I can think of a few that have served me well:
100% laser printer. My Brother laser paid for itself the first time I bought a set of cheap toner for it. I don't understand why people buy/rent inkjet ripoffs.
I spotted one on the curb and thought it was an Epson at first glance. Took another look and saw it was a BW Brother laser the internet nerds are always going on about. I took it inside and dried the water off from the rain that just started, and was ready to take it back out to the curb where I found it whenever I discovered why it was put outside.
That thing is rock solid.
My girlfriend insists on having her Canon inkjet for color, and that thing bugs out at least once a month. Her mom's HP has been a nightmare for me to deal with over the time she's had it. This trash Brother has been the best home printer and scanner I've had in my near 30 years of computing. It's still going on the toner it came with, not that I print much. Any wifi issues have not been related to the printer. It prints and scans great. From what I understand, third party toner should be no issue when the time comes as there's no chip.
The hype is real on these Brothers.
I still have my Brother laser printer from like 2006 and that bad boy is still running strong, although the nic recently crapped out. I just need to get around to hooking it up to a raspberry pi to get networking back.
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.
Why you gotta at me like that for any hobby I start getting into.
It's a tough balancing act. You don't want to dive all in and buy the nicest, fanciest, most expensive equipment right out. But also, if you buy too cheap, or too limiting, you're going to get discouraged.
Used is a really good balance between the two. Plan it out, figure out what you need, and meet someone locally to pick up their old stuff. Usually, if they're selling their starter equipment to upgrade, you can even chat with them about the hobby, and get some real good local advice. Maybe even and in with the local community.
It really is a win-win.
Anything you purchase to put between you and the ground. Shoes, tires, beds, furniture, foundations
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? 😉
Isn't that the point of the good bike lock? To prevent stealing even a good, new bike?
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.
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.
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!!
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.
I've never found a rice cooker to be necessary. Just cover the rice with about an inch of water - i.e. the finger trick - bring it to a boil and then cover it and turn it off. The latent heat will cook it perfectly in about 20 minutes without any other thought.
That sounds nice and easy, but i fucked up my rice about a third of the time and it really deterred me from making much. I got a rice cooker 4 years ago, ooooh boy now i make rice at least twice a week. As simple as making rice seems, untill you get it, it just isnt that easy. Plus rice cookers are like 25 dollars. Definitely the most used extra appliance ive ever had.
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.
If you still own a car, and you don’t drive it to work, call your insurance and have them reclassify your car as “personal use”. It’ll save you on your insurance costs.
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.
Potato peeler. Saves so much time over using a knife.
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‽
I actually find that it takes many more stabs to subdue my victims, but maybe I just haven't found a good enough quality potato peeler.
A lot of comfort things: a good mattress, a bidet, a proper office chair, etc
Quality cookware.
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
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, ~~newspapers~~ magazines, 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.
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.
Laundry machine, whether at home or laundromat. It’s one household chore that almost nobody does manually in the developed world.
Hot water heater. It’s almost dirt cheap to run, but damn if I don’t love me some hot water.
Refrigeration. Shit is so cheap and ubiquitous, but fucking ice and cold beverages, hell yes.
Cannabis. It’s not free but it’s really not expensive. A little goes a long way these days.
Internet maps and GPS. Usually you don’t have your pay for the maps, or GPS, but somebody has to store and update all that information about places you’ve never been. Also phones and data connections aren’t free. Trips used to take a lot more planning, and getting lost. I think a smart phone is worth its cost for mapping alone. And it also calls people too. And plenty of other amazing stuff.
Serious question: why is it called a "hot water heater"?
If anything, it heats cold water to make it hot.
Why not just "water heater"?
Decent stainless steel 'silverware' that doesn't easily bend will last a lifetime isn't very expensive for a one time purchase, and can be really cheap to pick up used if you aren't too picky.
Cables.
Like, just buy a bunch of USB-C cables; they're cheap. Maybe some HDMI and audio ones. Maybe splurge for the braided ones if you want to be fancy. It saves you from the problem of only having one that works that you have to keep juggling around, or not having one on hand when you need it. Different lengths and colours as well, so you don't have super long ones going all over the place, and can distinguish them at a glance.
Instant Pot
Depends on your hairstyle, but I used to have my hair cut about once a month for $20-25. I bought a set of electric hair clippers for about $30 more than 15 years ago and learned to cut it myself and have saved thousands of dollars. Its a simple men's cut, so it works for me.
An electric razor or a quality safety razor are also possibilities. I used to use the disposable gillette razor cartridges at about $4 per head, which lasted 3-4 weeks (I used them until they hurt to save money). Now I have both a safety razor and an electric razor (I don't need both, the electric was a gift). The safety razor was $45 and and blades are about $0.10. Blades last about a week instead of a month, but it paid for itself in about a year. I experimented with various shaving creams as well, but eventually went back to canned shaving cream because the time spent creating a good lather in alternative forms was annoying and not worth the savings.
The electric razor may or may not pay for itself depending on how much it cost and how often you have to change the head and the cost of cleaning solutions, but I do enjoy having it for a quick shave. It definitely is not as good of a shave though.
Glasses for my myopic ass. Face I mean.
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.
Dried beans.
CeraVe unscented lotion.
Sunscreen
$100 a month for family membership to yoga studio
My iron skillets, none were over $25. Some are over 25 years old now though.
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.
Most things I buy, because that's why I buy them. I know you were looking for a different type of answer, but I think it's still important to acknowledge this. There are potential exceptions for some necessities, but still rarely ever buy the bare minimum.
Toyota Tacoma. Is literally worth more now than when I bought it. My model has bluetooth but none of the "always on tracking" many vehicles come with after. Subaru Forester. It had a recall for a head gasket something or other that required an entire new engine. Got that done at 115k miles, basically a new car for nothing.
Le Crueset set for about $600 15 years ago. We have cooked hundreds of meals with them. Same with cast iron and stainless copper core pots and pans. Immersion blender (corded) as well. Stove top espresso percolator is so cheap and nice if you aren't a daily espresso drinker. Having that one cup on a rainy afternoon or after dinner is a treat.
If you like grilled/bbq/smoked food, a nice grill will last years if you take care of it. I had a side by side gas and charcoal/wood grill for the last 11 years. Heavy use and lack of replacement parts finally killed it. I could cook full plates for 20+ people off that thing or just a couple of chicken breasts for a quick dinner. I have a pretty cheap but capable gas stainless grill and a santa maria bbq now. They work fine, but not quite as convenient as the all in one.
A really good mattress, solid bed frame, nice pillows, and high thread count cotton sheets are worth every penny. I didn't get all that together until I was middle aged and I really wished I had done it sooner. My back is like "wtf dude, we could have had this the whole time ?!"
If you do any woodworking, 3d printing, making stuff, art etc? Space. A space to do all that it. Wether it is a hobby or cottage industry, you will need dedicated space to make your mess. I've seen people trying to DIY in apartments on youtube and its just so bad. Not to mention dangerous. Fumes, fire, trip hazard, mdf dust, etc. Find a place to house all that nonsense outside of your living space.
And if you make digital art, photoshop, draw, anything that makes you hate a mouse for input. A Wacom tablet screen is worth it. Not an iPad, not a Surface all in one, not some knock off clone from Ali Express...but a crazy expensive Wacom. The regular tablets are okay, but drawing on the screen is almost impossible to come back from. I bought mine in 2009 for $3k and still use it daily.
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