For me it has to be:
- Helix mattress ($1,217). Sleep is great.
- Home gym power cage & weights (~$1,000). Look good, feel good, get strong.
- Netgear Nighthawk AXE7800 ($339). No more random, annoying internet disconnects/slowness.
- Books ($0 @ library)
- “Ultralearning” - Scott Young (how to learn efficiently)
- “Enlightenment Now” - Steven Pinker (the world overall is improving)
- “The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing” - Taylor Larimore (how to invest)
- PS5 ($500). So many great games like witcher 3, god of war, spiderman.
I’m searching for some more deep value purchases. Give me what you’ve got.
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Not to sound like one of those people, but a bidet. It hasn’t eliminated my use of toilet paper, but certainly has reduced it, while leaving a squeaky clean feeling. I miss using it while away from home nowadays.
Other things are eye masks (I have sleep quality issues) and ereaders (never moving with ten boxes of books again).
I can’t recommend a bidet enough. I’ve stopped using toilet paper all together and just use soap and a towel to dry off.
It’s especially amazing if you get the hot water hooked up to it.
I spent like $700 for a 13" boox max and it’s amazing. Smaller ones are functional enough for standard prose, but stuff like textbooks and programming books that have more structured formatting really take advantage of the larger pages. I can’t put a single page of any of that on my older kindle oasis, but I can comfortably do a landscape two page setup with the max.
Squeaky clean could be embarrassing though.
ee err
- my asshole
I tried having a bidet a couple times, but I ended up having issues with certain delicate skin becoming cracked and bleeding. Not sure what the cause was, but no bidet for me.
So what you’re saying is that you moisturize with your feces?
Electric toothbrush.
Invest in your teeth. Trust me.
Waterpik is also the bomb
YOU’RE NOT GIVING AWAY OUR WATERPIK!
My rice cooker. Doesn’t really matter which one. If you like rice, this will make your life better
It’s funny how every time someone asks this question there’s at least one guy in the comments praising their rice cooker, lol
I also choose that guys rice cooker
No joke. Every time someone comes in praising their $200+ Zojirushi rice cooker telling me how if I really liked rice I would see the light.
No fool. My in-laws are rice farmers. The $15 rice cookers are fine (ok. They’re probably $30 at this point).
Also, reheating rice is not going to poison you.
Fr. I have one of the cheapest, simplest rice cookers and it’s never failed me. Perfect rice every time, simple load, turn on and forget. My brother has gone through at least 3 of those stupid fancy “smart” ones. I don’t know why they need to overcomplicate something as simple as “cooking rice.”
sync for reddit was
€1.5 for 10 years of joy
In the same vein, I caught Relay Pro for $0.99, 11 years of daily use out of that one. 🥺
Kitchen stuff:
- A good chef’s knife. It’ll run you around 200-300 bucks, but if you treat it with respect, it will last you forever
- A mortar and pestle. They’re big and heavy, but grinding your own spice mixes is something that will absolutely change the quality of your cooking. A mortar and pestle used to be super cheap, I bought a huge one for 20 bucks a few years back, but they’re kind of expensive these days.
- A decent cast iron or stainless steel pan. Learn how to use it and maintain it, and it will last you forever.
- Nice dishes. Spend a little more to get something decorative for hosting. People coming together to eat is one of the most ancient social traditions we have. Make it your own experience. I don’t even spend that much, I just raid places like Homesense when they’re changing their inventory and have bought all my bowls and dishes for around 50-70% off. Sure I only have two units of most of them, but I’d rather have a bunch of cool high quality dishware, than a bunch of boring looking, feels like it’ll break while I’m washing it garbage from Ikea.
- Get some glass tupperware. I have something like 10 pieces that I’ve picked up over the years and now I barely use plastic wrap. They’re great for prepping, they’re great leftovers, they can be used in the oven (not all of them, double check what you’re buying) and they’re freezer safe.
Clothing stuff:
- One nice black suit. You can go to a shop like Banana Republic and get one of theirs and take it to a tailor to get it adjusted. A custom made suit is prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, and the ones that aren’t are usually made from polyester bullshit. Make sure it’s a classic fit, don’t go for skinny or wide anything as those go in and out of a fashion, but a proper fitted suit will always look good. Make sure it’s made from wool, a wool/cotton blend, or linen if you live in a warm climate.
- A couple of nice fitted dress shirts. 2 white ones, and then the other three can be your choice of color. Before you start going crazy on patterned shirts at Dan Flashes, make sure you have your bases covered. I say this as someone who wears a lot of patterned shirts.
- 2 pairs of quality jeans. One black, one dark blue. Don’t skimp out here, check the stitching, check the quality of the material. Cotton only, unless it has like maybe 5% spandex for extra stretch. Just like the suit, get it with a regular fit, no weird carrot shape, wide leg, bell bottom or anything else.
- If you live in a cold or rainy area, get wool underlayers. It stays warm when it’s cold, stays cool when it’s warm, dries out on its own, and is naturally antibacterial.
- Never buy anything made from synthetics except for a windbreaker or a raincoat. They feel like shit, they make too much noise, they look like shit, they have garbage insulation properties, they straight up melt from heat (I watched someone’s $1000 Arcteryx coat melt to a chair that was too close to a space heater; the nearby wool coat was completely unaffected), they pollute the environment through microplastics and by taking forever to biodegrade, they trap your sweat (the wicking away moisture thing is complete 100% marketing bullshit), and if you have sensitive skin they are prone to causing outbreaks and other dermal irritation. Stop giving your fucking money to those planet destroying criminals at DuPont and say no to synthetic fibers.
Electric kettle. Saves so much time and energy boiling water with electricity in a couple minutes vs 10min of burning natural gas. Hoping to get a new one during prime days this week since my wife put it on the gas range this weekend due to motor muscle memory taking over during multitasking. Luckily she didn’t burn the place down.
I feel like only us in the UK have one of these by default
Wait, wait I know this conversation. Somebody is going to bring up 240v vs 120v and then somebody else will say that’s not actually very relevant and will link to the Technology Connections YouTube video.
Germany too. Every household has its Wasserkocher
Air fryer
Although it’s slower than deep frying, you don’t need to babysit the food and can use the time to do something else. It also much easier to cleanup
On top of that, proper deep frying requires enough oil mass to maintain the desired heat. Nearly all residential units don’t have enough volume capacity to work as intended. Air-fryers though move heated air constantly replacing the need for oil mass.
A $100 brother laser printer (2280dw but it has been discontinued). It’s like a printer from an alternative universe where printers aren’t evil.
Had it for about 6 years now. Printed thousands of pages and only needed to replace the ink cartridge a few times. Had no issues with 3-rd party cartridges. Surprisingly never required any maintenance.
Other laser printer brands that can probably perform similarly, but I can only vouch for this one.
We know why it’s discontinued now, the toner DRM was missing.
I think my trusty Pinecil soldering iron has got to be one of my best value purchases ever.
$25 for a tool that can compete with or surpass many other soldering irons that cost many times as much.
And the convenience of USB-C means you can use a portable battery without sacrificing any wattage. The heating element is also extremely efficient and can easily handle large pads that many others would struggle to heat effectively.
It’s also got some fancy features like an accelerometer (used for display orientation and sleep timer) and a fully open-source OS.
Truly a steal for $25
TSA Pre-check.
Yes, it’s fucking obnoxious that it exists at all, given the “security theater” of it all, but man… being able to breeze past the super long lines at the airport is such a better experience.
100% agree. Especially with a family. It’s so nice to not have to worry about missing a flight because of the absolutely gargantuan line at DEN.
I have a “NEXUS” pass. Joint prescreen/vetting between USA/Canada. Cost less than $100 and beyond the initial online application I had to take a trip to border/customs for an in person interview (essentially identity confirmation).
I travel between BC and Washington regularly enough and the wait in line for a NEXUS crossing is measured in minutes, not hours. It also gives you the security pass/upgrade for any Canadian or US airport.
The NEXUS is cheaper than PreCheck, and it gives you NEXUS, PreCheck, and GlobalEntry privileges. I have no idea why the deal is so good, but if you’re in driving distance of Canada, it’s totally worth it.
Global Entry is generally better, save for I believe driving privileges at the Canadian border, and since most people get any of the three for free you may as well get GE.
What’s the path to getting Global Entry for free? As part of a credit card benefit or something?
Sorry, yeah that. I think one or two comes with it with no annual fee too, but if you travel enough to make use of GE, it’s prob worthwhile to get an annual fee one as well
10h a week of my life back. It cost me about 500€ a month, but it improved my mental health immensely.
Moved closer to work?
Close, I moved to a smaller and cheaper apartment and reduced some other costs, then I found a job where I work 30h a week.
Each month when I get my wage now I think “I bought this time and I best make use of it” and so it changed my mindset to one where I enjoy my free time a bit more, maybe cause I‘m aware of the price I pay for it.
E-Reader, I’ve put hours and hours into that thing and it’s still going strong. Maybe I’ll upgrade it at some point, but it’s showing no signs of ageing yet. I love reading, but I don’t have space for a huge library of books (believe me I wish I did).
But do you really have the books? Or are you hooked up to some cloud service of some asshole company?
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I just wish there was a color E reader. Not a full blown tablet, just E ink but color. I’d like to read graphic novels on it.
Those already exist! Pretty hefty price (compared to your usual ereader) but very much useable. Onyx Boox has a few models iirc
Instant pot/air fryer combo - I like that I can make one-pot meals in it as I really don’t like cooking, and anything I make in there cooks fast. Pasta, rice, meats, there’s so many recipes.
Bissell Green Machine - it can wash furniture/carpet. Great for spills, if you have pets. Wash the upholstery in your vehicle. Small and compact. I use it a lot.
Large Honeywell air purifier - my husband smokes a fair amount of pot. I really don’t enjoy my space smelling like it all the time. This thing sucks up the smoke and I don’t have to deal with it. I buy the replacement air filters on Amazon.
Steam Deck - I love this thing. I love gaming but I’m tired of sitting at my desktop. It’s like a small handheld computer too, so you can do other things on it besides run Steam. Right now I’m using it to stream CraveTV to my TV since my Raspberry Pi streaming box isn’t working.
An ereader that supports the epub format. Getting all my books from Anna’s Archive saves me hundreds of dollars each year. If I absolutely loved the book, I buy the ebook to support the author after all.
