A bidet. You can get a basic one for $30-$40 and there is no need to get anything fancier than that. With the amount of money you save on toilet paper, it will more than pay for itself in the first year.
Additionally, toilet paper will never clean your rusty balloon knot nearly as well as a stream of water. If you got shit on your hand, would you be satisfied with wiping it off with some paper? I hate pooping anywhere else but shit-base-alpha. Whenever I have to poop somewhere and use toilet paper, I feel like a filthy caveman.
Yes. I love my bidet. I got one after the stupid tp shortage. I still like toilet paper to dry off but yes, parts of me have been much happier since this change.
Whenever someone balks about the bidet I just ask them if they ever used lotion before, and then I point out that they’re using poop as lotion on their butt.
A 3D Printer and CAD software, especially if you can get around free software.
Break a plastic thingy, why spend $50 on a replacement when you can make one. On no that broke, learn why and make it better.
I’m at the point where I can 3D print small tablet cases, and it’s funny watching the included injection moulded accessories fall apart, while mine is going strong.
It’s not for everyone, and there is a skill gap that’s bigger than most people are comfortable jumping. But if you have the desire/want to learn CAD or 3D printing, it will pay for itself, if you use it right.
Do you have to model a replacement part all by yourself? Or is it easy to find blueprints online?
I imagine that if I have to model them myself, they would come out wrong most of the time.
Depends on what it is. There are no “Blueprints” online (as much as I wish there was), but there are repositories of 3D Printable models, like Thingiverse from Ultimaker and Printables from Prusa Research. For example if you wanted a replacement Stylus for your Nintendo DS or 3DS you can download them for free. For really popular things (or things nerds love), you’ll find a model
However as the idiot who made the 3DS stylus, I had to make the models myself with a pair of caliper and dozens of test prints. It takes time and patience but the effort is usually worth it since the next time it much less and reduces the more you make.
Fusion 360 or Tinker CAD are good starting software, with FreeCAD, or OpenSCAD as alternative. With Blender if you prefer modeling like clay.
Ender3S1 is a Good Starter printer for cheap, with Bamboo Lab and Prusa being the go to community printers. My preference is Ender and Prusa since there are replacement parts easily available.
Anything you purchase to put between you and the ground. Shoes, tires, beds, furniture, foundations
Almost any repair tools, gardening, or anything NEEDED to DIY. You can do a lot of personal projects with very little money.
That being said, it’s very easy to fall into a trap of going beyond what is needed into a full, fancy workshop, with all the shiny new equipment. If that’s what you’re goal is, that’s fine. If you’re doing it to save money, there’s a lot of ways to just get the bare minimum, and be extremely effective. Especially if you can get used, or even non-functional equipment and fix it up yourself.
LED lighbulbs.
Started getting them way back when those things were quite expensive and they still payed for themselves within 2 years.
You can use bigger more powerful ones to get more light in a room, which makes your home much more pleasant without your electricity bill going through the roof.
And this is just plain bulbs, no extra installation work stuff. If you go into stuff like LED light strips you can surround yourself with light and/or pimp your home to your hearth’s content.
There is really is no need to live in a place that turns into an almost cavelike somber environment when the sun goes down.
An eReader. Once you have one you can read for entertainment and knowledge anywhere from free to any budget.
Yes, you can read with pretty much anything with a screen but a nice dedicated device will encourage focused reading.
On that note, you don’t need to buy books from Amazon, Google, Apple or Kobo. And no I’m not talking about raising the Jolly Roger.
Project Gutenberg offers public domain books for free to anyone in all the formats. While Overdrive or Libby offers you Books,
newspapersmagazines, and audiobooks for the low low cost of a free library card. Down side on Libby is wait times for some things. Audiobooks can be worse, upto a month or more for the most popular books.My Kindle is definitely my favorite way to read anything without heavy diagrams.
Fits in a fanny pack, doesn’t burn my retinas, battery lasts incredibly long.
My wallet cried a little when I bought new bike, then I calculated the cost of alternative (car, public transport) and was surprised that even nicer bike is cheaper.
If I count only operating cost of car it will pay off in about 1 - 1.5 years. Public transport is at about 2 years.
Yes I know that I have some infrastructure, and other things that make it possible for me to use it everyday as car.
Also I stay fit and healthy when I don’t sit in a car - so this is another value that can’t be easily put in monetary perspective.
I did the same math when I bought my bike. How many times do I have to ride it to work to break even on this purchase? And as soon as I hit that threshold I never touched the thing again. Turns out I hate riding a bike.
What was your issue with bikes? When I got used to it, it is no brainer to pick a bike and get to work.
Basically comes down to the fact that I don’t enjoy it. Every time I’m on a bike I just think “I could be in a car. I could be sitting in a comfy seat listening to music, going way faster than this, using zero effort.” I like diving, I don’t like biking.
Plus, the last thing I want to do after a 12-hour shift at a physical job is to bike several miles uphill to get home.
An old, ugly bike and a good bike lock. No one will ever steal it and can bring you wherever you want without the fear of leaving it in the wrong spot
Well now I want an old ugly bike. Where do you park yours? 😉
I recently purchased a good lock because I got myself an escooter and figured I’d need something good to protect it well. I am still in shock by how much those locks cost, like holy I understand why but I just never expected it. Didn’t help that I forgot to check the price before taking it to the counter either I guess.
I still get anxious about parking my e-scooter though so I try to only bring it to places with secure areas or where I can fold it up and keep it with me.
I bought an e-bike worth a long penny and an u-lock to match, and the bike got stolen from the front of a busy shopping centre by guys in a van using portable angle grinders. Conveniently the security cameras were not in operation due to a system malfunction. I was inside the centre for about 10 minutes, so a real bummer. Thankfully I had also taken an anti-theft insurance that covered the out of pocket cost of my insurance, so mostly this was an annoyance, but also a valuable lesson.
Isn’t that the point of the good bike lock? To prevent stealing even a good, new bike?
locks don’t keep people from stealing, they only slow them.
I don’t think that’s true lol. But sure, some people will do anything they can in desperation. Surely it’s a spectrum of necessity.
if locks kept people out, there would be almost no theft, like 90% reduction. if someone wants in, they’re getting in.
You are generalizing but I understand what you’re trying to say. Locks aren’t magical or anything, it’s just metal, right? But they work pretty well. Anybody could be tempted to take a bike if it’s just sitting there unlocked. Anybody.
But locked bikes are stolen much less than unlocked bikes, so locks work. Locks do keep people out. 🙂↕️
Battery operated angle grinders have removed the effectiveness of just about any lock. The idea is to be a less attractive target. Will someone risk getting beat up or arrested for a beater bike? How about an obviously expensive bike? The effort and potential punishment is the same, but one has a much high potential for reward. Even if they don’t take the whole bike, do you have expensive rims, etc?
A bike not worth stealing can still be all you need it to be, but not what someone else would take a risk for.
If it’s a good bike, then someone might put in the effort to steal it. If it’s crap, they are more likely to steal the lock.
This invokes an image of someone going through the trouble of cutting your bike and the bike rack in half just to steal the lock, which I find very amusing.
then getting it rekeyed lol
If you’re into miniatures, be it for painting, playing games that use them, or just showing them off, a resin 3D printer. Make Games Workshop and Hasbro pull their hairs out and have fun with a huge amount of stuff you can print!
A nice Elegoo Saturn 2 or Halot Mage printer + 2 liters of resin are enough to print well over 400 miniatures of 28mm-32mm scales. Even if you account the pre and post print work (putting supports, cleaning the print), it quickly becomes cheaper than buying boxes of plastic minis. The learning curve, amount of things to account for before printing and maintenance are all significantly smaller than a filament printer
I have recently needed to travel for work and my duffel bag was a pain in the butt to carry around the airport. All the rolling bags I saw for purchase didn’t seem well made and were pretty expensive while somehow not utilizing all of the available overhead space. Even well known brands like swiss gear seems to have critical break points on their luggage. The last trip I made, I noticed that all of the flight crew used the same brand of luggage that looked very well made and was reinforced in all the right areas. So I looked it up and found that their non-commercial line was just as shitty as everything else I was seeing, but their flight crew line was top tier… But only flight crew could buy it. So I found a website that would sell it to me! $240 for a suitcase that looks like it will last my lifetime and fits the exact dimensions of the overhead space saving me $40 per trip to not check the bag (my company doesn’t cover checking bags). Return on “investment” is 6 flights or 3 round trips. The brand is Travelpro for anyone wondering. And the site I purchased from is mypilotstore.com. They even sell spare parts such as wheels/bearings or leather handles. Super happy with my purchase!!
Really wanted to get some of the Travel pro brand. Sadly, despite seeing it all the time with crew, it doesn’t meet our size requirements as passengers.
They have different sizes in the latest lineup. Including 3 smaller sizes that fit in the overhead. I got one that’s 22x14x9 which is perfect for most domestic flights in the US. But they also have smaller sizes and an international size.
I think a reverse umbrella. It’s a great thing, it won’t turn inside out and break in heavy winds, and when you fold it up all the wet side is on the inner side so you don’t drip all over the floor, the bus, etc. I love mine and it was only about 20 dollars.
A rice cooker. YMMV but I’ve probably cut 80% of my food spending since I had a way to cook rice reliable and easily.
Potato peeler. Saves so much time over using a knife.
Dang, I gotta eat more potatoes.
Swede here. Never have I been to a household that does not have a potato peeler. You use it for everything. Potatoes, carrots, apples, pears, sweet potatoes… Sometimes cucumber if you’re making something weird/garnishy. People use knives to peel potatoes‽
Sometimes a household is a more fluid concept than you’d like and not everything in a kitchen moves from one instance of a household to the next. But there’s always a knife around and sometimes you just want a potato so you peel with what you got. But then when your household gets more stable you remember what a great time-saver a potato peeler is.
I know you’re just trying to sound like a smartarse wank but who in the utter fuck doesn’t have a potato peeler?
Where do you live, Kyrgyzstan? 😂
People that have moved around a lot and never had a chance to assemble a lot of cooking utensils until recently. But I’m glad your life has been so charmed you can’t imagine someone not taking a potato peeler for granted.
