For me it has to be:
- Helix mattress ($1,217). Sleep is great.
- Home gym power cage & weights (~$1,000). Look good, feel good, get strong.
- Netgear Nighthawk AXE7800 ($339). No more random, annoying internet disconnects/slowness.
- Books ($0 @ library)
- “Ultralearning” - Scott Young (how to learn efficiently)
- “Enlightenment Now” - Steven Pinker (the world overall is improving)
- “The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing” - Taylor Larimore (how to invest)
- PS5 ($500). So many great games like witcher 3, god of war, spiderman.
I’m searching for some more deep value purchases. Give me what you’ve got.
Not to sound like one of those people, but a bidet. It hasn’t eliminated my use of toilet paper, but certainly has reduced it, while leaving a squeaky clean feeling. I miss using it while away from home nowadays.
Other things are eye masks (I have sleep quality issues) and ereaders (never moving with ten boxes of books again).
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.
Kitchen stuff:
- A good chef’s knife. It’ll run you around 200-300 bucks, but if you treat it with respect, it will last you forever
- A mortar and pestle. They’re big and heavy, but grinding your own spice mixes is something that will absolutely change the quality of your cooking. A mortar and pestle used to be super cheap, I bought a huge one for 20 bucks a few years back, but they’re kind of expensive these days.
- A decent cast iron or stainless steel pan. Learn how to use it and maintain it, and it will last you forever.
- Nice dishes. Spend a little more to get something decorative for hosting. People coming together to eat is one of the most ancient social traditions we have. Make it your own experience. I don’t even spend that much, I just raid places like Homesense when they’re changing their inventory and have bought all my bowls and dishes for around 50-70% off. Sure I only have two units of most of them, but I’d rather have a bunch of cool high quality dishware, than a bunch of boring looking, feels like it’ll break while I’m washing it garbage from Ikea.
- Get some glass tupperware. I have something like 10 pieces that I’ve picked up over the years and now I barely use plastic wrap. They’re great for prepping, they’re great leftovers, they can be used in the oven (not all of them, double check what you’re buying) and they’re freezer safe.
Clothing stuff:
- One nice black suit. You can go to a shop like Banana Republic and get one of theirs and take it to a tailor to get it adjusted. A custom made suit is prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, and the ones that aren’t are usually made from polyester bullshit. Make sure it’s a classic fit, don’t go for skinny or wide anything as those go in and out of a fashion, but a proper fitted suit will always look good. Make sure it’s made from wool, a wool/cotton blend, or linen if you live in a warm climate.
- A couple of nice fitted dress shirts. 2 white ones, and then the other three can be your choice of color. Before you start going crazy on patterned shirts at Dan Flashes, make sure you have your bases covered. I say this as someone who wears a lot of patterned shirts.
- 2 pairs of quality jeans. One black, one dark blue. Don’t skimp out here, check the stitching, check the quality of the material. Cotton only, unless it has like maybe 5% spandex for extra stretch. Just like the suit, get it with a regular fit, no weird carrot shape, wide leg, bell bottom or anything else.
- If you live in a cold or rainy area, get wool underlayers. It stays warm when it’s cold, stays cool when it’s warm, dries out on its own, and is naturally antibacterial.
- Never buy anything made from synthetics except for a windbreaker or a raincoat. They feel like shit, they make too much noise, they look like shit, they have garbage insulation properties, they straight up melt from heat (I watched someone’s $1000 Arcteryx coat melt to a chair that was too close to a space heater; the nearby wool coat was completely unaffected), they pollute the environment through microplastics and by taking forever to biodegrade, they trap your sweat (the wicking away moisture thing is complete 100% marketing bullshit), and if you have sensitive skin they are prone to causing outbreaks and other dermal irritation. Stop giving your fucking money to those planet destroying criminals at DuPont and say no to synthetic fibers.
I inherited my parents giant Coors mortar and pestle. It’s one of my prized possessions. 👍
You can get good chef knifes for less than 200. I have Tojiro DP3 Gyuto which costed me about 110€. Not the absolute best steel (VG10) but still very very well done, and with a good bit of care it can do wonders.
If you like western style, brands like Wusthoff have a lot of goodies for a good price. Victorinox as well, if you avoid the large amount of crap, they have some for absolute amazing value.
Great advice, but I up voted because fuck polyester.
Great list, especially about the clothing. I’m in the process of replacing all of my synthetic clothing, I absolutely hate that crap. The only thing I can see myself wearing tech material again is when run. If i can wear Merino wool to run in the summer then I will, synthetic clothes just radiate odors like crazy
I didn’t really learn the difference until I had to be out in the field for 15+ hours a day, at which point I discovered the limitations of synthetic fibers. The marketing is insanely effective on the masses.
Yeah for real. I guess it’s way cheaper to make that crap than natural fibers. Under Armor has done a fantastic job of making us believe this is some magic material
If we’re talking about shitty materials and effective marketing, I think Lululemon takes the absolute cake. I’m shocked that the company hails from hippy dippy Vancouver, which is supposedly full of eco-warriors (it is, I’ve been to Vancouver, and those people are awesome, but Lululemon is just full of shit).
My brother swears by their ABC pants, but I have some similar ones from Costco that cost $15 and are just as good. My wife loves their yoga pants too, but they’re so overpriced it’s ridiculous.
Honestly if you don’t want to bother with mixing your own spices, Trader Joe’s mixes are goated. They’re consistently good. Just give them a sniff before you add them to a dish and ask “would this aromatically make sense” (e.g. don’t use bbq rub for salmon)
Generally you can’t go wrong with them. I love the “everything but the leftovers” one
I’m not familiar with Trader Joes as it doesn’t exist where I live, but the majority of spice mixes are unnecessarily heavy on salt
If you can’t afford the space or money for a mortar and pestle, I maintain that a cheap coffee grinder gets you 80% of the way for 80% less effort. Can’t make pesto with it though :-(
Only issue with the coffee grinder is it pulverizes your spices into dust. This can be a good thing, but I think it’s way too much for herbs.
Other issue is cleaning. If it isn’t a modular one where you can remove the blade area from the motor and stick it in water (or at least run it under water), you’ll get dust from previous uses building up. Usually it’s difficult to get under the blade to scrub.
Though on that note, I’m going to try avoiding buying any kitchen appliances that won’t allow you to soak or rinse the parts that come in contact with food. This includes blenders/grinders as well as appliances like the Foreman grill. My current one gets a lot of use but cleaning it is a pain. It will soon be replaced by a modular one where the plates can be removed entirely, which will also mean that the new one will take over for my waffle maker, which is the single worst appliance for cleaning.
The patterns are WILD.
They have a shirt there that costs $2,000 'cause it’s so complicated
I bet you love your mother in law
Probably a bidet, I hate going to the bathroom at other people’s homes now.
Electric toothbrush.
Invest in your teeth. Trust 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.
Turns out that having a hobby that you enjoy is super important to your mental health.
BIG YES. I’m happy for you. :)
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).
Tea from a now-defunct tea store called Teavana. The woman who would become my wife was working the counter there and gave me her number.
An e-Book reader! IDK which model would be best for you since mine is an old Kindle, but being able to take SO MANY books wherever I go is a godsend. Way better than reading on my phone or laptop.
Very much agreed. I went with a Kobo since I enjoy futzing around with files and already had a Calibre (ebook management software) library going anyway. I highly recommend e-readers of any kind to anyone on the fence!
Yeah, same with me. I always thought reading digitally was the worst. “I will always read on paper!” Then I started commuting by train (stopped this a long time ago). But once you got used to the comfort of an ebook-reader with those great e-ink displays… There is just no going back.
I started with a Sony (sadly discontinued), but there are many great options, not just the kindle (kindle is good though and once you learn how to get rid of drms it’s ok, not suggesting pirating here, I buy all my books, I just don’t like to be restricted). But also have a look at Pocketbook, Onyx, Kobo or, if in Germany, Tolino). They all have good models nowadays.
The main issue is contrast - I have a cheap IKEA USB LED light, so I take that with a powerbank when it’s too dark as I’m not keen on the backlight - backlight is good for keeping the background paper ‘white’ though.
Paperwhite 3 is great, bought 5 years ago and has 300ppi and BETTER contrast than the newer models ;) When it gets old, I’ll just pick up a replacement battery via AliExpress.
Can’t be beaten on price, especially if you don’t rely on Amazon (I just download books to Calibre, grab epubs via Annie’s Archive, then transfer a conversion to AZW3 via USB).
It was the Wheel Of Time series that got me to get an e-reader, those books where massive tomes and a PITA to carry around. I’ve stuck with an e-reader since, easy on size, weight, and the eyes. I got a Kindle Paperwhite for the back lightning like a decade ago or when ever it came out and use Calibre to manage the books on it.
I’ve been eyeing on Android ones. Have you looked into that?
Bidet. Telescoping shoehorn.
Office chair - Steel case leap V2. Great back support, so many adjustment options. Bought one back in 2016 and it is still great.
Bidet - be civilized and keep your butthole clean.
All Clad pots and pans - if you are into cooking, invest in these. Amazing to cook with and will last a lifetime if you take care of em.
Espresso - Lelit Glenda. During the pandemic my wife and I decided to get an espresso machine. Feels good to make some decent coffee.
Zojirushi rice cooker - If you like to eat rice, get one. It makes amazing rice.
Nest pillow - I love these pillows from Nest. Extremely comfortable.
Nest bed
Lodge Cast Iron - Haven’t replaced my skillets and pots just make sure you know how to clean them.
Vacuum Sealer and Sous Vide - Perfect steak every time.
Homeowner’s insurance, hands down.
I used to bitch every time I made a payment and then one day my house burned to the ground. The insurance payout for the house itself was twice what I paid for the house, and then they paid more to cover the contents of the house.
Yeah, I don’t complain about paying that bill anymore :)
A passport.
Can’t believe I haven’t seen “3D Printer” on here yet!
A serial hobbyist, with a lot of my interests waning in weeks to months after getting into them. But 3D Printing? I’ve been loving it for 10 years and there’s no signs of that slowing down.
Sure there’s goofy stuff you can make with it, but 95% of what I print are functional items. So often I need something for around the house and I can just print for cheaper and faster than ordering one online. Examples:
- vaccum hose adapter
- desk grommet
- custom clamp for a bike light
- small L-brackets for cupboard shelves
There’s thousands of things out there you can just download and print, or you can get into designing your own. It’s very rewarding to design a physical object and then upload it for others to use too!
Here’s some examples of some things I’ve designed or remixed from other designs: https://www.printables.com/@Foreverwinter_223629
The two printers I recommend are the Prusa Mk4 (~$1,000USD) or the Creality Ender-3 V2 ($225USD). The Ender print quality is very good, it just doesn’t come with several of the very nice features the Prusa has - if you can afford it get the Prusa! You won’t regret it.