1y ago

What single purchase has returned the most in terms of value?

175 comments

I adopted a defective lizard from a breeder for a 20$ fee. This particular defect often results in culling the animal, as it is often too expensive and time-consuming to care for. Because of this, not much is known about its care.
I now am one of the most prominent "experts" on caring for this particular subset of creature. Though no one but the most experienced keepers should own one, I am still happy to give information to folks who may have to care for one, either from rescue or purchasing one before knowing exactly what they're getting into.
Aside from being able to give advice on keeping these creatures alive, that's not all the value: the real value is my stupid lizard. I got him literally just a couple of weeks before the pandemic & lockdowns started. He's an absolute angel who has brought me so much joy in my darkest times. He's sweet, gentle, goofy, and is a wonderful companion animal. He now has complete freedom in the front of my home (when he's not in his vivarium) with his own heatlamp, ramp, and a view of the road where he love watching all the cars go by.
I love my stupid lizard. ❤️
- In what way is he defective ? because he's yellow ? Beautiful creature regardless
  
  They're supposed to have scales and spikes and look like this.
  My boy nekkid.
- Did you have to figure out how to care for him on your own or did you have help? What special treatment does he require since he doesn't have scales?
  
  TL;DR at the bottom. But do note that you SHOULD NOT set out to own a scaleless bearded dragon!! Aside from their crazy difficult care, they are often NOT produced ethically, resulting in sick dragons that often suffer and meet an early end.
  I used to foster dragons, so I already knew tons about their ideal care & conditions. However, when looking up care for this particular defect (they're referred to as "silkbacks"), a ton of it was/is just people parroting information they'd only heard thirdhand, as there is barely anyone who actually owns one/has one that isn't a rescue of questionable origin. Because of that, tons of myths and misinformation are online now about silkback care. I essentially had to start from scratch on care and use trial-and-error to figure out what was true or not. It's not malicious misinformation, though! It's just ignorance.
  Let me be clear: the reason barely anyone owns one is not because they're rare! They're actually very easy to produce. It's just that most ethical breeders do not sell them to the general public, for a very good reason. It'd be like someone selling one-legged puppies and advertising them as "rare." My breeder genuinely produced Pączki by accident (genetics are crazy), and separated the pair afterwards. They only offered him up to me after I brought up my credentials/experience while attempting to purchase a different dragon from them (who was sold before I could get them, unfortunately).
  Owning one of these is bearded dragon ownership cranked up to "Nightmare Mode". The dragon can grow up fine, but it takes a ton of time, energy, money, and dedication to do so. I'm an idiot who decided that I had all of that, plus a curiosity to see the difference between the silkback vs. normal dragon care in case I decided to foster again and found myself in possession of a rescue.
  Here's an abridged list of extra care requirements: no rough surfaces or sharp edges in their habitat, no bugs that risk bites (so no crickets, which are a common staple), slightly reduced/farther placed UVB due to higher eye sensitivity since they are prone to blindness/eye issues, same heat requirements, weekly/biweekly baths IN CONJUNCTION WITH: specialized lotion, aloe, massages, shed "help", etc.
  They will injure themselves, no matter how safe you make their environment. The injury may also stem from you, as I've even accidentally gouged him with my fingernail before. They're not extra-fragile or anything, but they do require careful handling. It's basically like human skin.. but much slower to heal and much more prone to infections because of that– it's a trait of cold-blooded animals.
  TL;DR: I basically had to figure out care myself, due to widespread misinformation from folks who have only heard thirdhand.
  Their care requirements is a lot of buying extra things and constantly paying attention to prevent & treat any injuries that may occur because of their skin.
  There's a lot more, but those are the basics. Hopefully that helps!
  Again, DON'T GO SEARCHING TO GET YOURSELF A SCALELESS BEARDED DRAGON!!! If you want a less prickly dragon, look for a "leatherback" bearded dragon! Their care is the same as a standard dragon and they still have all their scales.
- When I was doing research on getting a reptile pet I thought about getting a bearded dragon. But they really need a set temperature, in a big enclosure, and eat bugs. I got a ball python instead.
  
  I'm happy to hear you did you research and got yourself something you feel you were more capable of handling!
  If you ever feel like showing off your noodle-boy, definitely post them up here or in a reptile/herp community. I'd love to see them!

A computer when I was still a kid. I wouldn't be the quant and maths PhD I am today without it, that shit literally shaped my life.
I just kept messing around with it when I was 7 years old. I learned to write .bat files and create DOS bootable floppy drives for my games at that age (you needed to play around with Soundblaster drivers and DOS extenders at the time). Then at the same age I quickly discovered BASIC thanks to the fact that MS-DOS used to include QBasic. Then learned some basic assembly using MS-DOS's included DEBUG tool. Then my father got me floppy disks with Turbo Pascal and Turbo C++ on them and then I learned that shit again just by fucking around and looking at the examples, all at the age 7~8.
I coded like a monkey but I still coded and at a very early age I already knew what people usually learn first in university computer science classes.
By the age of 14 I already knew how to write my own minimal bootloader in assembly and a basic 32-bits kernel in C. (then later on math ironically won me over, so ended up formally pursuing applied math with a tiny bit of computer science because I just didn't need it and the whole exposure to programming at a very young age helped me a lot)
All of that was just thanks to the little spark I got when I first got that Pentium MMX computer.
- This is an awesome story. I started early too but all that got me was into some sketchy early aol rooms lol.
  
  yeah curiosity can definitely lead to different places 👀
- That's almost exactly how I got started, except instead of Turbo C++ and Turbo Pascal it was whatever free or bootleg programming language I could get my hands on. I remember when I first learned Java I used an online compiler where you just plopped your code in a text box, then I found some compiler called not javac, but jc. I pointed it at the directory for the Java class library in Netscape and I was off to the races lol

Vasectomy.
By far the best purchase I have ever made for myself. Seriously.
- I didn't even have to pay for mine, and I'm American. Go figure...
  
  Also American, mine cost $100. Worth it every day.

The paid version of Sync for Reddit. I paid $1 and used it for 13 years.
- Same. I'm sad I got a bit out priced on the Lemmy version but at least liftoff is great too.
- Same for RiF
- Ya, he's learned his lesson. Sync for Lemmy is 🇦🇺$25.
  I'll probably still pay it, he is asking about tools for mods and that's the killer feature I need.

A really nice kitchen knife. I use it daily and it makes cooking so much more fun, which translates into eating less junk food and take out, saving a ton of money and being more healthy.
- What brand did you choose. I always want to get one but they are 200-300 bucks here.
  
  Unless you want to learn everything about Japanese knives the victoriaknox fibrox is the best in terms of value for a western style chef knife.
  It's sharp out of a box, decent steel with decent edge retention, very comfortable handle and good geometry and thinness so it passes through ingredients very easily. I wouldn't seriously consider most other knives unless they are Japanese style knives (what I use) or a certain shape that you want.
  It's only 30$. It sounds too good to be true but most of the characteristics of a good knife purely come from good design (comfortable handle, blade geometry, thinness, etc).
  
  I started with a Santoku brought from a business trip to Japan, don't think it was a special brand. It was 50 EUR (that was almost 15 years ago), but for me that's how I got into it. Now I am lucky enough to have a friend who's a blacksmith to get custom made knives.
  I usually recommend the Haiku Chroma series as entry level, or if you are looking for a western style chef's knife, I'd go with a Wusthoff classic. Both are a bit more than 100 EUR, so I'd always recommend to go to a shop and get a feel for them and what works best for you. Important thing is western or Japanese style handle (shaped vs. round), and a length and weight you feel comfortable with.

I went back to college at 30. That set me up for a career I actually enjoyed and a wage that was double the dead end job I had at the time.
- What subject/degree?
  
  I didn't get a degree. I got enough skills to get a job.
  Database stuff. I write SQL for a living. Data analyst or report writer would be the generic entry level job titles.

End of 2008 start of 2009 I bought a house. It was VERY risky move for me at the time.
Not only has it been a temp house for others that needed help. But with the wild costs of apartments these days I simply don't understand how people haven't just flat out started a revolution over it. There's an apartment complex that opened in my town very recently. The units are much smaller than my house but cost more than double my mortgage. And that's just for where they actually list the price, there's some I'm guessing are so expensive they don't list the price they just say "contact us".
- Those of us who would revolt are too tired from working the hours to keep up with rent :( landlord raised mine another $380 this month. I was already using savings to pay for groceries. I'm almost 30 and move back to my parents' home next month.
- Sounds like amputees, need not apply to "contact us."

I’ll say right off the bat that my roomba i7 self emptying vacuum cleaner has been a game changer for me. 2 big ass dogs and the dirt/fur that comes with it made me loathe sweeping/manually vacuuming. $700 well spent.

A subscription to the now defunct children's magazine 3-2-1 Contact. That magazine would sometimes include the code for simple BASIC computer programs. Eventually I figured out they would run on the (then common) Apple II classroom computer at school, tried one (a simple guess the number game with a preset answer), figured out how to change the answer and tweak the code, and got hooked.
Ultimately this led to a degree in software engineering and a job in IT that I quite enjoy, especially when writing scripts or working with code.
- 10 LET A = CODESKILLS
  20 IF A = CODESKILLS PRINT "MONEY"
  30 GOTO 30
  
  So... print a finite amount of money, and wait for jail?
  
  Now I'm hungry for spaghetti code
  
  No no no
  It's:
  10 PRINT "Penis "
  20 GOTO 10

My sewing machine. I (m) wanted curtains, my wife didn't want to sow them (no sewing machine didn't help).
Bought it last year (€270), made curtains troughout the house, monthly energy bill went from €630 to €230 a month due to savings on heating. (And I learned something new, always fun)
- HOW? I have a sewing machine I bought primarily to hem pants for my short-man legs. I've purchased the fabric to make curtains but after an hour of struggling to get it to lay straight and cooperate with me, I gave up. It's just too big to deal with 😩
  
  YouTube, man. Husband booked us a trip to the Star Wars hotel at Disney, and decided he and our son needed costumes. He taught himself to use it on YouTube.
  He didn't even ask me for help. "Oh, this lady on YouTube has been sewing for 30 years!" SO HAVE I!
  
  Curtains are a lot easier, especially when you start with pre-fabricated ones that need to be sewn together for wider windows and made shorter.
  Fit curtains
  Get loads of needles and make the roughly to size
  Cut the bottom so you have more then enough fabric to correct mistakes
  Curse as you forgot that the fabric slides of the table while cutting (leaving you wiuth a few cm left in 1 corner)
  Hang curtains again to see what you can salvage and correct
  Decide the curtains in the kitchen won't reach the work top, just the bottom of the windows.
  Sew everything together and hang the curtains
  The slight tilt is 'by design' and be done with it. (They cover the windows and keep the cold out, that was the main goal)
  Curtains are visible for only me and my wife, so great items to start with. (I won't touch clothing for a while, I know I'll mess it up)
- By Grapthars hammer, what a savings.
  
  Thanks, especially the front door was a huge problem, lots of cold coming from there. Also the huge windows in the livingroom and kitchen on the 1st floor (ground floor is garage) were a huge advantage. Especially the gas bill went down a lot, not to much saving on electricity. The moment it starts to cool down, curtains close. (keeping the warmth in) Gas for heating costs loads more then the few cents extra for lighting.

Phones are expensive but...
I mean I think my screen time is at like 5-6 hours a day. I can do almost all the things with it.
It is fragile tho. Probably won't last more than a few years.
...still, landslide victory in the cost/utility category, despite the high cost.
I bought a $700 acoustic guitar when I was 17. That thing is now old enough to buy porn.

For me, my Steam Deck. I have been having a lot of mental health issues and it allows me to have an outlet for anxiety and stress while still spending time with my family. I use is most days and have enjoyed a good chunk of my extensive Steam catalog to boot. Honestly, the most bang for my buck I have ever gotten.

My playstation 4, I've had it who knows how many years. Not only do I have countless hours of gaming, but it's also my primary media device.
Have an original N64 from like 98, no idea how many hours of enjoyment I've gotten out of that.
Ceramic skateboard bearings I bought in 2001, as well as a pair of grind king trucks from maybe 97 that I still ride.

Something I wish my employer realized is how much value they would get out of providing their developers with good hardware instead of crappy laptops. When it takes 15 minutes to change a line, compile and run the software I'm working on, I'm not going to be very productive.
For context, I work on 2 separate projects that need separate development environments (because they have some conflicting dependencies). One of them has to be in a VM, which significantly affects performance. The laptop was high end 3 years ago, but now it's beaten even by an Intel i3. It also doesn't help that the compamy has installed 2 anti-virus software that take up like 30-40% cpu while I am running builds.
Another crappy thing they did was move the infrastructure to AWS... And it costs a ton, performance is shit, and copying files from the build servers is a nightmare... we have to remote into some "copy machine" on AWS, copy the files from the build server to the "copy machine" via samba, upload the files to some internal tool (that's like OneDrive but worse in every way), and the tool will sync it to our machine. Oh, and the copy machine has very limited storage, it's win10 on a 40gb drive. It's insane.
- That sounds horrible! How could a machine like that have been high-end in last 15 years? Unless it's a chromebook. Seriously, is that a typo that it has a 40 gb drive? If not, I'm amazed it can even boot to windows.
  I'm so glad my current company is not like this; Couple months ago my coworked started to have issues with running out of ram (16 gb), and noticed that there was an amazing deal on some thinkpads: P14s gen 2, 32 gb ram, 4K, Ryzen 5 pro: 970€ without vat. And now almost everyone in the company has a new laptop! Granted the company is small, 13 employees, making thanigs like this easier.
  
  I have a 9th gen i7. It sounds pretty good, until you look at the i3-13100F which is 30% faster. CPUs have had a huge jump in performance in the last few generations. The laptop is a Dell Precision 5540 from roughly ~2019-2020. I recently received an upgrade to 64GB of ram which helps a lot, but the main bottleneck is the CPU.
  For many people it might sound like a good machine. For certain developers, sure, it's great. But when you work on a complex project written in 3-4 different languages, with a complex build system... it's pretty bad.
  The company has a 5 year machine replacement policy... I have to use this slow piece of shit another 2 years until I can get it replaced.
  Yes, 40gb is right. To be fair, we only use it for copying files. Cost cutting because AWS costs money.

A car.
Freedom of mobility is huge. Not worrying about how to get groceries home. Being able to go to a doctor when necessary.
Recreational aspects, took a drive through Washington State, up the Olympic Penninsula and down through Seattle and Everett.
- I'll tag onto this- not because I think my option is better, but because it's a complimentary thing that hits a lot of the same points in different situations.
  My bike has given me joy, fitness, new activities, and new friends. When I didn't have a car it got me to work, gatherings, shops, etc. The enjoyment of riding got me out exploring nature around where I live. I've done multi-night bikepacking trips. I've met friends on rides. I've made new friends at work when we discover we both ride in sometimes. I chat to people at the bakery about their bikes.
  All that, with a side effect of keeping me healthy and fit.

My woodshop of 220v saws. They paid for themselves remodeling my house and building most of the furniture and all the cabinets in it. So, now they paid for themselves and I can make whatever I want. Saw brrrr noises are my therapy. I think I'm slowly becoming Nick Offerman.
The price of hardwoods is too damn high.
- Just the other night my wife commented that I'm turning into Ron Swanson: after spending the day in the workshop making a bookcase for an oddly shaped nook in the house (carpenter quoted me a price so high that just with this project the nice miter saw amortized itself) I fired up the grill to cook a nice porterhouse steak, while nursing a nice dram of lagavulin. I even work for the government
  
  Lagavulin really is that good.
  
  You can have all those things without the libertarianism by being Nick Offerman.

Dutch settlers purchased Manhattan from the indigenous Americans for beads and other goods valued at 60 guilders (about $1,000 today).
- At best that's a myth, at worst it's whitewashed history to hide a genocide. The Lenape didn't have a concept of land ownership, they didn't believe a person could own the earth, so they couldn't have had anything to sell.
  
  Hell, if somebody offered to give me $1000 for the Grand Canyon, I'd congratulate him on his new canyon.
  
  Agreed, thanks for clarifying.

A $150 laptop that I learned to code on years ago. It got me out of minimum wage jobs and onto a real career.
I don’t have it anymore. It got stolen. Obviously have upgraded to something better.

My doggo
- My cat. With cats you get a better bang-for-your-buck in terms of maintenance costs vs years of utility.
  (please don't be offended, this is meant as a joke. I love dogs. However I do refuse to get one because I personally am too emotionally delicate to fall in love with someone who I know might not be around for more than 12 years. I know it's better to have loved and lost, etc, but I don't know if I could handle it. Everyone who adopts an older dog, you are my hero)
  
  I got my cats for free, so that was a really good value in my case.
  
  I just adopted a senior dog two weeks ago while I love her very much, my brain is already jumping to conclusions 🥺

Commuting bike instead of car
- So you bought a bike?

My dry herb vaporizer, used to spend 0.3-0.5g on a spliff joint and now I'm using 0.05-0.15g per bowl while getting great effects, flavour, and level of convenience, and ofc.. I stopped combusting, so it's better for my health too. Returned it's value after few weeks tops.
- You have recommendations on one? I've been considering it.
  
  Depends on your usage, tolerance and wishes. The devices that I usually recommend to beginners are Xmax v3 pro, airvape legacy pro, xvape Cheeh & Chong's Mambo, mighty/crafty, TM2 or desktop ball vape if you have high tolerance. All of these (except ball vapes) are electric portable vapes, but you have butane based vapes available too like the dynavap and anvil, but it's not my field XD.
  Check our !vaporents@lemmy.beyondcombustion.net (currently offline) and !vaporents@lemmy.world. also fuckcombustion.com is an awesome forum about this field.
  
  Xmax V3 pro
  
  I did a bit of research and came to a similar "they will pay for themselves" so I got a higher end (afaik) device called a Mighty. It is fantastic, still going strong years later. Heats up quickly, smooth pulls from it, battery life has gone down a little but still plenty to not be deskbound.
  
  Some things to consider
  Budget
  Portable or Desktop
  Battery operated or analog (using Torch or Induction Heater)
  Ripper (on-demand) or sipper (session)?
  Convection / Conduction / Hybrid
  For battery powered:
  Tinymight 2 is my current favorite vape for its size, speed, power, ecosystem. I can use it with my water pipe and rip it like a bong, or hit it dry through a j hook, etc. There is a very small learning curve.
  Mighty+ is a good session vape that is consistent and reliable. There is no learning curve. You need to be ready to commit to 3 minute session of slowly sipping on it. It is a great vape as a session vape, but if you're looking to take a hit or two do stuff for a few hours and repeat, TM2 all the way. It's large, but that's because it has 2 batteries and a screen. The crafty+ is the little sibling with one battery, no screen.
  POTV Xmax v3 is okay for the price point, but if you spend a little more, you can get a better class vape. This sits in my drawer, but I might take it out for biking because i don't care if it breaks.
  Dynavap is worth a mention as a cheap analog vape that can make huge clouds. There is also a huge ecosystem for it, and it's interoperable with some other vapes ecosystems.
  !vaporents@lemmy.world
- I had a PAX when they first came out and never really got the chance to figure out how to use it. I could never find the right temp and it felt like i was going through the bud too fast. I suppose i just didn't know how to use it.
  I didn't have it very long because, unfortunately, it was confiscated by the authorities and i never got another one.
  I need to give it another try.
  
  First, sorry to hear that. Most people fall to those headshop vapes, which IMO that includes the pax. It uses old tech that doesn't suit to moderate-heavy users.
  Try to pack the bowl pretty tight, and let you pax heat back up between draws, I guess around 30 secs.
  See my other comments for recommendations if you want and anyway visit !vaporents@lemmy.beyondcombustion.net and !vaporents@lemmy.world. also fuckcombustion.com is an awesome forum about the field.

My 2006 Toyota Rav4. I have done less than 5 k in repairs in 17 years,
- Nice! I have a 2005 highlander and I feel the same. That figure might even include tires...

A $5 stick-on hook. (Command brand)
It’s a place to hang my pants at night, so they’re not on the floor. Makes my whole routine better.

Community Rec center membership. For a one time fee of $10; it's easily the best $10 I've ever spent and is a great city perk. I've gotten in great shape since going there.

Cd bruner in the early 90s.
I paid 600$ cash for a 4 speed cd burner.
I made my money back in 6 weeks.
Everything after that was pure profit.
- Haha dang dude. You were ball'n to afford a x4 CD burner back then.
  I made my money back in 6 weeks.
  I figured you were getting paid to make mix CDs from CD albums you had. As P2P Napster didn't come out till 1999 and Limewire, 2000.
  CD burning was definitely something I wish I had done back in middle school. Ha
  How was your CD burning hustle? How much did you charge for a CD? I'm interested to know more.
  
  LOL, back before p2p there were direct download web pages in the prehistory of the web. I was pirating music in 1996 (maybe earlier?)
  deeznuts had a basic search page and hyperlinks to a direct download of most popular music, and on a 56kbps modem it would only take about 45 minutes per song.
  
  My brother had just started a computer collage course that required everyone to buy a 100$ cd.
  We provided them for 20.
  I burned ps1 games for 10$ a pop.
  Music cd's were 20 just for the hassle of me getting all the songs. I think I was using... Ing it's been so long.
  Text based. BBS feel. Chat rooms. Omg I'm. Embarrassed I can't remember.
  Irc! Holy shit I wonder if that's still around?

I bought a Global brand Santoku knife like 20 years ago and it’s still my favorite knife. It was when I got my first solo apartment and I had basically no kitchen stuff. Instead of a cheap knife block, I got one good knife.
I hate calling “purchases” “investments” but it might apply in this case.
- Was going to comment about a knife as well but you beat me to it. Though I went with Wusthof. The difference a good knife makes a huge difference for cooking.
  The same applies to cookware. Don't overpay buying a whole set is a waste. Buy the couple pots and pans you need individually and save.

Monster Hunter World. 80$, 1600 hours and counting. I'll finish it one day. Yes, I know I'm playing it wrong.
- If you're having fun after 1600 hours, then you're not playing it wrong

I bought counterstrike source way back in like 2008/2009 when I got a computer fast enough to play it. Steam was pushing garrysmod as a 5 dollar bundle purchase with counterstrike, and I bought that too on a whim.
I liked garrysmod more than cs:s, and played it a bunch. Eventually I figured out how to add wiremod to the game, which also involved using svn (a source control precursor to git)
I learned basic digital circuits and boolean logic by making bases with elevators and fancy alarm systems that would shoot intruders with turrents and stuff.
Eventually wiremod added a programming language called expression2, which was a mashup of c and lua. I basically taught myself coding because of a video game.
This lead me to get into computer programming, and eventually computer security, which ended up being a lucrative career path.... So thanks Garry for your mod, and thanks Gabe for pushing said mod to kids that just wanted to shoot virtual terrorists. That 5 dollar game is responsible for a good chunk of my life :)
- That's very neat. Motivation and some ability to see ways to use something make learning it much more fun.
  Just as a sidenote, SVN is not really a precursor to git. More like a contemporary step in an opposite direction. There's a video somewhere with Linus commenting on his opinions on improving CVS. :)

I bought a Bethany Homes Lefse griddle. It's cast aluminum, gets up to 500 Fahrenheit, and is the closest thing you can get to a restaurant flat top without rewiring your kitchen. I've saved my wife and I so much money cooking at home. I've owned griddles before, but nothing this high quality, high temp, and easy to clean. I now prefer my homemade smash burgers to eating out and by the time my patties are done resting, I've already cleaned the griddle.
- Like this? I don't see how it's better than a stove with a pan? I'm not arguing just curious..
  
  YOUR QUESTIONS OFFEND ME!
  So, for serious, that's the nonstick version; I've never tried that one. I have the cast aluminum one, which I guess would be pretty similar to using a larger cast-iron skillet. The problem with a cast-iron skillet is there care and maintenance and how long it takes to heat up and cool down. If you try to wash a hot cast iron skillet, it can eventually crack.
  This thing has a built-in heating element, so it heats up a little faster than on an electric stove-top (I don't have gas elements), within 10 minutes, the whole 16-inch surface is at a relatively uniform temperature and it maintains that temperature nicely, and when I'm done I can immediately clean up. Cleanup consists of pouring hot water on the surface and then pouring/scraping off the greasy water over coffee grounds, then a little more water and wipe down the surface with a folded bar rag to get off any food or remaining grease, flip the rag and wipe the dry surface/check for any dirty spots. I also use metal utensils all over the surface without worrying about ruining a seasoning or flaking off nonstick coating.
- Lefse griddle....500 fahrenheit
  I'm super confused isn't a lefse pan just like a really big cast iron pan? Since when are they heated?
  
  I hear rumors that these are meant for making flatbreads, but my fat Texan ass took one look at it and said "mmmm... Burgers and tacos." What it's intended to be, how it's intended to be used, or how it's traditionally designed is all beyond my concern. I make 16-inch crepes filled with bananas, Nutella, and peanut butter and then pretend like I'm a classy mofo because I say words like "crepe," and "cholesterol-induced hypertension."

Probably the SawStop cabinet saw I bought a few weeks ago. It's way easier/less sketchy than my job site table saw when cutting large panels, and the peace of mind it gives me from a general safety perspective is priceless. I have been doing a lot of projects with full sheets of plywood since I bought it, which has been an aspect of woodworking that I dreaded before. No more crawling around with a circular saw or precariously balancing between a job site saw and an extra table
- I have a sawstop PCS also, and I still can't man handle a full sheet of 3/4 on it. I find my track saw is better at handling sheet goods. Do you have an outfeed table or something else to help?
  
  I have the 52" extension and a roller stand that I put on the left side. Typically just yeet it off the edge tho.
  To be fair, I'm typically not ripping a full sheet, usually cross cutting the 4' side. The last few inches are a bit dicey still, but still preferable to a circular saw and messing around with clamping a straight edge. I'll probably still get a track saw eventually

Form me personally, I'd have to say my automated espresso machine. For context; I was buying 1-2 coffees from a shop per day (let's say 10/week on average).
Cost me $700 on a sale. Grinds & presses the beans by itself, then pushes boiling water through to give me espresso shots. It paid for itself in 6 months of ownership by weening me off the local shops, and it's lasted for over 6 years so far.
Instead of ~$4.50 per coffee, it's like $24 for a bulk bag of beans at Costco that lasts me 3 weeks, and a carton of half-and-half that lasts me like a month. That's like $180/mo → $35/mo
- Where do you live, that makes you pay 5$ for an espresso?
  
  Not just straight espresso shots. I drink Lattes and Breves. Typically larges, and truly strong (like 4 shots).
  Prices have gone up even, but what I just described costs $8.65 at my local Starbucks. But even the cheaper local shops would charge me like $6 nowadays.
- Came here to say this. Wasn't as often but I'd get specialty coffee for $8-$10 a couple times a week. I bought a off brand espresso machine for $100 that is running to this day. If I include various accessories I've probably spent around $200. I did wind up getting a work bonus and splurging on a $400 Eureka grinder so I can have freshly ground.
  Last I did the math at most I spend around $1.00 a cup, for a savings of around $8. I've made at least a couple hundred coffees it has definitely paid for itself and then some.

Bidet is up there.
Saxx underwear or B3neath. No more batwing. Play around with some other brands, Hanes makes one with a pouch that doesn’t feel right for my body type but I could see it being comfortable. All citizens makes a good one. Duluth ballpark pouch was too lazy of a fit and held sweat.
- I've only tried the Hanes, and they were a game changer for me!

The Louisiana.

Bose QC35 headphones for me.
They felt extravagently expensive at $300. But I've had them for 7 years now, wear them a few hours each day, and they still work like new. They sound amazing and the noise cancellation has had a tremendous positive effect on my sanity as an apartment-dweller.
Every year I buy a replacement set of earcups for like $15. I'll keep using them until they poop out.
- Any recommendations on cups? My cups just crapped out
  
  I don't want to link to the website about a river that flows through Brazil on Lemmy, but I've found that just picking the top generic option on there works fine. IMO the Bose brand replacements aren't noticeably better for their 2x markup.

A very long time a ago I shelled out some cash monthly for a cut rate web hosted Linux virtual machine.
I learned all kinds of crazy valuable stuff on that thing.
Edit: For those that want to do this today, the service was Linode, and a cheap rough equivalent is AWS EC2.
- Is there anything valuable you can do with a linode vps that you can’t do with a Linux vm and a good router?
  
  Sort of. I paid for Linode so I could stop babysitting dynamic DNS. Before that I had a piece of hardware sitting at home and did weird stuff to make it routable from elsewhere.
  The surprise benefit of Linode was their web interface to tear it down and reimage it for free whenever I bricked it. And I bricked it at least half a dozen times.
  Today, instead of dynamic DNS, you could probably just use IPv6, or maybe get a nice router with built in dynamic DNS? But I haven't researched those options.
  Because I now pay around $2 per month for a root account on a small dedicated cloud hosted Linux VM from AWS EC2, and that includes some pretty nice non-dymamic real enterprise DNS for like another 10 cents per month.

College. For me, anyway.

Wireless devices. 📡📶📺📻
Everything on my desktop looks so clean now. ✨

My passport

My toaster oven. By far it is the one small appliance that sees use nearly everyday for something.
Sometimes I'm reheating pizza, toasting a bagel, using it as a small oven when I don't feel like waiting for my big oven to preheat. It's so versatile I don't know if I could live without it.
- And to the dudes in their 20s who missed the George Foreman Grill marketing from the 90, go get a foreman grill. I made so many drunk burgers and hotdogs and sausages on that bad boy. Still have it somewhere. Paninis too!
  
  If you can afford it, I highly recommend the ninja foodie grill. Easier to clean than a George Foreman grill and it's an electric grill plus air fryer. We have the XL model so it is definitely bigger than the Foreman, but it gets used so much more. Huge plus, for me, is the built in meat thermometer probe. Choose the meat and the wellness, stick in the probe, and it'll cook it to that temp for you. No more guessing for me!
  (Take my suggestion/recommendation with a grain of salt because I am used to cooking for a crowd and don't know how to make smaller amounts anymore.)
- You should check out air fryers then. They're basically toaster ovens with a fan for blowing the hot air around. Amazing for making things nice and crispy!
  
  I have one, but I dont use it enough.

A cheap pendrive I already used to install four ISOs, two of them pirated.
- Check out iodd enclosures if you have a spare 2.5" ssd!
  
  I want to ask why I should consider that but then I realize this must be your most specific hobby and I'm afraid of the answer
- How did that earn you some savings? I'm totally on with having lots of stuff on a hard thumb drive, but how did it benefit you?
  
  I went through the ISOs myself rather than going to a technician and paying for the service + the OS

Not return in terms of money, but in terms of hours of use and enjoyment my Android tablet is probably at the top of the list since I use it every day.
If we are are actually talking money, then my 3D printer had been used to make many times it's original purchase price. If we are talking about total money then my first house has gained the most value.

My cold brew coffee pot.
It makes about 2.2 US quarts of cold brew in a batch. It’s plastic, but I’ve used it consistently for over 6 or 7 years now.
It has a center sleeve/filter for putting grounds in. They should be coarse ground, but I’ve used Cafe Bustelo (espresso ground brick) and had good results.
Just let it soak for a day or two in cold water.
Now, I don’t use it per the instructions. After it has appropriately steeped, I pull out the filter, empty it, rinse it, and put the empty filter in a 2qt pitcher, and run the coffee from the brew pitcher into it. This leaves a little extra which goes right into my cup.
I then immediately prepare a new brew pitcher and drink out of the 2qt.
That cost me $30 back then, and I brew 2-3 pitchers per week. I don’t know what that works out to in Large Dunkin’s, but I’m sure it has paid for itself, several times over.
- We may have the same one, is it shaped like a lab flask? Love it. I agree any grind works, and I double filter through cloth.
  
  No, I think mine was called a Primula. Want to say I bought it at JC Penny. Not sure if they still make the same model. This one came with a tea/fruit infusion sleeve too but I never used that. If I want to make cold brew tea I just get a dozen or so (black) teabags into a 2qt and let those steep overnight.

A subscription to a specific podcast. Each episode is at least two hours long, sometimes up to four. I don't care. I love it and eat it up. There are barely 5000 subscriptions to the podcast and while I wish the podcast was bigger so the host's could get the recognition they deserve, the community built around it currently is great.
Also, it seems like $700 is the limit to a purchase being great for people. That's interesting.
- What is the podcast?
  
  Action Boyz on patreon. They have a free feed you can check out.

Bitwarden for $10
- What did the purchase give you that you felt was worth it?
  
  Yubikey support, 2fa support, and I wanted to donate anyways because it's a great password manager and I love FOSS. However, the server software isn't FOSS but you can self-host vault-warden for complete control and I would bet those same features.
  
  As another person who paid for BitWarden, it's the Yubikey support for me.

Probably Rocket League. Bought it for 20 bucks in '15 and I have about 1500hrs of total playtime.

I paid $120 for a year of PS+ Premium in January.
If I add the cost of every game I played for 4+ hours I got off that service, it would total over $1000. Even more if I include shit I installed, played for 10 minutes and didn't like.
Even with the recent price changes going up by a whopping $60 for the tier I am at, that's still worth it; assuming they continue to add new shit at the same rate.
With how often I see people bemoaning subscription services, there are still some that are very worth the cost if you're actually utilizing the service often.

$100 (probably around $120 now) Hakko soldering iron and good solder/flux.
I had cheap irons for years and thought I sucked at soldering. The Hakko heats up in seconds and melts solder like magic.
Got it for rc hobby stuff, but I've also fixed countless toys, bluetooth speakers, light fixtures, etc. I've even done some jewelry repairs with silver solder.
Fixed my Nintendo, Sega, Sega CD, Atari, and Gameboy from when I was a kid. Still need to get around to fixing my OG XBOX.

Probably my PC

Toothbrush

My $500 PC, i made more than 2000 ROM builds with it.
- Is there some docs that can help developer learn how to make ROM? I always wanted, never tried,havent even Googled.
  How do you debug a ROM?
  
  There are guides if you have official lineageOS, i recommend to have a good computer, a good linux distribution, a github account and i also recommend to learn git.

My house. Boring but true.

$5k on a car like 6 years ago, still running as perfect as the day I got it. Can't imagine the amount of money I've saved with these things. I'd be in debt with car payments otherwise.

Xbox Gamepass. 5 years now for a total of 152 Canadian dollars.
I will likely continue to use the service even at regular price.

An Elk Rotary™ lawn mower. It's easier to use than my old lawn mower and it makes the lawn look so much better. The time and money that I spent repairing the old mower that I now save have more than paid for the Elk Rotary™.

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