Ask Lemmy

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

A sewing machine, for sure. The amount of clothes I repaired, the amount of creativity I release after buying it makes it absolutely worth it.

Definitely my iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit. Cost like 70€ but I've repaired dozens of devices with it which otherwise would've gone to waste. Based on that it easily saved me more money than it cost :D

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!

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.

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

A powerful hairdryer. At one point we had 5 people in the house with long hair, some washing it daily. One day I was away from home and the place I was staying at had a large, professional looking hairdryer. I didn't know that you could dry long, thick hair in just a few minutes. I bought one for home immediately!

• 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.

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

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.

65” LG CX OLED. Absolutely gorgeous TV. Beats the theater honestly.

Infrared grill. Zero flare ups ever.

Pellet grill. Effortless smoked meat, etc.

Sony MDR-7506 headphones. Fairly flat and EQable +12dB without distortion. Built like a tank and parts are still accessible. Threw some lamp skin ear pads on and they’re heavenly.

Brother printer. Don’t ask, just buy it. Way better than the rest.

Rotary sprinkler heads. Windproof.

Klein precision driver and bit set. Lifetime warranty and it’s a great bit set. Super useful.

Sonos Arc+sub+surrounds. Expensive but fantastic system. That sub is something else.

AppleTV. Zero ads. Clean interface. Works extremely well.

Mason jars. If you know, you know.

A computer. Not necessarily a high end one, but at least a decent one. So much opportunity in such a little machine

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.

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.

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.

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

I do a lot of firewood processing, so the DeWalt battery powered 8 in. chainsaw has been great. Don't need to spin up a big gas saw for little branches.

A more general answer: used cars. My most recent two car purchases were off craigslist and have been great bang for the buck. I see no reason to buy a new car ever again.

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

A Fumoto oil drain so I can do oil changes myself, my local shops quote me $90, $100 to do oil changes. No more of that ¯_(ツ)_/¯.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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.

Dentist, not one of those thirty chair operations either. One dentist with one or two hygienists. Twice a year

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

• 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

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 height adjustable office desk specifically for home office, great purchase.

Can you expand on the whole gym stuff?

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.

My PC.

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.

House in 2017

• 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.

Very specifically, my Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro headphones.

I was lucky enough to go to a retail store with plenty of display models and I tried headphones that cost €2000 and up. They were so cheap for what they were (€139), I'm probably going to buy an extra pair in case they stop making them. Too good to be true. Use them everyday, and still surprised at the new things I'm hearing in songs played a thousand times.