I grew up with $20 walmart blenders, and hated anything that required a blender.
Recently bought a ninja and there is no going back. I’ll never use a crappy blender again.
Anything else like that?
Boots.
The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. … A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
A cute little passage from Terry Pratchett, but it holds very true if you ever need boots.
Paying for quality boot work, especially the kind that can be re-soled, is worth it for anyone who has to wear boots with any regularity.
When I first got a job that needed boots I was using an old secondhand pair. It was hell. Eventually I saved up for a quality pair and was totally worth it. I’ve not underspent on boots since.
As for suggestions as to what brand to go with these days for that… I’m less sure on that because I’m researching new brands myself since Red Wings are a joke compared to what they used to be. Danner still seems pretty all right these days.
Anything that separates you from the ground. So a bed, shoes, your health…
Kitchen knives, definitely. A good knife is a fucking godsend.
Quality underwear (once you’re an adult).
A good office chair (not necessarily one of those expensive as fuck mesh ones - I hate those… But something quality).
Also, I’d distinguish between pointlessly expensive and quality.
So, I should buy my kids cheapo underwear?
Absolutely, growing humans will almost never wear through clothing.
Custom building a computer? Don’t cheap out on the power supply or you might end up with a smoke machine
- highly reputed Oxymeter in medical establishment (do not buy inaccurate smartwatches, Apple is 20x ripoff and still subpar)
- Victorinox for Swiss army knife
- Victorinox or Leatherman for multitool
- reputed branded batteries (Maxell, Duracell, Sanyo, Sony, Eneloop et al)
- reputed battery/device chargers
- PSU/SMPS and UPS for computer (APC, Emerson, Schneider and other brands)
- reputed brand watches (Casio, Citizen, Seiko have affordable BIFL options)
- ThinkPad for laptop (user repairability, third party parts, open schematics)
- Levis for jeans, they are almost BIFL
- a good weighing machine for kitchen/home use
- a good mixer grinder WITH safety lock (atleast 750W)
- quality stationery pen, mechanical pencil, leads, eraser and other items (Uni, Pentel, Sakura, Staedtler et al, refer to JetPens website)
I’ve had the same Casio watch for 16 years now, just had to change the battery once. Sturdy and precise.
Well, almost. A while ago it set itself to be three hours off, and I can’t figure out how to get it back to my timezone. I follow the steps in the manual to have it re-set itself, but it’s still three hours off.
I don’t understand where it gets that time from
Get it inspected by a watchmaker. Easiest way and should not cost much. The gears might have some issue.
I picked up a thinkpad last month and I’m happy with it except for: battery life. Thing gets less than 3 hours of usage. That kind of blows.
If using Linux, try TLP and PowerTOP. It sounds horrific there exist now ThinkPads with 3 hour battery.
For batteries eneloop are good, but so are Ikea batteries. The ones Made in Japan are basically eneloop clones for a nice discount.
I am from India, so IKEA is a less common occurrence for us, although it is here in some places. My comment was meant more as general guideline, as you can straight up look whatever I wrote, and get easily without confusion. The rebadged Eneloops at IKEA probably still is a mystery to most.
I believe in the adage of, “If it sits between you and the ground, don’t skimp”.
Shoes, socks, desk chairs, lounge chairs, sofas, car( seat)s, mattresses…
You spend too much time in or on all of these things to be uncomfortable.
I also see posted here the Adam Savage advice of buying cheap tools first, and then upgrade after you better understand your needs. I also think that’s great advice you can apply to most things. Just not the above things.
Maybe not the expensive expensive versions but good headphones and earphones make a massive difference.
Anything that separates you from the ground for long periods of time. Shoes, tires, mattresses, computer chairs, couches, etc…
Helmets
Depends on your definition of “expensive”, but in general, (semi-automatic) espresso machine under $450 is probably not worth getting. Most of the time, Areopress ($30) or moka pot will make better coffee than anything under this price rage.
Toilet paper.
Parachutes.
I guess this gets filed under “Anything that separates you from the ground for long periods of time.”
Toilet paper. Once you rip through cheap one, you’d pay anything to buy better one in the first plce.
One better: A bidet, leave the toilet paper behind and stop rubbing your butt raw with paper.
Laptops. Cheap and midrange ones defined how people perceive laptops in general: slow, hot and awful to use. Expensive ones are usually amazing, but you still have to do your research before purchasing it.
Also, cigars. Nothing comes close to proper Cuban ones.
Just as long as you’re not searching for a “gaming laptop”. IMO those do not exist to any degree of satisfaction. They are all a “choose two” among performance, size/weight, battery life, and noise.
Unless you are so mobile that you are never ever at home, and the prosect of only scraping mid graphical settings at best while being permanently anchored to a wall outlet any time you play is worth it to you, I’d suggest taking that money and instead putting it toward a combo of a desktop rig and a cheap netbook. You won’t be gaming on the go, but you’ll have a better experience for the price. And if there’s a more mundane task that the little netbook can’t handle, you can, provided you have an Internet connection, always remote in to the desktop workstation at home and delegate expensive tasks to it.
If all you need though is something that runs well with a dozen browser tabs open, doesn’t struggle playing back high definition video, and can handle playing a less demanding game every now and again, you can definitely find laptops that can do that while still being relatively slim, quiet, and cool. Just temper your expectations on how far you can push it.
I bought of pair of real, honest to goodness birkenstock sandals. They were stupid expensive compared to the shoes I normally buy.
…now I almost never wear any other shoe. They fit, they’re comfortable, the straps dont cut into my feet now that they’re broken in, and I can take them to the store to get resoled for way cheaper than if I had continued my pattern of buying cheap sandals and running them into the ground every few months.
