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My PC. It's not a beefy system by any means... it only has an i3 8100, a 1060 6GB, and 16 GB RAM, all bought for about $600 in 2018, but since then this has been generally the best thing that's ever happened to me coming from a low-income household. My family lost a lot of financial and emotional stability over the past few decades so as a person growing up I always felt like I was going to stumble. Thankfully this little big thing has provided that stability for me as a troubled individual. As I get older it's allowed me to catch up on my traumas and build my own life out of it on my terms. It may not see use forever, but some part of it (no pun intended) will always be a part of my life.
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My and my wife's rings. We've given ourselves to each other so much and while it was always a given that we would spend the rest of our lives together, it unexpectedly strengthened these feelings when we made it official. We're each other's pillars.
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My coffee grinder. Hehe.
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A good coffee setup. I dearly love coffee and espresso, and making espresso at home can pay for itself quickly if you'd otherwise buy a latte every day. It's also delicious!
Sync for Reddit.
steam deck prob, works good as a tablet for watching movies and youtube, great for gaming, i can hook it up to a screen and keyboard to have a quick easy pc setup, etc
My cat. Best $150 adoption fee ever spent.
I somehow managed to buy a house last year. Idk how I did it, but it's the best purchase I've ever made.
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!
Filco Majestouch mechanical keyboard.
I code all day every day. I would burn through a cheap OEM keyboard in a year, and the keys would get stiff and cause massive hand strain.
$200 on one good keyboard. You're set for life.
Sleep Number mattress. Yes it’s gimmicky and expensive, but the ability to adjust softness/firmness according to how my back feels is priceless
iPad. A long time ago when I was an IT drone the boss dropped a 1st gen on our desks and said, “set it up and figure it out, you’ll be supporting it.” 2 weeks later I told my husband he was off the hook for Christmas, I wanted one of these. It’s been my most used entertainment tech since through multiple generations
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.
Endometrial ablation. No more, pain, periods...free! Free! Free!
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.
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.
A hat against the sun ( 30 € ). It makes me want to go out more because I feel so much better when the sun doesn't burn my head. I should have tried this earlier in my life. It is also better to have shade on my face through the hat than to wear sunglasses which make the colours look weird and were expensive because I needed a subscription.
A good kitchen knife and a sharpening stone (€80 knife / €15 stone). Makes cooking so much better.
A hand fan. ( 3 € ) At first it was strange to use one, because in Germany they don't use them like in Spain for example. It is light, fits in my pocket, I can use it anywhere, it does not need batteries and everyone who tries mine buys one afterwards.
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
Battery backup for network equipment. Having your router stay on when the power drops for a few minutes is the best.
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.
Complete set of bedsheets in 100% bamboo.
Tempur mattress
Laser hair removal for my full legs, armpits, bikini line and upper lips
Blackout blinds for the bedroom
Raw food subscription for my dog
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.
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!
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)_/¯.
cafelat robot lever espresso machine
- $320 USD
- makes espresso as good as a +$1k machine
- doesn't need descaling
- looks cool
- takes up hardly any bench space
- simple, well engineered, will outlive me
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 set of glass pyrex measuring cups in different sizes (2 cup, 4 cup, etc). I used to use the cheap plastic measuring cups from the dollar store that maxed out at one cup and it’s amazing how handy these things are in comparison. I often times use the bigger ones as mixing bowls. I’ll combine ingredients in them by topping off the different measuring lines. It’s hard to imagine cooking without them now. I also use them for watering house plants.
Tom Bihn Pilot. This was my go to work bag for several years. It still looks brand new. The color options are great. Organization is great. It has a dedicated water bottle holder. Sadly the laptop given to me for my new job is too big for it. I’m probably going to switch to a backpack, but highly recommend the Pilot as an EDC work bag if it fits.
Nikon D90. I think I bought it in 2010 or so? It’s still flawless after all of these years and thousands of photos. I had it out a month ago taking photos for someone’s graduation and it’s still great. There are a lot of newer cameras on the market that are undoubtedly better, but I’m totally impressed by the longevity of this camera and if/when I buy another it’ll probably be a Nikon again because of it.
Honda self-propelled lawnmower. I live in FL and in the summer mowing is a once-a-week job in brutal heat/humidity. Half the time the grass is wet but I only have small windows of time to mow so I don’t have much choice. I do not baby this lawnmower- I basically abuse it. Grass is too high? Push that bad boy along popping a wheely. Tree branches? Mangos? Chop em up. This thing just takes it and keeps kicking. I do use ethenol free gas in it. Gas never sits in it because mowing is year round here. Also a shout out to Echo brand weed eaters. Once you get the hang of it, line is easy to add and it’s also been rock solid.
Brother laser printer. I run a side business that involves printing a lot of black and white documents. 100% rock-solid workhorse: I even use random toner from Amazon in it.
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Anbernic RG35XX handheld emulator ($70). So much fun and nostalgia playing the Sega and PS1 games I loved as a kid.
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Hakko soldering iron ($~120). This plus good solder & flux makes anyone a soldering expert.
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Electric leaf blower ($150). Clears the deck & patio in 2 minutes vs 30 minutes of sweeping. Also fun for cranking a campfire up to 11.
- Kitchenaid! I bake bread every week and it makes it so much faster/easier. Also good for mixing stuff and making fancy whipped creams
- Double full motion monitor arm. This helps me save desk space and allows me to move my screens around depending on what I'm doing. For example when I play FPS games I move the main one from the left to the center (closer to my face)
- Battery powered air compressor and jump starter for my car. No need to be stranded waiting for a jump or have keep quarters for low tires.
- Weber kettle and WSM, very solid grill and smoker. I use em all the time.
- A good mattress! I bought one made locally in Texas, so comfy
One of those "portable AC" units.
My home office gets up to 85° at minimum during the hot summer days. Having a tech come in and fix my entire HVAC setup is too rich for my blood. HOA won't allow window units... Finally caved and got the more expensive "portable" ac system that sit on the floor and have tubes that go out the window.
Room can get down to 73° during those same hot days and I am so happy with it.
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.
A computer. Not necessarily a high end one, but at least a decent one. So much opportunity in such a little machine
Hands down a raspberry pi 4. It's a perfect example of why "maintain is more important than obtain" -- what is the point of buying something that I can't "really" use?
Top 4 (couldn't think of 5)
- Laptop - Microsoft Surface Book 3 - Like a giant ipad with a keyboard and a good cpu, good for programming for me, school, small gaming.
- Netgear Router and Modem - OP said, are cool and I feel safer without an Xfinity dual modem/router.
- Music on Bandcamp - Cool way to have digital copies of my favorite music.
- Apple TV - Finally streaming, I get to choose what I want to watch.
- 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.
An Anker powerbank 20000mAh. Couldn't for the life of myself go to a time before having it.
Good headphones is a must for me. The Koss Porta Pro are awesome for a prize of only 30 bucks.
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.
- 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