What are some of the best purchases of your life?

Not to sound like one of those people, but a bidet. It hasn't eliminated my use of toilet paper, but certainly has reduced it, while leaving a squeaky clean feeling. I miss using it while away from home nowadays.

Other things are eye masks (I have sleep quality issues) and ereaders (never moving with ten boxes of books again).

Electric toothbrush.

Invest in your teeth. Trust me.

Kitchen stuff:

1. A good chef's knife. It'll run you around 200-300 bucks, but if you treat it with respect, it will last you forever
2. A mortar and pestle. They're big and heavy, but grinding your own spice mixes is something that will absolutely change the quality of your cooking. A mortar and pestle used to be super cheap, I bought a huge one for 20 bucks a few years back, but they're kind of expensive these days.
3. A decent cast iron or stainless steel pan. Learn how to use it and maintain it, and it will last you forever.
4. Nice dishes. Spend a little more to get something decorative for hosting. People coming together to eat is one of the most ancient social traditions we have. Make it your own experience. I don't even spend that much, I just raid places like Homesense when they're changing their inventory and have bought all my bowls and dishes for around 50-70% off. Sure I only have two units of most of them, but I'd rather have a bunch of cool high quality dishware, than a bunch of boring looking, feels like it'll break while I'm washing it garbage from Ikea.
5. Get some glass tupperware. I have something like 10 pieces that I've picked up over the years and now I barely use plastic wrap. They're great for prepping, they're great leftovers, they can be used in the oven (not all of them, double check what you're buying) and they're freezer safe.

Clothing stuff:

1. One nice black suit. You can go to a shop like Banana Republic and get one of theirs and take it to a tailor to get it adjusted. A custom made suit is prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, and the ones that aren't are usually made from polyester bullshit. Make sure it's a classic fit, don't go for skinny or wide anything as those go in and out of a fashion, but a proper fitted suit will always look good. Make sure it's made from wool, a wool/cotton blend, or linen if you live in a warm climate.
2. A couple of nice fitted dress shirts. 2 white ones, and then the other three can be your choice of color. Before you start going crazy on patterned shirts at Dan Flashes, make sure you have your bases covered. I say this as someone who wears a lot of patterned shirts.
3. 2 pairs of quality jeans. One black, one dark blue. Don't skimp out here, check the stitching, check the quality of the material. Cotton only, unless it has like maybe 5% spandex for extra stretch. Just like the suit, get it with a regular fit, no weird carrot shape, wide leg, bell bottom or anything else.
4. If you live in a cold or rainy area, get wool underlayers. It stays warm when it's cold, stays cool when it's warm, dries out on its own, and is naturally antibacterial.
5. Never buy anything made from synthetics except for a windbreaker or a raincoat. They feel like shit, they make too much noise, they look like shit, they have garbage insulation properties, they straight up melt from heat (I watched someone's $1000 Arcteryx coat melt to a chair that was too close to a space heater; the nearby wool coat was completely unaffected), they pollute the environment through microplastics and by taking forever to biodegrade, they trap your sweat (the wicking away moisture thing is complete 100% marketing bullshit), and if you have sensitive skin they are prone to causing outbreaks and other dermal irritation. Stop giving your fucking money to those planet destroying criminals at DuPont and say no to synthetic fibers.

My rice cooker. Doesn't really matter which one. If you like rice, this will make your life better

E-Reader, I've put hours and hours into that thing and it's still going strong. Maybe I'll upgrade it at some point, but it's showing no signs of ageing yet. I love reading, but I don't have space for a huge library of books (believe me I wish I did).

A couple of years ago I bought a 3d printer for 400 dollars and it is now my primary hobby. Turns out that having a hobby that you enjoy is super important to your mental health.

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.

Electric kettle. Saves so much time and energy boiling water with electricity in a couple minutes vs 10min of burning natural gas. Hoping to get a new one during prime days this week since my wife put it on the gas range this weekend due to motor muscle memory taking over during multitasking. Luckily she didn't burn the place down.

Rescue dog $60-$200. Older is even better. Best investment in your mental health.

I think my trusty Pinecil soldering iron has got to be one of my best value purchases ever.

$25 for a tool that can compete with or surpass many other soldering irons that cost many times as much.

And the convenience of USB-C means you can use a portable battery without sacrificing any wattage. The heating element is also extremely efficient and can easily handle large pads that many others would struggle to heat effectively.

It's also got some fancy features like an accelerometer (used for display orientation and sleep timer) and a fully open-source OS.

Truly a steal for $25

Probably a bidet, I hate going to the bathroom at other people's homes now.

TSA Pre-check.

Yes, it's fucking obnoxious that it exists at all, given the "security theater" of it all, but man... being able to breeze past the super long lines at the airport is such a better experience.

An e-Book reader! IDK which model would be best for you since mine is an old Kindle, but being able to take SO MANY books wherever I go is a godsend. Way better than reading on my phone or laptop.

Air fryer

Although it's slower than deep frying, you don't need to babysit the food and can use the time to do something else. It also much easier to cleanup

sync for reddit was

€1.5 for 10 years of joy

Instant pot/air fryer combo - I like that I can make one-pot meals in it as I really don't like cooking, and anything I make in there cooks fast. Pasta, rice, meats, there's so many recipes.

Bissell Green Machine - it can wash furniture/carpet. Great for spills, if you have pets. Wash the upholstery in your vehicle. Small and compact. I use it a lot.

Large Honeywell air purifier - my husband smokes a fair amount of pot. I really don't enjoy my space smelling like it all the time. This thing sucks up the smoke and I don't have to deal with it. I buy the replacement air filters on Amazon.

Steam Deck - I love this thing. I love gaming but I'm tired of sitting at my desktop. It's like a small handheld computer too, so you can do other things on it besides run Steam. Right now I'm using it to stream CraveTV to my TV since my Raspberry Pi streaming box isn't working.

Both specific and in general 1.) Nectar mattress. The only mattresses i'd ever bought were from amazon and very on sale. Important Life Advice: whatever you have to do to make i happen, get a good mattress. Even my bed approves and it thinks everything is beneath it, including me.

2.) My bed.

Oh boy, here we go. This goddamn bed.

I bought it roughly twenty years ago and it literally took my entire tax return at my first job and then some to get it and the very first piece of furniture I personally picked out and bought for myself which may explain absolutely nothing about how I ended up like this.

It's fairly straightforward, plain four poster queen bed but so incredibly melodramatic no matter the room I put it in, this thing will dramatically not fit and carry on like it's actually in a castle tower in 1700s Frances waiting for a princess to sleep in it (it did not act like this at the store, okay). It has an unnecessary number of parts (some really could have been consolidated and a couple I'm not sure even have a function other than to add time to assembling it) every piece of it is awkward to move, even the parts that have no reason to be and don't look like they are, and every single piece is ten times heavier than than look or is reasonable, sane, or really should even be possible. The wood is dark and does a very cool dark gleaming thing, and it takes hours to clean and oil it to a soft gleam (so. goddamn. many. parts). Twenty-four hours later it's sitting there dull and dramatically telling everyone who sees it I never clean it and also use substandard wood oil

It takes a very base minimum of two people to even attempt to put it together and you better not have plans for the rest of the day because it doesn't matter how many times you have done this, somehow, you will always get six parts wrong because whoever designed this has another job making complicated puzzle locks that you will never solve and will die mad about it (this person is a sadist). Just looking at it in any given bedroom I live in, it makes me feel I should be wearing something long, white, and flowy while waiting for my angsty vampire lover to visit me in the dead of the night and not taking my night's sleep shorts and a tank top.

This bed is a snobby, judgemental asshole who acts like I didn't buy it at the goddamn Roomstore at ten percent off because it was a floor model.

But. it's a goddamn tank that's been in substandard moving vans and the backs of multiple trucks and dropped down stairs and sometimes forgets to at least look scuffed. It will survive all the wars and still give its occupants a great night's sleep. Those deceptively slim posts are strong enough to joust with a burglar, beat him to death, and then put back and rehang my very melodramatic bed curtains on them (though I'll need a little hysterical strength to hold them up for very long; I am not kidding how stupid heavy those thing are and should not be). I love this bed, it is my soulmate, and it is where I will sleep until I move to a convenient grave. I hope all of you are able to have one of these in your life and if you already do, you have my condolences; but it's ride or die now.

3.) The best headphones I can afford and a budget for potential upgrade/replace every two years (you don't have to use that timeline,but it works for me). Related: Sonos speakers. No, they are not the best in any class but they are good to really good in multiple speaker classes and are affordable--if you budget strictly and buy a piece at a time or watch for amazon sales like it's your job--for normal people.

4.) Kindle may actually be the most important single decision I have made in my life. I like books; I didn't want to use a screen. I did it and a decade and change greater with slowly degrading eyesight I bless the day I decided to try it every day. Currently on an Oasis.

5.) Giving up and budgeting specifically to pay a ridiculous amount of money for my jeans. Sure, the receipts legit horrifies me, but they fit perfectly,, are crazy comfortable, can pretty much survive anything I do to them (and I am hard on my clothes) and some have been with me since before the Obama administration and don't even have a loose thread on them. I have literally every single pair i ever bought and they still look great (and I never add up the cost of them all and what thing I could have bought with that much money, God).

Bidet, don't poop like a neanderthal

I bought a house 11 years ago

10h a week of my life back. It cost me about 500€ a month, but it improved my mental health immensely.

Tea from a now-defunct tea store called Teavana. The woman who would become my wife was working the counter there and gave me her number.

House in 2017

Factorio. $40 for 800 hours of entertainment and counting. I doubt I will ever get such good value out of a purchase ever again.

I went 6 days a couple weeks ago without power due to a massive storm. After a few days I purchased a small solar panel that has a USB port in it you can plug in anything that needs a charge. Works really good! It’s only 10 watt so charges pretty slowly but when you’re fully cut off from the grid, it’s a life safer. Definitely my most worthy purchase in quite some time.

If you don’t have a cordless vacuum yet, it’s an awesome investment. Got one from Costco that has a smart setting for sucking up pet hair and other detritus that typically lives deep in the carpet. I have no problem vacuuming daily now because it’s so easy to just pick up and go. I’ve also heard people with wood floors say that roomba has made it so they never have to swiffer a day in their lives and that sounds pretty rad.

Adjustable bed platform has also changed my life. Don’t wait until you’re 50, get it whenever you can afford it. I swear to god it’s a game changer.

Bidet. Telescoping shoehorn.

A passport.

Can't believe I haven't seen "3D Printer" on here yet!

A serial hobbyist, with a lot of my interests waning in weeks to months after getting into them. But 3D Printing? I've been loving it for 10 years and there's no signs of that slowing down.

Sure there's goofy stuff you can make with it, but 95% of what I print are functional items. So often I need something for around the house and I can just print for cheaper and faster than ordering one online. Examples:

• vaccum hose adapter
• desk grommet
• custom clamp for a bike light
• small L-brackets for cupboard shelves

There's thousands of things out there you can just download and print, or you can get into designing your own. It's very rewarding to design a physical object and then upload it for others to use too!

Here's some examples of some things I've designed or remixed from other designs: https://www.printables.com/@Foreverwinter_223629

The two printers I recommend are the Prusa Mk4 (~$1,000USD) or the Creality Ender-3 V2 ($225USD). The Ender print quality is very good, it just doesn't come with several of the very nice features the Prusa has - if you can afford it get the Prusa! You won't regret it.

Lodge Cast Iron - Haven't replaced my skillets and pots just make sure you know how to clean them.

Vacuum Sealer and Sous Vide - Perfect steak every time.

Office chair - Steel case leap V2. Great back support, so many adjustment options. Bought one back in 2016 and it is still great.

Bidet - be civilized and keep your butthole clean.

All Clad pots and pans - if you are into cooking, invest in these. Amazing to cook with and will last a lifetime if you take care of em.

Espresso - Lelit Glenda. During the pandemic my wife and I decided to get an espresso machine. Feels good to make some decent coffee.

Zojirushi rice cooker - If you like to eat rice, get one. It makes amazing rice.

Nest pillow - I love these pillows from Nest. Extremely comfortable.

Nest bed

As someone who lives in an apartment, whatever noise cancelling Headphone I use at the moment (Bose QC right now). These things changed my life for the better.

Homeowner's insurance, hands down.

I used to bitch every time I made a payment and then one day my house burned to the ground. The insurance payout for the house itself was twice what I paid for the house, and then they paid more to cover the contents of the house.

Yeah, I don't complain about paying that bill anymore :)

So when does Lemmy get its own HailCorporate?

My Steam Deck. I regularly refer to it as the single greatest video gaming purchase I've ever made. I got spoiled for a while by a Switch so i stopped playing PC games because there was no handheld option I liked. The SD gave me convenient access to almost my entire Steam library.

My iPad Pro. I'm normally not an Apple person because I'm so rooted in the Android ecosystem but for my purposes, it's an excellent little toolbox for sketching up writing ideas and as a little music production machine.

Andaseat Kaiser 2. I spend all day working out of my chair and a considerable amount of my free time there, too. Really sturdy, large, comfortable chair. I'd estimate I've got at least 5-7 years before I start thinking about a replacement. The fake leather will probably start to go well before that but I don't care.

A Zojirushi rice cooker. For years, I had been using the crappy $20-30 ones, and they just don't make rice as well. And they tend to break. The Zojirushi makes perfect rice every time and I've had it for more than a decade now.

My 512GB Steam Deck, easily. I've used it almost every day for going on a year now, and the novelty of playing things like Witcher 3, or Mass Effect, or a fully modded Skyrim anywhere I want still hasn't worn off.

Android phones because of their open ecosystem and customization. Very easy to get all forms of entertainment for free.

Rowing machine. I use it Monday-Friday before work. Puts me in a good headspace and makes my workday feel less stressful. I’ve lost a bunch of weight also. I like that I can workout hard multiple days in a row without risking injury.

I used to have noisy neighbors who would party until very late at night with loud music. In addition, my apartment only had one room towards a big road.

Often, I couldn't sleep until 2 or 3 AM when parties ended and would be waking up around 6 or 7. Ear plugs didn't help since the sounds were too loud.

This lead to me constantly being tired and overall made everything else in my life more difficult. I lived like this for years.

Then, one day I saw an ear protection gear (the type that construction workers normally use) in a store for only $5. I decided to buy it, thinking that it might help me relax but that I wouldn't be able to fall asleep with them.

Well, it turned out that I was able to sleep with it and I started to consistently get 6 or 7 hours of sleep. Best purchase of my life.

TLDR Lived in a very noise environment and couldn't sleep. Bought an ear protection gear for $5 dollars and slept like an angel.

Purple mattress. Don't remember what I paid but it was discounted because it was open box. Best sleep I've ever had and no waking up to back pain. I even bought a Purple pillow and rarely have neck pain.

Raspberry Pi. I got one before prices shot up. If I didn't have one already I'd go with one of the cheapest alternatives. I haven't done anything super crazy like a doorbell cam or magic mirror but it's been a ton of fun.

Similarity to the Pi my favorite laptop purchase has gotta be my Acer Aspire One netbook. It's noticeably slower than any other device I have but I'll still use it because I just love the form factor. Super light and easy to use anywhere and unlike a tablet it's got a built-in keyboard, several ports, and runs Docker (seems like it's possible on Android but very laborious).

Not a physical item, but LASIK, I got it done a few months ago and oh boy I should have done it a lot sooner.

Otherwise a PS Vita with an SD2Vita, it has given me countless hours of on the go entertainment.

E-reader. I agree that nothing beats the smell and feel of an actual book but e-readers are incredibly convenient and comfortable to read from. Definitely one of the best things I own.

So far:

• Aeropress. Extremely convenient, easily replicable coffee making. I use a Timemore C2 grinder with it, and buy coffee from local roasters.
• Nintendo Switch. I've played more games on it than any other console, it's just so convenient.
• Zojirushi Rice Cooker. Best investment into daily living I've ever made. It makes the best rice, bar none.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. My coffee grinder. Hehe.

Cast iron skillets ($10-$35 each). My kids joke that they don't know whether I'd save them or the skillets in a fire.

Smartwool socks. I do not understand - all other wool is hot & itchy but these socks, I can be sweaty all over but my feet stay dry. I just bought my second round, looked at purchase history, my old ones were twelve years old before they started getting holes.

Linen clothing for hot weather, it provides shade and I am cooler wearing it, than not. (Moisture wicking fabric doesn't work where I live.)

Metal roof (20 thousand dollars) on both the houses I have 'bought' (mortgage) over my life. Not quite 2x the cost of shingles but never have to think about it again. The first one was 30 years ago and still absolutely solid no maintenance yet.

Endometrial ablation. No more, pain, periods...free! Free! Free!

I somehow managed to buy a house last year. Idk how I did it, but it's the best purchase I've ever made.

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

Sync for Reddit.

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!

My cat. Best $150 adoption fee ever spent.

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

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.

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.

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!

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

1. Kitchenaid! I bake bread every week and it makes it so much faster/easier. Also good for mixing stuff and making fancy whipped creams
2. 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)
3. 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.
4. Weber kettle and WSM, very solid grill and smoker. I use em all the time.
5. A good mattress! I bought one made locally in Texas, so comfy

1. Anbernic RG35XX handheld emulator ($70). So much fun and nostalgia playing the Sega and PS1 games I loved as a kid.

2. Hakko soldering iron ($~120). This plus good solder & flux makes anyone a soldering expert.

3. 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.

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.

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

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)_/¯.

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.

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.

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.

Battery backup for network equipment. Having your router stay on when the power drops for a few minutes is the best.

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.

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!

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

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.

Good áss socks, life is too short to wear crappy socks

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.

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

Top 4 (couldn't think of 5)

1. Laptop - Microsoft Surface Book 3 - Like a giant ipad with a keyboard and a good cpu, good for programming for me, school, small gaming.
2. Netgear Router and Modem - OP said, are cool and I feel safer without an Xfinity dual modem/router.
3. Music on Bandcamp - Cool way to have digital copies of my favorite music.
4. Apple TV - Finally streaming, I get to choose what I want to watch.

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

An Anker powerbank 20000mAh. Couldn't for the life of myself go to a time before having it.

Aftershokz Aeropex bone-conduction headphones. Wear them all day, every day.

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?

Good headphones is a must for me. The Koss Porta Pro are awesome for a prize of only 30 bucks.

• 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.

Hands down it has to be my prescription sunglasses. I need to wear glasses all the time and after years of messing around with clip ons that didn't feel quite right I decides to treat myself and bought a pair of Ray Bans and prescription lenses to go with them. I think it was around $350. 3 years later the frames were broken so I went and bought the same one and had my old lenses put in. I will be investing in a new set soon because the UV coating is all chipped and whatnot. But as a quality of life upgrade for a glasses wearer I struggle to think of anything that has been better.