Ask Lemmy

I absolutely love my induction stove. I've been Wanting one forever, can't justify the price to run upgrade my electrical panel and run a 240v line (I have gas now). Finally decided to get a cheap countertop model (duxtop). It's night and day. Holy shit. It boils water faster than I could imagine. It's Hotspot is a little small for a cast iron pan, but works perfectly with steel pans. Gets hot very quick, cools off quick. Way easier to clean. I absolutely love it.

Eventually I'll get a full sized one, but for now, 2 burners is enough.

most recent purchase was a resin 3d printer. Now i can make figurines for my bf and i have something to play with. win win

I love my Kobo! I'm a big night reader and I hate book lights... My Kobo has made it so convenient and I have access to sooo many books. Libby lets me take advantage of my library membership, too!

10h a week of my life back. It cost me about 500€ a month, but it improved my mental health immensely.

I used to have noisy neighbors who would party until very late at night with loud music. In addition, my apartment only had one room towards a big road.

Often, I couldn't sleep until 2 or 3 AM when parties ended and would be waking up around 6 or 7. Ear plugs didn't help since the sounds were too loud.

This lead to me constantly being tired and overall made everything else in my life more difficult. I lived like this for years.

Then, one day I saw an ear protection gear (the type that construction workers normally use) in a store for only $5. I decided to buy it, thinking that it might help me relax but that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep with them.

Well, it turned out that I was able to sleep with it and I started to consistently get 6 or 7 hours of sleep. Best purchase of my life.

TLDR Lived in a very noise environment and couldn't sleep. Bought an ear protection gear for $5 dollars and slept like an angel.

Good áss socks, life is too short to wear crappy socks

Aftershokz Aeropex bone-conduction headphones. Wear them all day, every day.

• Coffee grinder. Much better coffee at home
• Nintendo Switch. Hundreds of hours of entertainment.
• SwitchBot. $30 or so to remotely push a button for you. I use it to turn on my espresso machine remotely to let it heat up before I go use it.

My Prius. Best car I've ever owned. I love it.

Top 4 (couldn't think of 5)

1. Laptop - Microsoft Surface Book 3 - Like a giant ipad with a keyboard and a good cpu, good for programming for me, school, small gaming.
2. Netgear Router and Modem - OP said, are cool and I feel safer without an Xfinity dual modem/router.
3. Music on Bandcamp - Cool way to have digital copies of my favorite music.
4. Apple TV - Finally streaming, I get to choose what I want to watch.

Good headphones is a must for me. The Koss Porta Pro are awesome for a prize of only 30 bucks.

An Anker powerbank 20000mAh. Couldn't for the life of myself go to a time before having it.

A rice cooker, and a pair of clip-on earphones that I bought specifically because I like Persona 3, but turned out to be a really good pair.

• sennheiser hD598 - ~$150, had them for 7 years, rock solid, sound great
• elgato HD60 w chinese HDMI splitter - ~$150 lets me record anything from an HDMI, blur out channel logos, etc
• j mascis sig jazzmaster ~$500 used - best guitar i ever played

I bought a house 11 years ago

Endometrial ablation. No more, pain, periods...free! Free! Free!

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.

Guild Wars 2 game for PC. 10.000 hours in (yes, I’m addicted!), and still rocking. Thousands of players, new expansion next month, and the base game plus the 3 first expansions only cost 33€, no subscription fee.

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

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)

Squatty Potty

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.

House in 2017

A Kawasaki ninja 650. It might not sound like much. But, its given me something to look forward too. Before I was really lost. I thought life just isn't worth living. But now? I still feel like that. But, its given me such a sense of freedom, and, whilst I haven't actually met any other bikers yet. It just feels a lot nicer. Like, when I'm out and I see another, its just a simple not. But, I feel apart of something now.

I've been riding around 2 weeks now. But I still get giddy when I ride. I love it. More than anything I've had before. And I haven't felt like this since I was with my first gf.

This became quite long. Sorry.

For me it was a generator. Moved in to a new neighborhood and discovered that the power goes out frequently here. Mostly because all the power lines are above ground and old trees keep falling on them. It was during covid and my kids were remote schooling through zoom. Went and bought a 3500 watt generator to keep the internet and refrigerator and freezers running. Its been the most handy thing I got since we moved in.

Corded dyson from 20! Years ago. Still sucks, in a good way!

For me it has to be

my Sebo E3 canister vacuum. This thing changed my life living with a cat, dog, and two kids with full carpet. It just works and works well. Comes with a 10 year warranty as well.

My Lg C2 oled tv. Like someone else said, once you go oled you don’t go back. It’s a joy to watch every day.

Larger but worth was my 20 yr old Land Cruiser. Got it for cheap, did some preventative maintenance and have not had to do anything major since. Took multiple 3,000 mile trips including off-roading and she keeps on going.

Breville Espresso Machine: never would have bought one but we ended up with a bunch of gift cards. If you like coffee this makes such a difference.

Lynda.com/LinkedIn learning account: Keeping with your $0 library theme. Most libraries have had a partnership with online learning services. Used to by Lynda.com but is now LinkedIn Laarning. Search your library + linked in learning for login. I use it to learn so many skills!

Wusthof Knives: I like cooking. These aren’t the fanciest knife by far but they are solid. Combine them with sharpening stones and a honing steel and it is such a treat to cut the things you cook.

New socks: I don’t buy them as often as I want, or should have you ask my wife but, if I won the lotto my rich guy asshole Move would be new socks each week.

5th Wheel: I don’t have it anymore but when we moved out of one state we sold everything and bought a used rv (only after ensuring the espresso machine fit) and fixed it up. We traveled for 10 months around the US with two kids and two dogs, just to do it. We worked as we went. It was crazy and chaotic and wonderful and I cherish all the moments. I love the small nested world it becomes. We finally settled down and sold it but I still think about doing it again.

Thanks for sharing yours!

• A cast iron pan and paraphernalia. Not cheap, but it's great to cook with.
• Books. Never regretted buying those.
• Purchase art from artists.

A pair of good boots will outlast 4 pairs of sneakers.

Not a physical item, but LASIK, I got it done a few months ago and oh boy I should have done it a lot sooner.

Otherwise a PS Vita with an SD2Vita, it has given me countless hours of on the go entertainment.

I bought a height adjustable office desk specifically for home office, great purchase.

my sleep 8 heading/cooling bed last year. was tired of sleeping crappy, had tried just about everything from supplements to saunas, exhausted all other ideas ... out of desperation decided to throw down for it.

seriously life changing. no matter what temp the room is at the bed is always perfect. takes a while for the auto pilot to learn your likes but when it does ... oh man.

much love for my smart mattress ❤️

I bought a mobile AC unit that renders my apartment survivable during summers. Prior to it, I'd have all the windows open and it would still reach 35-40 degrees C when the sun was at it's highest point, now I'll keep it at around 21 degrees and love life.

I went 6 days a couple weeks ago without power due to a massive storm. After a few days I purchased a small solar panel that has a USB port in it you can plug in anything that needs a charge. Works really good! It’s only 10 watt so charges pretty slowly but when you’re fully cut off from the grid, it’s a life safer. Definitely my most worthy purchase in quite some time.

Can you expand on the whole gym stuff?

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.

• I bought a TI-86 graphing calculator for $10 new in 2004. That was two years before it was discontinued, so that was an awesome price. I absolutely love that calculator. It's so easy to program for, it has custom shortcut keys, fantastic battery life, and has a super convenient multi-unit converter. The Casio FX-9750 GIII has a similar conversion feature, but it requires like, two extra button presses per conversion. I still use this calculator all the time.

• Programmable gaming mouse. I have so many key combos and macros on my mouse, I could do most of my job one handed now if I had to. It's been so helpful for things like holding the baby when I'm working and my wife is unavailable.

• Steelcase Leap V2. I can put in a 70 hour work week with no back pain now.

• A fountain pen. Doesn't even have to be an expensive one. Some of my best memories can be tied to cheap pens. Signing for my house with my Kaweco Sport. Or signing my marriage license with my Jinhao x250. I feel like I just appreciate what I'm writing more with a fountain pen.

• My PS2. Well, it was a gift. But still, I've had it since launch and it's only gotten better with time. Free MCBoot, hard drive, Noctua fan mod, Brooks PS3 controller adapter.. It's basically the only console I play anymore.