Ask Lemmy

Cast iron skillets ($10-$35 each). My kids joke that they don't know whether I'd save them or the skillets in a fire.

Smartwool socks. I do not understand - all other wool is hot & itchy but these socks, I can be sweaty all over but my feet stay dry. I just bought my second round, looked at purchase history, my old ones were twelve years old before they started getting holes.

Linen clothing for hot weather, it provides shade and I am cooler wearing it, than not. (Moisture wicking fabric doesn't work where I live.)

Metal roof (20 thousand dollars) on both the houses I have 'bought' (mortgage) over my life. Not quite 2x the cost of shingles but never have to think about it again. The first one was 30 years ago and still absolutely solid no maintenance yet.

One of those "portable AC" units.

My home office gets up to 85° at minimum during the hot summer days. Having a tech come in and fix my entire HVAC setup is too rich for my blood. HOA won't allow window units... Finally caved and got the more expensive "portable" ac system that sit on the floor and have tubes that go out the window.

Room can get down to 73° during those same hot days and I am so happy with it.

When I was learning to drive, I bought a steering wheel for PC/PS3. It helped so much, it's pretty crazy.

6 years ago, a 110 € Android phone. What an absolute beast for that price. Had the USB connector not failed, I'd be using it still honestly.

recently? hawkins 3L stovetop pressure cooker - I use it at least twice a week, mostly with beans, rice, root vegetables. been using for about 18 months. no issues whatsoever.

historically?

• ecco shoes, the pair I had for 9 years just wore out last week so I decided to try a different brand.
• filson coat (double mackinaw), it's a beast, but I only wear it 5 months out of the year - in the late fall/winter/early spring
• hp 9480m laptop, have had it for 10 years now, daily use, had no issues at all. no changes, other than updating it to win10 5 or 6 years ago
• all-clad steel cookware (pots/pans/skillets), had the set for around 15 years, works really well.
• futon mattress, custom made, 6' wide, 7' long, 6" thick, had it for 20 years now. super comfortable

just about everything else wears out, breaks, or in the case of most electronics, has planned obsolescence built in after 3 or 4 years.

I ended up buying a rice cooker, and plan on buying an e-reader. Thanks, everyone.

A good headlight. I lend it to a friend for the last 2 weeks, and now I realize how much I use it.

Also my penny skateboard. This thing is light, small, and doesn't fear the rain. Being forced to walk because I don't have a skateboard is so frustrating to me!

A couple of years ago I bought a 3d printer for 400 dollars and it is now my primary hobby. Turns out that having a hobby that you enjoy is super important to your mental health.

Bought a lot of CDEV (Now PR) stock at 50 to 75 cents in March 2020.

The profit when it rebounded Post-COVID paid off my student loans and covered the down payment on my condo.

100% the best purchase I ever made.

A Hydro-Flask brand water bottle. It makes the contents immune to all delta T. Very solid product, highly recommend.

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.

Sleep Number mattress. Yes it’s gimmicky and expensive, but the ability to adjust softness/firmness according to how my back feels is priceless

iPad. A long time ago when I was an IT drone the boss dropped a 1st gen on our desks and said, “set it up and figure it out, you’ll be supporting it.” 2 weeks later I told my husband he was off the hook for Christmas, I wanted one of these. It’s been my most used entertainment tech since through multiple generations

Factorio. $40 for 800 hours of entertainment and counting. I doubt I will ever get such good value out of a purchase ever again.

For time used over price it must be minecraft and my kindle, so many hundreds of hours on both of them.

Bidet, don't poop like a neanderthal

1. Kitchenaid! I bake bread every week and it makes it so much faster/easier. Also good for mixing stuff and making fancy whipped creams
2. Double full motion monitor arm. This helps me save desk space and allows me to move my screens around depending on what I'm doing. For example when I play FPS games I move the main one from the left to the center (closer to my face)
3. Battery powered air compressor and jump starter for my car. No need to be stranded waiting for a jump or have keep quarters for low tires.
4. Weber kettle and WSM, very solid grill and smoker. I use em all the time.
5. A good mattress! I bought one made locally in Texas, so comfy

I will second the Bogleheads book, which you is online for free by the author. Really simplified investing into a 2 or 3 fund hands off portfolio. I've had great success with it and I never have to worry about financial news.

Ontario Rat pocketknife replaced my Benchmade I sadly lost. 90% as good for way less money. It hurts losing an expensive EDC item.

Add on bidet. I didn't know why baby wipes are so popular when this is cheaper and won't mess up plumbing.

Aeropress and pour over cone with Trade coffee subscription. With my medication I didn't drink much liquor anymore. Coffee tasting has all the fun of trying single origins without interfering with my meds and is probably cheaper and healthier.

Musical instruments. My guitars were fairly cheap and require little maintenance costs. I got my electric piano for free. Hundreds of hours of creativity and expression I can use for the rest of my life that is essentially free at this point. I'm not even very good at music, but it's a fun creative outlet.

Good pens. Don't have to be expensive. Pilot V5 and Uni Jetstream are my cheap go to, but they write so much nicer than super cheap ones. Once you appreciate those, check out JetPens and enjoy yourself.

• Toyota RAV 4 ($18,000)
• 2013 Apple Macbook Pro (still looks and works like new $3,700)
• Rancilio Silvia ($450)
• 2001 Chevy Prizm (at >200k miles, I actually had to scrap it even though it still ran perfectly due to sensor issues $1800)
• iPhones (absolutely flawless hardware which keeps getting better with each iteration (~$1,000)
• Canon 5D MKIII ($3,000)
• Kemper Profiler (still getting free software updates 12 years into its lifespan $1,800)
• Fluke 87V (the best meter on earth $400)
• Synology NAS (though I hear they have been enshittified $2,000)
• Airizer Argo (still going $300)
• Nvidia Shield Pro ($300)
• Aeropress ($30)
• Orphan Espresso LIDO 2 (will outlast me $195)
• Warmoth guitars ($5,000 for five guitars)

A passport.

A yubi key for my online accounts. ($45)

A layer 3 POE switch, no more dual wires for power and data ($800)

Stainless steel pan, can cook anything and scrub it hard without worrying about non stick coatings ($75)

Proxmox (free) best hypervisor I've used that's free

Framework computer. Modular and upgradable laptop ($900)

E-reader. I agree that nothing beats the smell and feel of an actual book but e-readers are incredibly convenient and comfortable to read from. Definitely one of the best things I own.

As someone who lives in an apartment, whatever noise cancelling Headphone I use at the moment (Bose QC right now). These things changed my life for the better.

• tempur mattress (got them on the used market, for 20% of the cost)
• a key organizer that looks like a swiss army knife
• a slim wallet that also unfolds
• a good pair of audiophile headphones
• a dishwasher

Both specific and in general 1.) Nectar mattress. The only mattresses i'd ever bought were from amazon and very on sale. Important Life Advice: whatever you have to do to make i happen, get a good mattress. Even my bed approves and it thinks everything is beneath it, including me.

2.) My bed.

Oh boy, here we go. This goddamn bed.

I bought it roughly twenty years ago and it literally took my entire tax return at my first job and then some to get it and the very first piece of furniture I personally picked out and bought for myself which may explain absolutely nothing about how I ended up like this.

It's fairly straightforward, plain four poster queen bed but so incredibly melodramatic no matter the room I put it in, this thing will dramatically not fit and carry on like it's actually in a castle tower in 1700s Frances waiting for a princess to sleep in it (it did not act like this at the store, okay). It has an unnecessary number of parts (some really could have been consolidated and a couple I'm not sure even have a function other than to add time to assembling it) every piece of it is awkward to move, even the parts that have no reason to be and don't look like they are, and every single piece is ten times heavier than than look or is reasonable, sane, or really should even be possible. The wood is dark and does a very cool dark gleaming thing, and it takes hours to clean and oil it to a soft gleam (so. goddamn. many. parts). Twenty-four hours later it's sitting there dull and dramatically telling everyone who sees it I never clean it and also use substandard wood oil

It takes a very base minimum of two people to even attempt to put it together and you better not have plans for the rest of the day because it doesn't matter how many times you have done this, somehow, you will always get six parts wrong because whoever designed this has another job making complicated puzzle locks that you will never solve and will die mad about it (this person is a sadist). Just looking at it in any given bedroom I live in, it makes me feel I should be wearing something long, white, and flowy while waiting for my angsty vampire lover to visit me in the dead of the night and not taking my night's sleep shorts and a tank top.

This bed is a snobby, judgemental asshole who acts like I didn't buy it at the goddamn Roomstore at ten percent off because it was a floor model.

But. it's a goddamn tank that's been in substandard moving vans and the backs of multiple trucks and dropped down stairs and sometimes forgets to at least look scuffed. It will survive all the wars and still give its occupants a great night's sleep. Those deceptively slim posts are strong enough to joust with a burglar, beat him to death, and then put back and rehang my very melodramatic bed curtains on them (though I'll need a little hysterical strength to hold them up for very long; I am not kidding how stupid heavy those thing are and should not be). I love this bed, it is my soulmate, and it is where I will sleep until I move to a convenient grave. I hope all of you are able to have one of these in your life and if you already do, you have my condolences; but it's ride or die now.

3.) The best headphones I can afford and a budget for potential upgrade/replace every two years (you don't have to use that timeline,but it works for me). Related: Sonos speakers. No, they are not the best in any class but they are good to really good in multiple speaker classes and are affordable--if you budget strictly and buy a piece at a time or watch for amazon sales like it's your job--for normal people.

4.) Kindle may actually be the most important single decision I have made in my life. I like books; I didn't want to use a screen. I did it and a decade and change greater with slowly degrading eyesight I bless the day I decided to try it every day. Currently on an Oasis.

5.) Giving up and budgeting specifically to pay a ridiculous amount of money for my jeans. Sure, the receipts legit horrifies me, but they fit perfectly,, are crazy comfortable, can pretty much survive anything I do to them (and I am hard on my clothes) and some have been with me since before the Obama administration and don't even have a loose thread on them. I have literally every single pair i ever bought and they still look great (and I never add up the cost of them all and what thing I could have bought with that much money, God).

Filco Majestouch mechanical keyboard.

I code all day every day. I would burn through a cheap OEM keyboard in a year, and the keys would get stiff and cause massive hand strain.

$200 on one good keyboard. You're set for life.

1. My PC. It's not a beefy system by any means... it only has an i3 8100, a 1060 6GB, and 16 GB RAM, all bought for about $600 in 2018, but since then this has been generally the best thing that's ever happened to me coming from a low-income household. My family lost a lot of financial and emotional stability over the past few decades so as a person growing up I always felt like I was going to stumble. Thankfully this little big thing has provided that stability for me as a troubled individual. As I get older it's allowed me to catch up on my traumas and build my own life out of it on my terms. It may not see use forever, but some part of it (no pun intended) will always be a part of my life.

2. My and my wife's rings. We've given ourselves to each other so much and while it was always a given that we would spend the rest of our lives together, it unexpectedly strengthened these feelings when we made it official. We're each other's pillars.

3. My coffee grinder. Hehe.

Refurb 13” 2020 M1 MacBook Pro. Best computer I’ve ever owned - it’s been my daily driver for two years and it’s been a joy to use every day.

1. An office chair not a gaming chair.
2. A reciprocating saw and having multiple blades is a lifesaver. You will always need a fresh blade in an emergency when the store is closed.
3. Cast iron pan
4. Bidet has been life changing

Edit: 5. A multifunctional pressure cooker like an instant pot or ninja 6. Air fryer

With the last two and a pan you can cook some good food for 1-2 people very easily and they are relatively cheap appliances you can use even in a college dorm or apartment.

Safety goggles (don’t remember how much) oh boy I would blind by now if It weren’t for those

Vivo brand monitor arms, the simple pole clamp ones. 40 bucks give or take, I've had them for 6+ years and they should last for another 10+ I would think, awesome value.

Sennheiser Momentum 3 wired headphones. Used and abused, replaced the cord and ear cups after about 3-4 years for 35 bucks total and they work as well now as they did brand new. Sound is great, they are comfy too.

Sony A6000 camera. Works great, awesome pictures.

IFixit multi-bit screwdriver set with the hard case. Had it for around a decade so far. Nothing broken, nothing worn out. Use it all the time on computers, furniture, electronics, etc. Plan on having it for another 10 years easily.

Steam Deck. Best general purpose gaming handheld out there. Moddable, repairable, high quality, super fun, runs everything I want.

1. Whirley Pop: if you enjoy popcorn/like to have a movie theater experience at home, get one! I love to use the "Real Theater" packets but you can make your own as well.

2. Air Fryer: we have the Ninja brand and I love it. It doubles as a dehydrator as well, so quick and a million times easier than heating.

3. Litter Champ/Litter Genie: We have the litter Champ brand. Great for disposing of soiled cat litter without having to use grocery bags every time. They are biodegradable with zero smells.

4. Nintendo Switch with BOTW and TOTK. Hundreds of hours of entertainment!