I bought cast iron pan which I think is the best ever purchase I made.
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A bidet. $30, attaches under your toilet seat. Life changing.
+1 for bidet; got mine after recommendation from a friend and since then my folks and son-in-law have also upgraded
Which model did you buy?
Good knives. Well worth it.
I bought a really nice Benchmade pocket knife. I like the way it opens Amazon packages
For anyone reading this, do not “get into” pocket knives. You’ll not know what to do with all the damn knives!
This and knife sharpening kit. I brought back two Farberware pieces of crap and use them more than my Wusthof chef’s knife now.
Are whetstone any good?
It is worth learning. A single two sided whetstone and some basic skill will give you sharp knives for the rest of your life.
Bonus, keep your cheap knives. They are typically a softer metal that will require maintenance more often so you can practice.
Also learn when you need to sharpen and when you need to hone. Your knife may be sharp but the edge is out of shape (folded, bent over). A few swipes of a hone and you could be back to 80-90% sharp.
At this point I use medium value knives and sharpen them once a year. I have no regrets regarding learning to sharpen with a whetstone. I also typically don’t sharpen beyond 1000 grit and it’s still enough for people to remark on how sharp the knives are.
Best of luck.
Instead of a hone you could make a strop. A 2”x10” bit of leather, buy a stick of stropping compound and you get to feel like an old timey barber.
That’s no longer true. A dishwasher safe trend took over, most cheap knives are extremely hard now. I’ve a nice old set of not quite stainless that sharpen very easily and the ten thousand grit polish stone I have actually does something. Most new knives I sharpen for people I don’t even go over 3000 because they are far too hard to take much effect. My personal favorites are old Wiltshire 70s wood handled inox cleavers and Opinel knives, those opinel especially turn into a razor incredibly easily.
If you know how to use it. If you do not know got to use it a kit that you just stick in the knife is going to be way better.
Or you can learn? It sounds like a skill worth learning
I wish I had more upvotes. Good knives make cooking easy and, more important, prevent injuries.
I bought some knife set that cost like 1000 dollars. It was an impulsive buy when I won an award at work.
Damn I learned expensive knives are worth every penny. I’ve had them twenty years. Normally I’d buy a knife and have to throw it away after a couple of years because they couldn’t be sharpened as they were cheap.
I cook every day and it makes it so much easier.
You can sharpen every knife. Better knifes stay sharper for longer, but they still need to be sharpened regularly. This also applies to ceramic knifes, which stay sharper even longer, but also need to be sharpened after a lot of use.
Oh I wasn’t aware you could sharpen ceramic knives. Does it require different tools to sharpen than steel knives?
Diamond dust grinder wheel. Hard to find.
Couldn’t agree more sharp knives don’t slip. Yet some people out there are purposely blunting kitchen knives.
People with glass cutting boards 🧐🤨
My house. Even though we have to pay taxes and mortgage interest, it beats paying rent to a landlord. Also, we bought it in 2020 and it has appreciated it value significantly since then. However, that appreciation is kind of fictitious to me, because if we sold the house it’s unlikely that we’d be able to buy a similar one in the same area for less. So, it’s just a nice house.
Yeah housing gains do nothing for you if you want to stay in the same area.
Theoretically you’ll have more equity so you can take out loans, but with high interest rates you’ll likely avoid that… and your property taxes will eventually go up since your home value has gone up.
Hate the fact that my house has gained so much.
At least property tax increases usually aren’t as bad as rent increases, at least in my experience.
My apparently controversial take is that flat property taxes should be abolished and the imputed rent of a given property should be progressively taxed as income instead.
And insurance goes up now that it would be more expensive to replace.
Whatever down payment you put into your house (+ whatever equity you build) appreciates at the rate of housing gains in your area. You protect that capital from devaluation due to inflation. Housing gains can do a hell of a lot for you if you want to trade up in your own neighborhood.
The best purchase I’ve made this year has to be the tickets for the “Barbie” movie on opening day July 21st. As I watched the movie in theater (the best way to watch a movie), I was literally moved to tears by the performance of the lead actress, whom I might add, deserves an Oscar this year.
Fellow lemmings, I, for one, will definitely be buying “Barbie” on Blu-ray to have it in my collection.
Multiple copies, in fact.
I truly enjoy seeing you pop up all over Lemmy, especially with posts and comments like these! Rose gold effort!
Aw shucks, thanks.
Wait, no, now my cover is blown. 😭
Oh my god I loved you in that science meme!
Not to brag or anything, but I’m pretty good at both science AND memes.
Lasik. Being able to wake up in the morning and just see things with zero effort was life changing.
I’ve gotta chime in here with an opposing viewpoint. I got all laser lasik and while it mostly corrected my myopia (went from -5 to -0.5 sph), it gave me really bad astigmatism, to the point where night driving is much more dangerous for me. Glasses were a pain in the ass but at least they made things crystal clear. Post surgery everything except bright sunlight now has an annoying halo. I’m 3 years post surgery btw, and went back under the laser twice to try to get it corrected.
That scares me. I also have family members who got it decades back and for the most part they all still have to use glasses.
I have ridiculously bad vision (-9.5 contact prescription) and bad astigmatism already, thankfully every optometrist ever has told me I’m a horrible candidate for it so I’ve never even had the possibility in my mind.
I just asked my eye doctor about this yesterday. She said LASIK would correct myopia for 10-15 years, then it’ll start coming back. She also said everyone loses up close eyesight about 45 so you’ll have to wear glasses or contacts anyway. Said it’s only worth it if you really want to see without putting on glasses.
It was shocking just how simple of a procedure it was when I got it. The actual surgery was under 3 minutes, the doctor joked about it he could complete it before a song finished at the start. Then my eyes were only recovering for like 36hrs if you don’t count eyedrops.
I had PRK operation, and I confirm. Best investment in my life.
I bought a rice cooker, and it easily earns it’s permanent space on the countertop. Having the ability to cook 5 (dry) cups of rice and have it stay warm for days is so convenient.
Warm for days? That’s a mold incubator …
I haven’t experienced any mold in mine. It’s a sealed unit (outside of it venting during cooking) and I’m no mycologist but I’m sure that mold spores wouldn’t be too appreciative of the cooking process.
So you just cook rice several days ahead and don’t open the cooker until then?
Some times, also left over rice can be put in the refrigerator and then used for fried rice. Sometimes I’ll just make as much as I need on that occasion. Either way it comes out perfectly every time.
Is it a Zojirushi?
It’s a Tiger.
African or European?
Asian, Japanese in particular. Osaka prefecture in even more particularity if their about us page is to be believed.
I think that was a joke question based off of the Monty Python skit lol
Wait what? It doesn’t dry out or go bad?
I’m guessing it’s a “keep warm” mode.
I’m paranoid about it going bad or attracting pests…or even just using energy unnecessarily. But apparently it’s not bad for any of those things!
Otp got it. I have some in it right now that I made two nights ago. Texture wise, if I press down on it, it slowly springs back up. If that gives you a good sense of how it’s holding up. & it’s a sealed unit water can’t escape once it’s done cooking (it vents steam during that process)
This is one I thoroughly do not understand, maybe because I have not tried it, but cooking rice is already so easy, why would i need a separare appliance for it?
I have one and it’s a little easier to prepare, keep warm, and clean. If you eat a lot of rice, it’s worth it.
Plug n play. No overcooked rice forever
I guess, overcooking is a measurement problem anyway tho.
I thought the same thing for 20+ years. A nice rice cooker is great though. Ours has a yumcarb setting that my wife likes, which has a separate basket with holes in it. Most of the starch leaks out of the rice and pools below it.
I have a tiny kitchen so I appreciate being able to conveniently cook rice in the corner of one countertop, especially when I’m cooking with two pans on the stove.
What brand and model? I’m curious to check it out.
I’ve got a tiger jbv-a10u. I’d imagine there’s some other good competition in this space too though.
An opposing viewpoint here, from a couple of rice snobs – I’ve spent 30+ years (my entire life) with a rice cooker so I’ve never questioned not owning one.
Ours broke (the gasket did, after 10 years), and the company that made it no longer exists (Sanyo), so we tried just cooking rice on the stovetop for a year before we bought a new one. It’s now been 2 years without a rice cooker, and we don’t plan on buying one of those fancy Korean ones I’ve been eyeing.
We found the rice tastes better (a bit of burning at the bottom adds flavour), and we don’t need another appliance taking up space. The only thing I miss is the keep warm functionality, but now we just freeze the leftover rice and microwave it (or make fried rice with it).
And now we have more counter and cupboard space to buy other gadgets, as we’re cooking enthusiasts.
For large amounts of rice we luckily have a pressure cooker.
Thanks. I’ll definitely try this.
Our air fryer. I thought it was all hype. I just didn’t know. It’s so convenient for so many things.
Along similar lines, our Instant Pot. So covenient for so many things. We cook rice in it, chili, stews, my dog’s food, stock, etc.
Our bidet. I cringe at how dirty my asshole used to be. It’s amazing.
Hell yeah. We got a ‘Ninja’ that is an air fryer and pressure cooker. We use it so much. We are also on team bidet. The worst thing about having a bidet is the feeling of disappointment you get whenever you take a shit somewhere else.
We’ve got a Ninja also. They’re great! I roast veggies in it, prep my meals for the week, all kinds of stuff.
We were on vacation for a week and very much missing our bidet.
Steam Deck - I know I’m not supposed to promote a specific product (change SD to a handheld gaming device if you must), but after my son was born, moved to a different country and changed jobs my life was rather hectic. I had no time to play videogames at all, which was my go-to method to unwind since I was a little kid. As an almost 40 years old responsible adult I can now still enjoy gaming in bite sized bursts, in bed, instead of scrolling through social media or watching mindless videos. The best thing is I can be next to my SO while she does something else I can work through my backlog.
Probably condoms.
One of my favorite purchases in terms of usefulness, cost, and fun (relative) was these frigging ceiling fan pull chains. I saw them on some “things you didn’t know you needed” list or something. But for less than $10, they have made my life infinitely easier and they do give me a little joy every time I pull on them.
Because they’re labelled?
Right. I never pull the wrong one anymore because fan=fan and light=light. I know it’s a stupid minor thing, but it’s great.
Custom molded earplugs. As a musician and photographer who shoots bands, I can’t imagine NOT having them.
That is some complex assassination backstory you have there. What do you even have against music?
Nothing, he’s a musician. He’s just got to free up some space in the spotlight for himself
Music nothing most likely.
Not wanting to have massive tinnitus. Most likely the reason. Protect the ears.
Good musician’s earplugs will make everything quieter so as not to damage your ears, but you can still hear and enjoy the music. Industrial type ones are more powerful and block out as much as possible
Edit: I finally understood the joke
My synology NAS. It’s great being able to have a central place for all my files that’s platform agnostic.
If you got one with a decent CPU it’s also quite the little workhorse of a home server via its apps and Docker.
Mine is quite old now but has always been slow a molasses. Maybe I should upgrade.
I went from 212j to 920+ and it’s night and day in terms of what it can do. It was also $400 more so there is that.
It has been a fun hobby to nerd out learning Docker, networking magic, VPNs, and such. It may tun into full-blown Linux on a PC at some point.
If you go the full Linux desktop route, I recommend installing a hypervisor like proxmox to make it easy to spin up and manage VM’s and containers off the bare metal.
A lot more work to setup than a NAS like Synology, but having some more control over the setup and tailoring it to your needs makes it worth it imo.
Thanks for the tip, i didn’t actually 100% understand what proxmox was until you said that it is a hypervisor.
I have a NUC that I accidentally stole from my last job that may become my hobby PC. I will probably try a distro on bare metal to get my feet wet but then take it to there. Or maybe a USB distro to start? I haven’t put much thought into it yet.
Yeah, just try some stuff, then wipe it and try something else. Do that until you have an idea of what you want to try more of.
I have a Synology NAS too but YSK they’re an absolute shit company who only does well because they’re the only game in town. They used to be great but they’ve started doing some questionable things in recent years with “official” drives and their customer service is SO bad.
Also, they’re closed source.
They aren’t the only game, there is also QNAP, I’ve had several of them.
Spec-wise QNAP has always at least had parity but where they sucked was customer service. That’s why I didn’t even mention them.
Never needed aupport, I just spin them up, create the disk groups and shares, setup the offsite backup and they do their thing.
My house. I am constantly stressed now, but it’s something I can work on, improve, and builds equity.
The medicine cabinet in my bathroom. I know it sounds stupid, but of all the improvements in my house I’ve made in the last year, this one has had the most impact. It looks great and gives me tons more storage. And since I use it every single day, I can appreciate it every single day.
Yeah, my girlfriend and I were telling people, it’s great. We can just put holes in walls and no one can stop us. We don’t have to stress about a deposit or anything like that. It’s so freeing.
Thrift store cast iron pan for $2
Craigslist 2001 honda cr-v 4wd for $3100
Craigslist specialized s-works road bike for $150
My first house in 2019 for $400k, with a loan for $280k at 4% (refinanced later to 2.8%)
Harbor freight car ramps for $30 so I can do oil changes and stuff
Specialized S-Works bike for $150? Dude, that thing definitely has to have been stolen. They retail for like $4-15K.
I live in a town with tons of pro bikers, you can buy used Quintana Roo tri bikes here for less than $700, that’s my next purchase. They cost 10k+ new. Sponsored athletes get the bikes for nothing, then basically give them away when they upgrade every year.
The specialized was a 5 year old bike, ridden in two races (she trained on a different bike!) then it sat in a garage. So I got it for nothing. It was aluminum not carbon, so I guess people weren’t super excited about it, and it’s a model before they switched to disc brakes and electronic shifters. I swapped all the components to a Chinese carbon frame from aliexpress, it’s my comp bike now lol I’m not sponsored.
stand mixer. i make bread like no ones business. and a warm coat (i bought one at a hardware store lol) and nice warm boots.
