I often hear, “You should never cheap out on a good office chair, shoes, underpants, backpack etc…” but what are some items that you would feel OK to cheap out on?
This can by anything from items such as: expensive clothing brands to general groceries.
Things which are commodity items, such as sugar, all-purpose flour, etc. I buy store brand. The main difference is marketing.
Oh, here’s one: Power tools. Yeah I know, I know. But…
here’s a Porter-Cable branded 6-inch jointer on sale for $365 at time of writing.
Here’s a Craftsman branded jointer being sold for $299.
Here’s a Wen branded jointer for $241.
Look at the three of them. They bear a striking resemblance, don’t they? Makes sense for the Porter Cable/Craftsman ones, both brands are currently owned by Stanley, Black and Decker…but Wen has nothing to do with them, yet they’re selling the same fuggin’ jointer. Admittedly without the speed control, but what do you need a speed control on a jointer for?
It’s the same tool made in the same factory in China, the cost difference is what logo you’re willing to pay for.
At minimum the cheap ones have lower QA tolerances on components. Sometimes they straight up swap in shittier components (eg: plastic instead of metal, etc).
Not saying you always need the most expensive option when choosing power tools, but looks same != same.
I agree. For power tools, especially where decent accuracy is key like it is with a jointer, definitely more of a “do your research, price is not equal to quality,” not “you can do fine with any cheap one.”
I once took a cooking class and the teacher was always “it’s not necessary to invest in expensive oils, the cheapest oil will always do for cooking”.
As long as the oil you are using has the right smoke point. Different oils can get to different temperatures and are used for different things.
Can you expand on that? Which to use when?
Olive oil is a low smoke point. It’s good in a salad dressing but bad to cook something like steak and terrible for frying foods. It burns at a temperature lower than you’d sear meats at. Low smoke point oils tend to be richer and more delicate in flavors.
Canola is a mid-high smoke point oil, it’s good for searing meats and frying foods.
Safflower and avocado are a high smoke point oil. You can cook at a much higher temperature without burning the oil.
If you can find a place to watch it, there are a couple episodes of Good Eats where Alton Brown goes over the different types of oils and their usage. I find his show to be great at learning the whys behind a lot of the cooking choices and techniques.
Thanks so much.
Any idea about corn and sunflower oil? (I hope I got the names correct)
Both are high smoke point.
https://www.webstaurantstore.com/article/800/cooking-oil-smoke-points.html
Thank you so much
Ooo there’s a great video on Minute Food about vanilla extract vs synthetic vanilla. It basically comes down to: if you cook the vanilla, synthetic will taste the exact same, if you never heat up the vanilla it might be worth getting the real stuff.
I assume the same is probably true of most oils, if you use EVOO for salad dressings it might be worth it, but if you’re using it to saute you might as well use sunflower oil and save some money.
I don’t think I’ve ever even seen synthetic vanilla outside of extremely specialised professional shops. (Europe). Vanilla seems to be insanely expensive in the US for some reason.
I see it already the time as vanillin sugar for baking instead of vanilla/vanilla sugar. Much cheaper. Every supermarket here has it.
I haven’t thought of looking at sugar as I do my own vanilla sugar. I’ll check it out next time.
I “just” moved and now taking care of the garden. I want a small vegetable garden (again) in raised beds.
You have a lot of raised beds kits the cheapest ones are €40 and more expensive ones are €90. I however used pallet collar’s at €5 a piece. You don’t even have to screw them together just put them down. For some custom size beds I use free pallets. They do take some work however.
Give them one treatment with linseed oil and you can use them for years. They live longer then the cheap kits and just a bit shorter then expensive ones. (Hardwood probably out life them)
Kits for vegetable gardens are most of the time really overpriced. Raised beds kits, tool kits and so on.
If you want high quality tools buy them of course, but starter kits are most of the time just the cheapest ones at a premium. Want hardwood raised beds, just buy wood and not a kit.
I suggest start on the cheap side, see if it your hobby. Buy cheap tools they already least long enough and if they break you know that you maybe want to invest in a premium one. Because you use that tool really often. (Second hand old tools are sometimes a better option of course)
Cheap/free pallets are used pallets and these have been in contact with so much shit that they should never be used with anything you’ll put in your mouth and shouldn’t be used indoors either (not relevant to you, just saying)
Thanks for you comment, didn’t think of that.
I bought the used pallet collar’s for a company I know and it shipped and stored stainless steel. I’m fine with that. But if someone isn’t comfortable with used new pallet collar’s are about €15.
The free pallets I used only moved pavement stones once, so I also think it fine. But yeah don’t just pick something on the side of the road to grow food in.
A other comment mentioned chemical treatment of pallets. I didn’t think of that. Most pallet in the eu are not allowed to use chemicals to treat the wood. Only heat treatment. That covers eur/epal pallets and single use pallets. Basically the only ones that are free or cheap. And it most be printed on the pallet how they are treated.
That being said be careful especially in countries without laws against using chemicals on pallets.
So I’m fine using them also understand other people are not. Then buying new are just wood for the store is always a option.
Just be sure those pallets were not used with toxic stuff. I’m damn sure that those that lay behind food stores are just ok.
“shit” even humans’, is used as fertilizer all over the world.
So tell me you have no idea about farming without saying that you have no idea about farming.
I don’t think the comment you’re replying to was referring to shit as in fecal matter, but rather shit as in unknown potentially toxic substances.
Do not use free range pallets for anything that isn’t strictly decorative with lots of coating on it. Those things are treated to high heaven with loads of chemicals and you never know what they had on them.
Woods preservatives and methyl bromide are known carcinogens and they’re not even recommended to burn, let alone grow food in.
https://aaapalletco.com/are-pallets-safe-to-burn-answers-from-the-experts/
It’s forbidden to use chemical treatment on Eur pallet/epal pallets. They are only heat treated. Single use pallet are also forbidden to use chemical treatment, but are normally not heat treated. So for the eu the treatment is not the problem. Of course didn’t think of the rest of the world. Sorry for that.
For the stuff that’s was on the pallet collar’s stored and transported stainless steel and the free pallets I got where form work and shipped some pavement stones.
If you don’t feel safe buy/getting for free used. New epal pallet collar’s are about €15. They are only heat treated by law.
This is a great one for sure, enjoy the gardening! 🌻
Thanks! 😌
Most people could cheap out on tools and they’d still last. The average person just doesn’t use the ones they own very often or work them particularly hard. Really, you’re going to know if your usage will require higher quality tools and it’s not the average techbro posting on /r/buyitforlife.
Backpacks are similar. If you’re just using one lightly loaded for an urban commute there is nothing wrong with cheaping out. Spending more is really for people who are wearing them hard and filling them to capacity.
Generally agree on tools except for stuff that needs to work in an emergency even if you don’t use it frequently, or stuff that can pose serious safety hazards if it fails.
My understanding is that most cheap tool brands save costs in QA and material choices (e.g. lower quality steel), which is what leads to things like the harbor freight jack stand recall.
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Most people could cheap out on tools and they’d still last.
I think this is a great one. I learned growing up that if you need a tool for a project buy the cheap one. Then if you use it enough to break it, buy a more expensive one next.
Tool trial by combat, so to speak.
40 something year old here who likes to fix stuff and make simple things at home. Heed this advice younglings. You don’t need the high end products if you’re not using it daily. If you use it til it breaks get something midrange that’s slightly more than what you think you’ll need and if you take care of it, it will last.
Store brand foods are good a lot of times. They used to be garbage, but nowadays they’re pretty good.
Frozen veggies instead of fresh is usually okay if you’re steaming or roasting.
Automotive parts off Amazon have worked alright; Rebuilt my suspension for, like, $120. That’s tie rod, sway bar, shocks, and struts. No issues for the two years since that repair.
A ton of hobbies have perfectly respectable aliexpress alternatives. Keycaps, Fountain pens, 3d printer parts. They rob intellectual property, but I like linux ISOs, so I don’t exactly have a history of respecting that type of property.
Software in general can be cheaped out on; I don’t think I need to champion FOSS on here.
Refrigerators and washing machines can be cheaped out on, as long as you do a bit of research about their reliability.
Lots of stuff is easy to DIY if you have some work space. Furniture, fish tanks, thermonuclear warheads. Learning to sew is valuable, not because you should make your own clothes -fuck that- but because you can mend the stitching on your current clothes.
Services can usually be cheaped out on. Youtube videos and a can-do attitude can get you through manicures and toilet repairs. Court clerks will sometimes be willing to walk you through basic legal stuff like name changes. Things you should educate yourself about beyond a short youtube video: Electricity, flammability (from heat sources), and anything involving significant pressure (pistons, compressed air, and power washers, mostly.).Also be a little careful with chemical reactions: cement hardening, for example, will produce a bit of heat. Usually this isn’t a big deal and you can ignore it, but there have been idiots.The world’s information is at your disposal. Provided you’ve got some common sense, and you never fuck around with the capacitor in a microwave, you should be fine.
Lots of stuff is easy to DIY if you have some work space. Furniture, fish tanks, thermonuclear warheads. Learning to sew is valuable, not because you should make your own clothes -fuck that- but because you can mend the stitching on your current clothes.
One of those things is not like the other…
Good catch, but that’s a common misconception. You can actually use woodworking tools on glass, such as drills and saws, but you need to go a lot slower and make sure to keep vibrations under controll.
I think you’re confusing the poor FBI guy reading our conversation ;)
I mean it’s an incredibly difficult job to refine the chemicals enough to produce a usable product. There’s a finite number of instalations which can actually pull off the delicate chemistry. The materials to make it are fairly common enough; essentially just SiO2,Al2O3, Na2O, and K2O, but it’s much easier to obtain it from the hardware store. I’m definitely not suggesting you attempt to make your own clear glass.
If you want a good printer, look for an ex-lease laser printer. It may not be suitable for a whole department to use any more, but good enough for an individual.
Ex lease laptops and monitors are also often very good deals!
The monitors often come with very well adjustable stands that are much more ergonomic. The laptops are often very high build quality and perfect for regular home office use.
What’s “ex lease” mean here?
Companies usually don’t buy their laptops, screens and other hardware, but lease them from companies that then service the hardware.
When a company upgrades lots of the hardware is then sold by the leasing agency to the public for very favourable prices.
I don’t think that off-ease laptops are very good as they are sold. The batteries are often on their way out and so that’s an additional expense (and some, like Macs, are very expensive to replace).
There are some incredible deals on off-lease desktops, though. Most modern computers are way overpowered for what the average user needs. You can get a perfectly serviceable machine for doing email, serving the web, and office work, for $100 or less. Just don’t expect to play any games released within the last five or more years.
My off lease laptop is literally my three year old work laptop. It is a very sturdy HP laptop with 16 GB of ramm, a 512mb SSD and a pretty decent i7 processor. The body is very sturdy and the screen is excellent. I paid about 180 dollars for it.
That’s a neat tip, thanks 🌻
Mascara. I’ve spent $20+ dollars a few times for some high-end Sephora brands, but I’ve never thought they were any better than the $8 Maybelline I can get at the grocery store.
Drug store nail polish too. $7-9 at Walgreens or CVS and I’m good.
Maybe you’re born with it.
Soap of any kind. It’s fine if you want a certain smell, but at the end of the day it all works the same. Goes for hand soap, shampoo, detergent, body wash, etc.
I agree with all of that, but shampoo. A bad shampoo will absolutely destroy your hair, particularly if you have long hair.
A lot of people seem to agree with you, so I’ll reassess my stance on the shampoo.
As a person with a short cut, every run of the mill shampoo has done its job. But of course your hair needs to last longer when you grow it out; so adverse effects have more time to pile up.
My sensitive, eczema-prone skin say, “No.”
Yeah… I have something similar to eczema (serrobhreic dermatitis, I just have Google autocorrect it for me when I need to put it on a medical form.) All the beauty blogs and subreddits say “stay away from salicylic acid” so I tried all the alternatives in the literature, up to and including literal tar shampoo. Brackish, sticky, thick, smelly tar. Nothing in the medical literature works anywhere near as good as salicylic acid, and I have one brand (shampoo) that works for my face and scalp that’s more moisturizing, and another (bar soap) that works for my body. If I skip showering for 1-2 days, my red scaly oily skin starts to return and I get face acne and bacne… It’s not fun. But as long as I keep my regimen (which also includes a specific lotion and a specific cleanser) and get enough sun (tanning in winter months) you wouldn’t even know I had a skin condition.
It took me many years (including over a month using NO products as many suggested the products were the issues) to find this regimen. So I’m sticking to it.
Not true. Most soap series my skin, and the nice soap I buy doubles as shampoo. Normal shampoo destroys my scalp and I get crazy flaking. And I love the texture on my skin from this soap. Definitely worth the 5 bucks a bar
Which soap? I’ve been using Dove for everything for the past few years. Apart from the fact that it’s really handy for travelling I’ve never had any issues with using it as both shampoo and normal soap but maybe I’m doing it wrong and I should have dedicated conditioner and shampoo
I buy 10 bars of Irish spring for $5. It works great. I shave my head, so it functions as shampoo too. Unlike a lot of the expensive soaps it isn’t like lotion, which is a plus for my oily skin.
Agreed on all soaps… except shampoo. My hair gets crazy damaged by the cheap stuff.
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Decent T-shirts can be had cheap from craft shops. If bought on sale, can be less than $4 each. They come in the normal variations, and one can get various weights online. They also come in a wide variety of colors. Additionally, they don’t have visible logos.
I like the Next Level 3600, the 3601 is the long sleeve with a similar cut. Bella Canvas 3001 is the same fit as well with different color options. Gildian is probably what most people are already used to, boxy fit usually used for band shirts. That’s fine if that’s your thing, but I prefer something a bit more form fitting.
That’s a perfect entry into a capsule wardrobe. If you get 100% cotton shirts of solid colors – wash on delicate in cold or warm water and hang dry them, they’ll be wrinkle free and last a long time. When they’re beat, cut them up to use as rags.
Next level shirts are almost perfect
First: Thanks for the great suggestions!
Second: Shop around folks! A quick search shows that these T’s go for around $5, but Amazon has them for almost double the price.
Third: If you have both minibyte can you confirm that the Bella Canvas has a shorter sleeve length than the Next Level? The pictures seems to show that but then again that depends on the model.
To my eye the sleeves are the same length on Bella Canvas and Next Level. The only difference I can tell is the Next Level shirts are about an inch longer, not the sleeves but the body.
That said, I’m 6 ft - 145lbs and wear a small in both shirts. They’re both long enough to fit perfectly.
If you done mind one e question: Which one’s softer? Thank you!
They’re both 100% cotton, same weight. I believe they’re the same material and feel it.
Next Level: 4.3 oz. 100% combed ring spun cotton.
Bella Canvas: 4.2 oz. 100% Airlume combed and ring spun cottonThe “combed” bit means you should expect them both to be soft.
I wear tall sizes which makes finding shirts a pain. Old Navy has tall sizes and their t shirts are on sale for $6 a few times a year. And they’re very soft and comfortable! I buy like 5 every couple of years.
Generic meds vs brand meds.
Brands pay a lot for branding, and thus charge more. The formulas are moderated and regulated by the FDA, so unless you enjoy paying for ads, get the generic.
Drugstores here (Denmark) are required by law to ask if you’d like to buy the cheaper alternative to brand medicines. They will often change from week to week so a typical order at the drug store would be “I need this” - “I’ll grab it for you but are you OK with cheapest alternative?”
I’ve got a family member with a rare allergy. I’ve found that sometimes one or the other will have the allergen in it, but it’s not consistent between generic/branded. Always check the ingredients and never assume it’s exactly the same just because they have the same active ingredients
So you’re saying that your advice doesn’t apply to 99.9999999% of people? Got it, thanks
Someone elaborating on your advice is not an attack on you.
Allergies are not an uncommon thing
This isn’t always true. The content has to be the same, but the delivery mechanism can be different in generics as long as testing shows similar results
Generic concerta for example, often sucks
Caveat: you aren’t super sensitive to extra/less medicine. The tolerances for generic are much wider.
Technically no. The tolerances should be more or less the same (generally 90%-110% label claim for the active ingredient) . Manufacturers aim for 100% and generally hit that target (or get very close to it).
The bioavailability could be different though - if you are doing a bioequivalence trial for generic VS brand, the generic would have to be between 80% - 120%. This difference is generally a result of the starches, fillers, and other stuff that may be in a generic formulation.
Same net effect as your comment (wider tolerances), but there is a bit more nuance.
Extra info is great. Thanks for adding to the discussion!
Cell phone. A $200 android is extremely fast these days
Replying to you from a cheap fast Android phone.
Based and pilled bro, based and pilled
Why have people downvoted you?
Their fear response is triggered by the use of “pill” as a verb.
And, of course, that their moral philosophy operates at the level of reflex.
LOL, sadly, this is probably the case. Well stated.
I’m a bit disappointed to see this behaviour on Lemmy of all places
Unknown, but it seems like many people enjoy their low-cost mobiles so I am happy.
Absolutely, currently in the purchase of a Pixel 7a (second hand) for 300euros, looking forwards to getting that in hand and install Graphene 👍👍
Or tablets. I’m using a tab s6 for browsing news sites occasionally. Best tab that runs lineage and was 200$ new (bought it late 2023)
Have any recommendations for cheap foldables?
People who want a foldable are at peace with it randomly becoming unusable. People who buy cheap phones are not.
napkin
You can get a Z Flip 3 for like $300 on eBay.
No I meant the ones that turn into tablets. I’m fine with my Z Fold 3 for the next 5 years or so. Was just curious to see if there were any cheap options on the scene yet.
That’s only cheap if you don’t consider how long it will survive and the replacement/repair cost. A slab phone with no moving parts will last much longer than a foldable making the $/year cost much lower.
I can’t wait until my device and destructively scan, then re-print objects, so fast and effortlessly that I can have a folding phone that is my card carrier too. I just swipe the icon for my debit card, the thing materializes at full speed feeling exactly like Im pulling it out of a billfold, then when I push it back in it just gets chewed up again.
Buy used stuff and learn by doing. Computer upgrades, smartphone repairs, cars to some extent and a ton of other stuff
If you buy a flagship for the cameras, buy last year’s flagship second hand. You will end up spending half the money. Plus more or less all flagships have atleast 4 years of security updates, so you can use it for 3 years or longer comfortably.
Flagship cameras have started to peak with this year, atleast on the Chinese end. American ones have to catchup for a few years. And in 3 years or so, we could see them trickle down to budget midrange $300 phones, atleast outside of USA, where anticapitalist freedom exists.
Chinese end.
anticapitalist freedom
This is odd to see in the same comment.
Well, China is evidently not focused on money grubbing and wallet lynching, the way Western capitalist economies are, so…
Yeah, but Chinese private companies are still that, private companies that are profit driven. There’s exciting and even cheap to buy stuff coming out of China, like IEMs for example, but it’s still a good ideia to keep expectations in check for the motivation of these companies.
Being profit driven is a meaningless term. Apple and Hifiman are by no means equally profit driven. If that seems like an odd comparison, Apple and Huawei make equally well polished smartphones, watches and products, yet Huawei is about 20x smaller in net worth.
China is responsible for allowing most of the world to be able to buy and own good quality products without the 10-20x markups that American companies tend to have. They have captured over half the world’s EV market and are scaling up with EV cars they are making, with very affordable and safe ones being made. They are making everything, not just IEMs. They make kilobuck top end headphones that rival Grados.
I agree with you, I was just giving a simple example of more simple product, I didn’t mean to imply that the relations are exactly the same to the ones in a capitalist country, neither that China isn’t responsible for basically all the production in the world and affordable access to said production.
Still, while most private companies can’t just do whatever they want like in the rest of the world, the fact of the matter is that profit is still the primary concern for a lot of consumer products made in China, and it’s something worth to keep in mind. The existence of gacha games like Genshin are a perfect example of this.
No other country has kneecapped its own industries, especially video gaming industry. There are others like real estate, private tuition and other sectors which Chinese government clamped down on, and is well known to hang corrupt millionaires and billionaires. Meanwhile, such people in West hang (used to) around on Epstein’s private island and do such stuff and are worshipped.
Genshin, despite being a gacha, is nowhere as greedy as something like Dokkan. Dokkan makes 16% revenue of Dragonball franchise IP total revenue. I am a F2P Dokkan player for almost 7 years now, not spent a dime, but if you chose to buy ingame currency for summoning units, one multisummon costs $40. And the banner rates are 0.5-1% per new unit. That is not apologia for Genshin though, as I never played Genshin or Honkai, and gacha lootbox/DLC/IAP gaming industry is nasty, no matter where it is. It is not sensible to blame China for gacha, when Japan created gacha, and Western gaming companies are infamous for IAP and DLC tactics for quarter profitmaxxing.
Again, I agree and I’m aware of the stuff you talk in the first paragraph. I’m from Lemmygrad, I defend China as an AES country.
Now for the second paragraph, I’m not trying to blame China for gacha, I’m just pointing it out as an issue that also exists there. That comes with their acceptance of capital, and is something they can be criticized for. My criticism is not to belittle them, but because I believe they can do better.
There was recent news of China clamping down on lootboxes and predatory monetization in gaming, which would be great and would set a precedent for the rest of the world, but last I saw they walked back on it.
I don’t play Genshin, I only used it as an example, but I play League Of Legends, which is owned by Riot Games that is owned by Tencent and recently there has been the inclusion of gacha mechanics for skins that heavily relies on fomo for people to spend money on, and it’s really expensive. Meanwhile Riot also just fired 530 people worldwide and killed multiple projects and iniciatives inside the company, while starving other projects too. This is a billion dollar worth company owned by Tencent, and it all deserves criticism like any other games and companies.
Excuse my ignorance, why would I need to worry about security updates on a camera?
I was speaking about phones… and I accidentally ended up with a Freudian slip, because smartphones are more like cameras with a calling ability nowadays.
Sunglasses. There’s very little difference in terms of UV protection between cheap and expensive glasses and at the rate I scratch or break them it would be idiotic to spend a lot of money on them.
But make sure there IS UV protection. Buying just a dark tint with no UV filter can be very harmful to your eyes.
And that they are polarised. Only a few dollars more.
Yeah, don’t buy them on TEMU.
I learned early that there is a direct relation from how much I spend to how long I will keep them without breaking them, loosing them, or somehow destroying them in creative ways. I have a 10€ pair that has, so far, has lasted 2 years.
it’s silly.
Most things. Clothes, cookware, phones, TV’s, etc.
I would say only spend money to buy things you’re passionate about. I love cooking and have spent some money on quality ingredients. Buy good spices and pans, erc. But I hardly spend money on clothing or vehicles or phones, etc.
Odd comment - you say don’t spend on cookware, yet you spent money on good pans? I also love cooking, and spent money on good pans and knives :-)
That was just an example haha. I spend money on buy it for life cookware, buy it honestly hasn’t been a lot. Cast iron is actually fairly cheap if you can find a deal. Plus, I visit estate sales and often find quality on the cheap.
