…to a reasonable degree, at least.
Weddings.
Yes, It IS a big day. It’s not such a big day that you spend your entire life savings, and have no future.
Get a DJ, get a cake, get a hall, get a photographer…forget the doves, forget the ice sculptures, forget the wedding planner, forget the genocidial mimes, forget the big limo, keep it small. Do you really need to invite your great aunt, who you’ve seen 3 times in your life?
You should NOT be spending like $20,000 on a wedding.
The genocidal mimes are non negotiable
I know right…we HAVE to have standards
out of the loop, what are genocidal mimes?
It’s right there on the tin
$20k?
Damn dude, all my friends getting married are spending a minimum of $50k. $15k gets you the venue for the night without anything else included or factored in (food, music, fucking chairs or tables or lights, etc)
Weddings are a predatory business.
I can get a venue for like $200. What are you guys renting??? The Royal Palace???
Venues (and other services) usually jack the prices way up when the word Wedding is involved. Which makes sense since weddings typically don’t have a lot of room for errors.
It varies a LOT regionally.
Look for a venue in Maryland, you know, with DC right there.
I have a friend who’s entire wedding was the same price as a venue in Maryland.
We got married in DC and saved so much money on locations. We booked the Jefferson memorial 6 months in advance for like $50 (saved a couple thousand), and a boathouse on the Potomac for $800 (saved 8-20 grand) because we knew someone - wedding still cost like 33k. We were so cognizant of cost too - no flowers at all, DJ instead of a band, bought our own booze, etc.
I think people don’t realize how much more expensive cities are, and also do a terrible job accounting for all the true costs of things. Food was obviously the bulk of it and other big things like booze, rings… But I kept impeccable records, and what really added up was the little $100 here, $300 there things. Hotel and plane tickets for destitute father-in-law, all the meals at restaurants you’re taste testing to see if you wanna have the rehearsal dinner there, tips, food while the bridal party is getting ready, gifts for bridal party, the officiant, etc etc.
I wouldn’t trade it for the money back because I’m notoriously cheap, so I pinched and saved and was super proud of our wedding’s price to quality ratio, but I’d be lying if I said the final tally wasn’t super painful and didn’t delay our house a bit. It worked out in the end, though. Thanks interest rates!
Yeah, people definitely don’t understand that you can cut so much and bargain hunt the whole thing and still spend 15-20k. That’s a"cheap" wedding. The average in my area is 33k. That’s not because people are just spending frivolously and don’t budget, that’s because every single aspect of a wedding is expensive. Hell, tipping out the bar staff and photographer alone is expensive.
Skip it if you want, but even as a very frugal person, I’m very happy we had a huge party with lots of food and an open bar. It’s worth it to spend money on life rites. Life rites are like half the point of being human!
If you don’t care about celebrating with friends and family, don’t spend the money, but for us sharing the day with the people we love and merging our families was important.
We got out cheap at about $25… we had a smaller (100 person) wedding, went budget on the food, had a DJ, cake, etc. (basically just what the OP said), and we were still hand crafting stuff to reduce the cost. Shit is fucking expensive.
$25 is cheap, imagine one that costs a whole fifty dollars /s
Spent less than 1k, no real honeymoon…but we bought our first house with the money we saved. 0 regrets.
This. This right here.
Couple goals.
I laugh when I hear some couple spent $20k on their wedding but can’t buy a house. Dude, that could have been your down payment wtf.
I mean…yes and no. A down payment for a single family home in today’s market is many orders of magnitude more expensive than $20k. But I agree that weddings are too expensive. Just have a small party and use that money elsewhere.
Don’t take a loan either.
A friend of mine donned his nicest clothes and went down to the courthouse with his fiance and a couple of witnesses. I mentioned this to my sister, and she mentioned that in retrospect, she wished she’d done something similar when she got married.
Did the same, then went out for a nice meal, weddings are a complete waste of money.
Our wedding was under 5k, excluding dress and suit. Immediate family and close friends only, less than 40 people. Major expenses were the photographer, food and booze. We rented a cheap, small place in the countryside, we planned and did everything else ourselves, having a kanban board in the kitchen for a year was fun! My wife even did the cakes herself because she’s an amazing amateur pastry chef. No DJ, but I spent months on and off curating a playlist with a good flow and steadily increasing intensity.
It was the perfect wedding. Huge amount of work but 100% worth it.
Here’s my pro tip.
You want a unique picturesque wedding on a budget?
National Parks in the US. If you keep your guest list under 50 people, you can get married anywhere in the park, provided you don’t block access, put up decorations, or damage the park, and it’s free! If you have more than 50 people, you need a permit, and those are raffled off per day, and almost no one uses them.
I got married on the bluffs overlooking Little Hunter’s Beach in Acadia National Park. The drive, food, and lodging for my wedding there cost less than the first payment for the venue of my “local” ceremony in my home city, which we ended up canceling anyway.
If you do get a permit, are you allowed to put up decorations?
I think that depends on the location. Parks may have their own specific rules.
We had our wedding at our house in the backyard, no DJ, a discounted cake from my wife’s work (a bakery), catering from a BBQ place. Still ended up costing just about 2k, after food, flowers, and rented tables and chairs.
We spent less than 10k on our wedding and only invited close family. Did most of it ourselves. It was the best day ever!
My brother’s father-in-law had offered to pay up to $15,000 for his daughter’s wedding. He gave them the option of taking it all in cash and then getting a courthouse wedding so they could have a nest egg to grow, or spend it all on the wedding of his fiancée’s dreams, or anywhere in between.
She opted to spend it all on the wedding. 😒 My gawd did that piss me off.
My wife and I spent $350 altogether for the paperwork and an officiant. We eloped beneath a tree in a park with her family present, and afterward I returned my dress shirt to Walmart for a refund. I will never regret how low-class that was.
We’ve been married now for ten years.
Mine cost $150. $70 for the license and $80 for the JP to do their thing.
I’m sure JP stands for something reasonable, and that makes sense, but my mind struggles against itself, and all I can imagine is it stands for “Japanese” and also my brain things “Jurassic Park”.
So even though I’m 100% confident that this DIDN’T happen, I’m just imagining your wedding, with people sitting down, waiting for the bride to walk the isle…meanwhile, over by the other side of the room are bunch of Japanese cosplayers all recreating scenes from Jurassic Park. Complete with inflatable dinosaurs and .wav files of dinosaur sounds.
All the while your guest list is like “WTF is even happening over there???”
I’m sorry. I don’t know what ACTUALLY happened at your wedding, but it would have been a HUGE upgrade if you had dinosaur fights, and Japanese cosplayers.
I’m in agreement except for the wedding planner. Whether they help with the planning from day one or are just the day-of coordinator, a good wedding planner is worth their weight in gold. I’d rather plug an old mp3 player into a portable speaker and skip the DJ before I recommend skipping out on the planner.
Oh, by DJ, yeah, thats all he’d be doing is controlling the winamp playlist basically.
And a wedding planner I don’t see as being needed.
Step 1) rent local venue.
Step 2) ask cousin to be DJ.
Step 3) pick up cake from dairy queen.
Step 4) Flowers??? I’m sure the florist can figure something out.
Thats about it.
eh, as a photographer that works weddings, any wedding without a planner is hell for me. i might actually just say no if that’s the case.
if you hire people to work it you should have a person who can be their go to while you are getting married.
if you go for an event like you describe people will be unhappy at the lack of food and leave after not long. if that’s what you want, good for you. go for it. if you want people to stick around and have a good time, you need to feed them. that’s expensive, even if you somehow make it all yourself with food from the farmers market, it’s still going to be over a thousand dollars for most people. again, unless you only invite like five people, but most people care about more than 5 people. throwing a big party of any kind isn’t cheap unless you throw a terrible party.
you don’t have to have a traditional wedding at all though. my sister got married during COVID in her backyard on video call. it was lovely. a big beautiful wedding with lots of people is also lovely and uniquely fun. just don’t let you relatives pressure you into things you don’t want. there’s where it always goes wrong.
The first round of tools for any hobby or DIY project.
If you don’t know what you want from a screwdriver, snips, circular saw etc. then there is no point in buying the super primo bells & whistles expensive stuff.
Once you’ve used a tool and learned what you don’t like about it, or what you actually use it for, or how often you actually use it… Then you can make the informed decision to just buy another cheap one, or splash out on something that’s actually fun to use.Buy the 2nd last tool you will ever need.
There are rare occasions where “buy once cry once” apply. But it’s rare
My attitude has become to buy high-end tools because even if I don’t use them again, I got the best possible experience when I did to decide whether it was worth it, and chances are I can resell it (keeping the box and all accessories) for barely enough discount to have rented some piece of shit that I couldn’t choose to keep if I wanted to.
And bad tools make bad products. A tablesaw that can’t cut a straight line and starts to wobble after 10 uses doesn’t make you want to keep doing that. When I’ve replaced a bad tool with a good one, I like the feeling I get when it just works properly.
I’ve bought enough cheap-shit tools over the years to change my attitude entirely on this. I’ve gotten lucky sometimes, but usually you pay for what you get.
Power tools are sometimes the exception to the rule of buying cheap tools. Saws are probably the biggest exception. My cheap corded ryobi saw is awful because it’s so flimsy, and the deck bends. The makita saw I replaced it with is 100x easier to use, more accurate, and safer.
Buying cheap tools applies to hand tools, air tools, hydraulic stuff, etc.
Yeah I got a cheap Harbor Freight jigsaw and I hate it. Cut line indicator is useless, blade slips out of the roller guide so the cut doesnt stay square or straight, the keyless clamp is so inflexible I’d rather just have the classic screw-tight mechanism…
I put it away and used a circular saw, coping saw, and japanese pull saw to finish the project rather than keep fighting with it.
I like this approach, it reduces waste significantly.
I call it the Harbor Freight rule - If I need to buy a tool for the first time, I buy the cheapass Harbor Freight version. If I then use the cheapass version enough to kill it (or make me wish I was dead instead), then I spring for the expensive version.
“Buy once cry once” seems to apply very well to wire cutters. (Link is to a YouTube video about how terrible most wire cutters actually are)
Generally, medications. It’s pretty rare you have some sort of specific metabolic issue which calls for the branded version; the generic is usually just as good. I have a note in my medical records to NOT give me the branded version of my meds because there’s something in the expensive ones that gives me horrific reflux, while the others don’t.
My default is to buy the grocery store’s house brand unless I can tell the difference.
A 26 ounce can of Morton’s iodized salt at my local grocery store costs $2.19. The Food Lion brand costs $0.79. Explain to me why I would pay more than twice the price for name brand salt?
Especially in goods where I know the complete chemical formula of the product like salt and sugar, until I encounter a serious problem with quality or unethical sourcing I’m not going to pay for the brand name.
This is especially true with generic medicines.
The cheapest I can get Claritin in my nearest supermarket is 50¢—$1.12/pill.
The store brand can be as low as 7¢—37¢/pill.)
The CostCo version is 2 or 3¢/pill.
All of them are the same. 10mg of loratadine, highly regulated by the FDA.
They can differ with inactive ingredients, so maybe you’d like a syrup or something from a name brand. But it legally has to be the same active ingredients, in the same amounts, in the same forms.
For salt, you can just get a 50lb bag of de-icing salt for $8, and be set for life.
Jokes, but there is a bit of a difference in crystal shape which matters. A teaspoon of fine salt can be almost twice as much by weight as coarse salt, and flaky salt is different again. But I just use kilo bags of cooking salt (medium coarseness) in cooking, and delicate flaky salt for finishing and for things that dont get cooked, like salad, icecream and raw fish.
Tbh about everything. Most of retail is just an industrial scale of the addage “a fool and his money will soon be parted”.
Buy second hand, its fine. You probally can figure it out yourself, try to diy. Look at what people are actually doing not the brand of tool they are doing it with. Its a saw, you saw with it, you can get away with sawing a lot of stuff with the same cheap saw.
Soaps are just collections of chemicals, powerwash for example is just dish soap plus water and isopropal alcohol.
You can probably cook it at home. It will probably be better and better for you, because a pound of lard or cup or sugar looks like the red flag it is when you go to cook with it.
Your bed might be better on the floor, then on a frame.
You are probably better off walking or biking then driving.
You probably don’t need to watch more shows anyways so why get fleeced to subscriptions. You probably don’t need to play games as much so you can pass on that game. You probally don’t need to go out for a drink. You probally don’t need to go out for a meal. Etc etc
Honestly, I’m a hypocritical ass saying some of this, but its true. The urge to go spend spend spend, isn’t a fluke its just successful sociol engineering to separate us fools from our money.
Fancy bedframes are overrated, but having a mattress on the floor is not great. It needs to breathe from the bottom. You can get or build a very cheap and functional frame, but i would advise against having your bed on the floor for a long time.
I air out my mattress when I wash my sheets (leaving it uncovered for that day) and push it vertical on the wall (like a Murphy bed).
I know I’m saying don’t buy anything, but I have always gotten those terry cloth textured water proof covers for my matteress too. Getting fluids out of mattress is just a losing battle
Ok. I guees you live somewhere, where there it is cool at night. Waterproof sheets would mean waking up in a pool in the morning here. :))
It has a terry top and then I have additional sheets on top of that to help wick, plus celing fan. But yeah still have sweat issue 😅
I think a $60 metal frame for a mattress is usually a good idea, you can store stuff underneath
Have less stuff :p need less storage, but honestly this is the best reason I’ve heard
Not much space when you like electronics but live in a studio. I’ve got pots and pans, cleaning supplies, electronics and might even be able to fit in a couple of HP workstations for home servers down there. People underestimate how much space networking and compute takes haha
Compute space heater setup right under the bed might not be a bad idea during the winter
I will also add one thing. It does depend on how much money you have . In modern world what you realy pay for is convinience. So if you dont want to make soap( im going with this example beacuse it arguably the most extreme ) because its cheap and not worth your time than buy it but if you live in a 3rd world country and need to save every penny than go for it. Likewise there is no need for you to cheap out on some subscription if you have steady income and milions of $ in the bank account
But why do we really need convenience, right? I agree there is a real argument for outsourcing labor to a more specialized group, but honestly a lot of the time we trying to save hours or minutes so we can spend more time and money consuming some bs to fight our boredom.
Not sure if this counts as cheaping out, but wait a year or so before buying computer games, when the price drops by 50% or more. Some never seem to price drop and others get really cheap right before the sequel comes out.
Patient gamers for the win!
Unpopular opinion but wine.
From my experience majority of people can’t distinguish between 5€ wine and 500€ wine. And even if they do, they say it tastes “a bit better”, not worth the 495€ difference. Pick one that tastes good to you and don’t be ashamed if it’s cheap.
I will disagree with a caveat. Basically yes there is a difference between wines, and it’s not BS.
There is a world of a difference between a $5 and a $500 wine. But there isn’t a world of a difference between a $5 and a $30 wine, nor is there a world of difference between a $500 and a $1000. It’s about a class structure of the product as with so many things. There’s cheap and simple and there’s more sophisticated and expensive. But once you’re comparing within the same class, it’s really just a matter of varying subtleties. There’s certain distinctions that are absolutely distinguishable such as dry, sweet etc. and there are undertones. This stuff is absolutely real so if someone says it’s all nonsense that someone has not really had the experience needed to make that kind of judgment.
I drink between $5 and $500 bottles, and while I will agree there is a distinct difference at the higher end, it doesn’t mean the $500 bottle will be better than a $20 bottle to the person drinking it. I humor the people that care about the price, but distinct notes of so-so music doesn’t spin my wheels.
Yeah, no it’s all a question of the person’s relationship with wine, as with other things. If you are perfectly fine with a cheap wine then yeah, plenty of them are delicious. But a connoisseur can and will appreciate what a $500 wine offers them, and it’s not qualities you can find in any $5 bottle.
Like with many things, if you appreciate the higher-end selections among them, then you’re getting something you can’t at the low end. The question is, even with those qualities, is it really worth $500? And that’s just a matter of economics.
When my son was born I got a $100 bottle of Glenlivet 18 year French Oak Finish. That’s a rather sophisticated single malt; by no means is it the best because I know people who have bourbon or scotch that costs like 5x that. However, you will not anywhere or anytime find a cheap scotch that even comes close to that Glenlivet. It was some of the smoothest and most delicious single malt I’ve ever had. Lasted me nearly a year.
Sigh. Due to a medical condition I don’t consume alcohol anymore, and haven’t for a long time. But goddamn do I miss good scotch, bourbon, beer… sigh.
Oh god, right there with you on scotch, all whiskeys (and whiskys) in fact. But wine can be hit or miss, even at the high dollars. Years ago I found an amazing cabernet with a full body and heavy chocolate notes for $2.12, and dank it for a year. But I agree that as you get up to $20-100, the likelihood of something terrible is less, and over $90 very rare.
I’ll have a glass of something with Glen in the title in your honor tonight.
If you’re reading this and curious about wine, a couple of things.
1 - Drink what you like. If you want red wine with fish, fine. The people who care, care more about rules than enjoyment.
2 - Drink what you like. I opened a $500 red for my dad’s birthday, it was so-so to my palate. I love $12 NW pinot noirs. Don’t fixate on a price.
3 - When you find something you like, take the bottle to a wine store and ask for a description of the notes of that wine. Ask them to suggest similar wines, and learn to pick out the notes that matter to you. People who don’t know wine talk price, but your sommelier really wants to hear “I’d like something full-bodied, no acid, heavy tannins, smooth finish with some fruit notes.”
4 - Your waiter is rarely a sommelier and just wants a region and type of wine. West Coast pinot noir generally makes a table happy.
Awesome.
I agree about the wine; I was just going on like the broadest scenarios because of course when it comes down to it, there’s nothing objective about it. And I agree with the pairing if I see someone bring up the issue of this wine with that protein I take pity on someone who is so stuck to these absurd notions they don’t know what enjoyment actually is.
Hah, it turned out it was 15 year Glenfiddich 25 years ago. So Cheers!
👍🥂
I’m not much of wine drinker myself, but I once did a chef menu with the wine pairing. Every two dishes, they’d bring out a new glass of wine. It was kind blowing how the would taste one way with the first dish and a completely different way with the second dish. I’m not sure I can tell the difference between a $12 bottle and $40 bottle, but in that one meal i understood two things: first, if you know what your doing, wine and food pairings can be magical and, second, I don’t know what I’m doing.
I highly disagree. I always walk in and say. “Vitner! Your finest box of wine, on the double”
I somewhat disagree, 5€ is too low to get a decent wine imo. Buy a wine for 10-15€ and there is no longer any difference from the 500€ one.
The last point however is the key, and I agree wholeheartedly. If you can find one for 5€ then that is good enough
Seems something like [Proportion of People OK w/the Wine] - [Price] might be:
50% - $5
75% - $10
90% - $20
95% - $30
99% - $50I made all of this up. Who actually drinks wine? Did I come close to your made-up numbers?
Also assume some of the highest-rated wines at each price point for consumers who appreciate that style in general.
Canadian wine would like to have a word 🤭
There have been so many studies showing that everyone from average joes to top-tier judges can’t tell the difference between cheap and expensive wines.
Depending on the country, and where you shop. You should spend more if you can tell the difference, but not more than that.
On the expensive end you are paying for the famous canteen+region, and if you go to a wine shop you could find something from a less known vineyard that is as good for less.
Wine is a huge scam.
Sommeliers are just salespeople making shit up.
It’s bullshit, you don’t detect notes of 15 different things all mixed together.
Over the counter medications. Store brand ibuprofen, allergy meds, cold medicine, etc. Sometimes as much as 1/7th the price, just make sure the active ingredients match amounts and you’re set.
The problem with store brand medications is they often will have the same active ingredient, but then will have a cheaper or less-effective catalyst used. This generally causes them to be less effective. At least this is what I was taught years ago. I’ve definitely noticed a difference in cold/sinus meds. Generic does not compare to brand name Sudafed.
Decongestants are a weird one. Pseudoephedrine is available but is behind the pharmacy counter where most people don’t realize they can get it. Pretty much every other nasal decongestant has been replaced by phenylephrine which is extremely ineffective. Both the generic cold/sinus meds and sudafed PE will be most likely be phenylephrine, and you might as well not waste your money at that point. Actual pseudoephedrine (sudafed or a generic if they make it) will help.
Reminder, I am not a doctor, pharmacist, or healthcare worker. I’m just a rando on the internet who has heard a lot about this.
Meth heads ruined pseudoephedrine. The last thing I want to do when there’s a compressor filling my sinuses with 300psi of pain is wait in the pharmacy line, show 3 forms of ID, and get questioned about why I need medicine.
Look at me. If I were to start crying from the pressure in my head, the tears would shoot forward 20ft…
That’s very true and I’d argue more an issue of our regulation (or lack thereof) of both drugs and medication.
Most of the time, yes. Though certain cough medicines have been apparently using benzene in them, which is insane. (Cheaper to produce)
You can look for carbomers in the inactive ingredients list, but they don’t have to put that info in if they don’t want, which is insane to me. We need regulations that ban carcinogens like benzene being used for the manufacturing of drugs.
New cars. After a car has been owned by one owner, for however short a period of time, it dramatically reduces its price. At least in the UK.
Yeah, I’m in the process of buying a new (to me), and I seriously question the value of a factory-fresh car. I’ve concluded that a car that is 2-5 years old is a much better purchase.
Cars lose like half their value as soon as they leave the lot. Buying brand new cars is always losing move.
Yup. The only benefit I see in a brand new factory fresh model is that it might have a feature that you want, not found on older models.
Also, there’s the warranty, but some dealerships does a basic overhaul and might offer a warranty as if the car was new for added value.I agree and follow the same mantra, BUT, our last car was brand new. This because we needed a car with decent range as a family car and the options were more than limited 4 years ago. There were virtually no cheap used EV’s with 400+ km range. Today this is a different story obviously.
Our second car was used.
Not ever buying new again unless I experience yet another change in fuel…
Yeah. I took my second-hand car to an authorised dealer and they offered to extend my warranty from 3 to 10 years. For money of course but it wasn’t ridiculously expensive, and had no excess.
In a place with frequent floods, I advice you to to do your car history check.
Same is true for the US. Sound advice.
If you don’t care for prestige, Opel or Vauxhall is a good bet in its premium segment. The Opel Insignia drops almost 50% in the first year and is actually a pretty good car.
Don’t buy one with the Stellantis 1.2 PureTech engine with a wet belt. The belt will disintegrate too quickly.
Video games. Unless it’s a game I play with friends I typically wait for it to drop in price significantly.
Yup. My strategy has long been:
- Put game in wishlist.
- Wait for it to drop to under 20$ (or close)
- Profit. Well maybe not profit, but save money.
Also, if you’re not going to play it this week, think twice! And, if you’re not going to play it this month, think a third time!
Also good to wait until all the bugs are worked out. Been playing Cyberpunk recently and it performs really well!
Waits and waits but Nintendo won’t budge.
Nintendo’s stuff is free on day 1, or a few years after release if it’s their Wii U stuff. I think the first Wii took a year before the Twilight Hack happened.
Let’s hope they fuck up again on the Switch 2!
If you’re not a contractor, power tools. Buy the harbor freight version first when you need it. If you end up using it enough to break it, then you get a quality one.
I have never broken a 10 mm wrench, but I have lost a few. So I bought a ten pack on Amazon.
nice, you’re good for 6 months
So long as he doesn’t try to use them!
It’s always the 10!
I keep one in my center console, my keychain, and random cheapies mixed in around loose tools, on top of whatever is part of the sets. Periodically we’ll still have a hard time finding one when its needed and have to replenish.
Are they hanging out with the lost socks?
Sorry, but this only applies to drills and sanding machines. Maybe a bench grinder also you can cheap out on. Hand tools are fine to cheap out on also.
Circular saw, table saws, miter saws, angle grinders, etc…
Any spinning blade, if you cheap out, don’t be surprised if you get life-alteringly injured when you “use it enough to break it”. I was just helping some friends renovate where they had a dirt cheap miter saw and it was just about the most dangerous experience of my life.
If you are doing any big renovations, at least get makita, Milwaukee, or dewalt. You can get a TON of cheaper stuff second hand. Quality at a lower price. I got a professional older model hilti hammer drill at a tiny fraction of the price.
It really depends anymore…it can be a tough call.
I grew up using only quality tools, because cheap tools were truly shit until perhaps the 90’s, at the earliest.
HF tools used to be utter shit, but their “branded” tools are good these days. The wrenches and sockets are as good a Craftsman used to be, and equal to the store brands from Home Depot and Lowes. And overpriced Matco/Snap On can kiss my ass. I have some of their tools, they’re nice, but not worth the price.
Their branded cordless tools are good too. One thing they do differently is put the battery controller in the tool, while Milwaukee puts one in the battery. So don’t do anything foolish with the battery.
I don’t think they’re as durable as Milwaukee, the plastic seems harder, so more prone to cracking. And the warranty isn’t very long.
But with the massive cost difference, it’s a good place to start.
But exactly, that is the difference between a drill and spinning sharp metal at high speeds.
If a drill breaks, it isn’t going to send shards of metal-cutting fiber disc 20 meters per second at your face.
If a saw sucks ass like the one I used a few days ago, you can’t safely cut through wood and you end up doing dangerous things like putting your body weight on the top of the miter saw to get it down all the way, gripping the piece closer to the blade to try to get it to cut better with less tear out or to not slip, etc… which can easily lead to a finger being cut off. It is MUCH more expensive in the US especially to have to deal with a dismembered finger than the cost difference between a chinese amazon $100 miter saw and $200 entry level 10 inch dewalt.
There are a ton of people who can’t afford that. That is fine. Then spend $100 on good quality assorted hand saws. a $40 japanese pull saw, $30 for a Spear & Jackson hand saw, $40 for a pair of bacco chisels, and an angle cut box and you can do a lot more than that $100 miter saw much more safely at the cost of it being at half the speed.
If a saw sucks ass like the one I used a few days ago, you can’t safely cut through wood and you end up doing dangerous things like putting your body weight on the top of the miter saw to get it down all the way, gripping the piece closer to the blade to try to get it to cut better with less tear out or to not slip, etc…
There is a big difference between cheaping out on blades/never replacing them and cheaping out on the saw itself. I agree I wouldn’t get the absolute cheapest miter saw, but a relatively cheap one with good blades that are replaced often shouldn’t be significantly more dangerous than a more expensive one.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Prioritize quality on the sharp things. Works the same way with kitchen knives, not that you have to buy something expensive, but you should always keep it sharp. A sharp knife is dangerous, but a dull knife is dangerous and less predictable.
That is something I would disagree with. Especially when it comes to battery powered tools which seems to be everything nowadays.
If you go with one of the big brands you are almost guaranteed to get a spare part later. If you only use your drill once a year, the battery might be dead in a few years if you don’t take care of it. Of course your battery might cost the same as a no name drill, but that is still a fair point IMO.
Now that you have a drill maybe you need a saw later. If you went with a big brand they typically have a large range of devices that work with the same batteries. So you can reuse your battery from the drill and also don’t need another charger for that single device. This is also not limited to tools only. Maybe you need a light or a battery powered radio for something totally unrelated.
People are gonna pillory me for this, but flashlights.
First off, you want something that runs off two AAAs, regardless of price. If you can’t walk into any gas station, or any grocery store, or what have you, and buy batteries for your flashlight when it dies, it’s not gonna matter how bright it was before it died. You also don’t want anything brighter than ~200 lumens at the very most, unless you actually need one brighter, for some reason; they drain batteries way faster. You want something thin enough that you’re able to clip it inside your pocket and forget it’s there. You also want one that has an end switch that toggles between two modes: “full power” and “turned off.” If you have one that toggles between low and high settings, you will only use the high setting. If you have one that toggles between low and high settings, and strobe and SoS, you will only use the high setting. Every additional step in between “all the way off” and “all the way on” is just friction you don’t need, that will do nothing but piss you off every time you use the damned thing.
The features that make big, fancy flashlights expensive, are anti-features.
Down vote for AAA, the one battery size nobody ever seems to have laying around.
I use rechargeable flashlights. Hell, I use rechargeable everything. I’m not sure when I last bought AA or AAA batteries for anything.
I read this entire thread thinking we were talking about fleshlights and not flashlights.
For outdoor survival stuff (like my avalanche beacon) they say you should only use the disposable ones. It’s probably got to do with cold tolerance or lifetime.
For Avalanche beacons you’re supposed to replace the battery after it gets below 95% charge.
I’d say it depends. For safety-critical stuff maybe, but for a headlamp or something I prefer rechargeable as I can easily recharge it from a power bank or a portable solar panel if needed. If you run out of a disposable battery for whatever reason, you’re screwed.
AAA’s seem really common in my neck of the woods.
I got a Coast headlamp a couple years back that has a rechargeable battery pack, but can also take regular AAA’s, which is a handy feature if I happen to need an immediate recharge.
Do you have to replace things with broken, End of Life or dying cells often?
I notices a lot of things falling into planned obsolesence because “it’s rechargable” and you can’t replace the battery.
…
My flashlights use replaceable chargeables. I want to say “16550” but I’m not sure of the numbers. They’re larger than AAs, longer than Cs but not quite as thick.
Close, it’s 18650 cells which are super common. Even stuff like laptop and EV batteries may be composed of them.
Fun fact, the numbers indicate the physical size - 18mm diameter 65.0mm length. The same applies to those button cell batteries - CR2032 is 20mm diameter by 3.2mm thickness.
Right. 18650! Thanks!
And TIL what the numbers mean. Cool!
You can almost always replace the battery, even when the manufacturer doesn’t want you to. As for flashlights, they typically come with easily user-replaceable ones, often even sold separately. Worst-case, you can get a AA or AAA flashlight and use rechargeable AA/AAAs.
I’ve paid quite a lot for my second headlamp for hiking, but I am really happy with the purchase as it’s very light (35 g) compared to my first cheapo one (~120 g), while being the same 200 lm max. It doesn’t sound like much, but it’s enough for me to not even notice it, while the heavy one was getting annoying after a while.
Most people are being very specific, but I’d say consumables in general. Rarely is a name brand food or medicine any different than generic. Often they’re literally produced in the same factory. Stuff that’s meant to last, generally a more expensive product will be made more durable (not always), but this isn’t a consideration with consumables. If it’s a one-time use or edible, I’m going with the cheapest option 99% of the time.
It’s funny how people won’t cheap out on something like a mattress or clothing but consistently buy the cheapest food possible which is going into their bodies.
I agree with eating healthy, but if you’re buying cheese-it’s, as an example, the generic brand is equally bad for you as the name brand. You should still try to make healthy choices, but name brand doesn’t make anything healthy.
I think it’s funny you used cheeseits as your example because that’s one of the few things I won’t buy generic of because they’re just different. Little cookies, crackers, chips, and chocolates are usually brand specific in taste (though don’t assume you prefer the name brand, you may prefer the generic!) so they’re not fungible. I’d rather skip the calories than have generic cheeseits or Doritos.
You spend at least or about a third of your life on a mattress. That shit’s important.
And most people eat food at least 2 times a day.
Yeah, but you don’t eat the same meal every single day, and you don’t purchase several years worth of food all at the same time.
I agree except for condiments. They’re cheap enough already compared to how long they last that I think it’s worth springing for the good stuff. Duke’s Mayo, Grey Poupon mustard, Cholula hot sauce, Ken’s Steakhouse salad dressings, etc. If a bottle lasts you six months, what difference does a few dollars make?
For staples like flour, bread, canned products, OTC meds, who cares. I’ll go as cheap as possible.
You’re calling Ken’s good?
My friend once wrote a letter to them about how bad their blue cheese dressing is. In return they gave him a voucher for a lifetime supply of it. That shit is disgusting, IMO.
That’s a “lol eat shit” response if I ever saw one.
Their blue cheese is terrible, but some of their dressing varieties are quite good IMO. I consider their Lite Caesar and “Simply” Greek some of the best off the shelf brands. Come to think of it, I don’t know of any blue cheese that isn’t from the refrigerated section that is worth eating.
T-shirts. Get a 5 pack each of white, black, and another color you like. There, you’re set for like a year for $30.
Pfft look at mr moneybags here with his 5 shirts. Just wear one shirt for 6 months, turn it inside out and wear it for another 6 months, then wash.
I can smell you through the comment, if that somehow is a thing
Just a year??? How do you burn through shirts that fast?
I have some from like 8 years ago and they still hold up to today.
I have 2 types of shirts-- shirts for when I go out, and shirts for when I’m at home or mostly at home. I like the former to stay completely clean, and I like the latter to be comprised of 1+ year old t-shirts that can get dirty/stained without worry.
I tried amazon basics for the frist time and I must say, the quality for price ratio is amazing (sorry). Not sure abt sustainability though …
Fruit of the Loom makes nice t-shirts too. Wore them as a kid and now as an adult.
Cell phones and plans. Any phone is good enough for regular use these days. And any carrier uses the towers of all the other carriers, it’s not like the old days where there was CDMA vs GSM.
The most expensive and cheapest phones are not worth it. Anything in between is good enough. For me at least prepaid phone plans are better than contract plans.
Can find great deals for 2yo second hand high tier phones
There is at least ONE exception in the US: Firstnet. They primarily use AT&T’s towers, but they have some additional resources that other carriers don’t have - they have additional towers and entire network bands that other carriers don’t have access to. This allows us to still have coverage in natural disasters or network congestion times. In addition, if there’s a natural disaster that knocks out coverage, they have satellite-based trucks that stage DURING the disaster, then come online as soon as it’s over.
A few years ago, I had to ride out hurricane Ida in New Orleans (long story). The western eyewall passed directly over the house we were in, and the primary trunk lines coming into the city got destroyed by a cable tower that collapsed into the Mississippi. The next morning I had cell phone coverage when none of the other carriers had come back online yet. We didn’t even have power, but my phone worked perfectly.
You have to be a first responder to join - you have to be added by your department’s communications coordinator.
Bell and Rogers actually don’t share their towers in Canada.
if with cell phones you mean the non-smart, dumb phones then I can agree. however if you buy the cheapest of smartphones, what you’ll get is even more datamining than usual, which you may be even unable go remove because it’s bootloader cannot be unlocked.
but I would say don’t cheap out on tech generally, because you’ll get extremely weak security and nonexistent respect towards you as a customer.smartphones is a dirty business. don’t support the bad actors with your many, and then long term with your data
Nah, cheap phones often have their bootloader unlocked/unlockable. Really happy with my POCO M5 running modified AOSP. Also, unlike every expensive phone nowadays, it has 3.5mm jack, SD card slot, and exceptional battery life for hiking/trekking (it survives 5-6 days as just a camera+map phone with all power saving on, in comparison people with flagships typically only last 2-3 days with the same usage and power-saving techniques).
I have a very low value lenovo tablet that my provider was giving away essentially for free (for worthless loyalty points I think). its BL cannot be unlocked, it has a special bootloader that does not implement the standard unlock commands.
Other than that, I have to admit I don’t often deal with cheap phones, because my experience was that not even LOS supports a lot them. Maybe that’s changed though.
Yes, that can happen sometimes, but I find that there are plenty of cheap options with unlocked bootloaders if you look for them.
I mean beside the fairphone and pixel with calyxos and graphenos or the librem 5 (and THATs a niche user that’ll like that one) the rest all seem equally malicious towords us users.
that’s true, but at least try to buy one that’s not extremely locked down, or unnecessarily convoluted to unlock. that instantly rules out all samsungs, for both of these reasons and for destroying phones when sent for repair to an official service
Redpocket is really cheap if you guys want some prepaid plans
