, candies, beer, or other [[ComfortFood Comfort Foods]] that they couldn't enjoy during their stay in prison. Relatedly, pre-rolled cigarettes are enough of a luxury (when not being used as currency) that there's a nickname for them, "tailor-mades".

* Late in ''Manga/KaguyaSamaLoveIsWar'', [[spoiler:the Shirogane family moves into a more upscale apartment in one of Japan's most luxurious wards thanks to Papa Shirogane's improved finances from his work as a [=YouTube=] streamer. The thing that most exictes Kei when informed of this is that she'll get to have her own bedroom instead of sharing one with her older brother.]]

** When Harry comes to Hogwarts, he is at first overwhelmed by the fact that he can eat food he really likes and no one is going to take it away from him. (When he was living with the [[AbusiveParents Dursleys,]] Dudley would always eat everything Harry liked out of spite.) This leads to something of an EstablishingCharacterMoment: Left to his own devices on the school train with a pocket full of cash, the first thing Harry does is buy loads of food off the trolley and share it with the poor kid across from him.

* The world of ''Webcomic/{{Ice}}'' is in deep energy crisis. Plugs (essentially, [[CallARabbitASmeerp batteries]]) are coveted. Heat, a FantasticDrug that makes you ''feel'' warm, is a huge problem.

** Cohen the Barbarian's introduction in ''Literature/TheLightFantastic'' is a pastiche of the "What is best in lifel?" scene from ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982'', in which he feels that crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you and hearing the lamentations of their women is ''fine'', but nothing beats "hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper".

** Cohen the Barbarian's introduction in ''Literature/TheLightFantastic'' is a pastiche of the "What is best in lifel?" scene from ''Film/ConanTheBarbarian'', in which he feels that crushing your enemies, seeing them driven before you and hearing the lamentations of their women is ''fine'', but nothing beats "hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper".

* In ''Comicbook/AvengersForever2022'', Horus is a miner on a CrapsackWorld ruled by the Ghost Goblin, who is found worthy to wield Mjolnir, and is brought to tears by the sensation of sun on his face when he flies. Previously, he noted that there were rumours the skyscraper dwellers had so much water they sometimes sat in it, and he uses the power of Thor to bring clean rains down to the mining community.