278
What are some things you can/should cheap out on?
(lemmy.world)
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
278 points (98.9% liked)
Asklemmy
44149 readers
1271 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
Fashion clothes, if you're getting something that you'll wear for one summer and then never again then Primark is fine.
Salt, sugar, most herbs and spices, it's all the same stuff regardless of brands
Some snacks, often crisps are the same Aldi own brand as Walkers or whatever, or they're perfectly good. Yes we all want some kettle chips sometimes but it's all good, same for jelly sweets, a lot of chocolate, etc.
Hobbies for beginners, if you want to take up knitting then start with a cheap kit and upgrade as you get more serious.
This is the big one. If you're starting a new hobby, it's easy to fall into the trap of buying loads of expensive kit because it's shiny and new. Buy the cheaper versions first and learn what you actually need. If you need to upgrade then, at least you know what to buy.
Obviously this doesn't apply to safety kit 👍
I find the opposite with some hobbies. If you buy a cheap acoustic guitar it's going to be horrible to play and will probably sound crap. That might discourage you from continuing. More expensive guitars have a much better resale value too, so you'd probably be out of pocket for less if you buy a nice one and sell it again than if you bought a crap one and no one else wanted to buy it.
I began learning on a cheap acoustic that made it incredibly hard to play, but I never knew any better.
Many years later, I was given a nicer acoustic and I realized how much easier it was to play. Suddenly the F chord wasn't such a monster to hold down.
I feel like the cheap acoustic absolutely stunted my learning, and possibly caused me to pick up bad habits. But I still have it cause it was my first guitar and kinda like the sound of it. But holy shit, it's still hard for me to play it
I kinda agree. Knitting is the go-to for this advice, which makes sense. It gets crazy expensive crazy fast. But starting out with shitty yarn and needles makes the whole thing miserable. Same with a lot of other crafting and baking. Using low quality materials results in an unsatisfying product, and low quality tools make for an unsatisfying learning process.
I generally recommend letting yourself buy something nice-but-not-luxury that you’re excited about, but keeping those initial investments really limited in scope. Buy one nice(ish) pair of needles and just enough nice(ish) yarn to make a specific project. You don’t want to go broke for something you end up hating, but you do want to be able to know whether you hate the actual hobby or you just hate doing that hobby badly.
Nah, buy a used guitar for $50 and try it out. Most people trying out new hobbies give up after a short time.
Absolutely, and you'll know what you like. I started walking a few years back and bought expensive shoes for my first walk but realised I like ankle support so only 6 months later I had to buy expensive boots.
Better yet: buy long-lasting stuff that is ethically produced. Primark is notoriously bad in this regard — but most fast fashion stores are.
It depends how much you plan to use it. If you're going to wear something a few times then a long lasting piece of clothing is wasteful.