It's almost always better to not buy a cheap sex toy. There's no regulation of the industry and many materials in cheaper toys are just straight up dangerous. Here's an article (it's NSFW, there are pictures) that goes over what materials are and aren't safe.
For the unaware: A patient wore a buttplug into an MRI, because it was marketed as 100% silicone. It had a metal core. It was rocketed up into their abdomen. The patient survived with serious injuries.
My first toy was hard plastic. After a couple years the painted coating was coming off. After that I only buy medical grade silicone, sometimes with hard plastic bullet inserts which can be replaced but never even touch my skin unless I’m taking them out for washing or replacing the battery.
A mattress, sheets, and at least one pillow. It can be expensive, but the first time you lay down in a bed that’s actually comfortable, you’ll know it was worth it.
Lots of kitchen tools are like that. Expensive probably isn’t the right word, more like minimum acceptable quality. Restaurant supply stores are great for this: a restaurant owner won’t buy the fancy brands, but they also won’t get something that won’t do the job right. When you get something more expensive than the restaurant supply store, you are mainly paying for cosmetics.
Food processors and mandolins come to mind: they are a pain to clean, so unless they work really well, you’re better off using a knife.
Stock pots you can get thin, crappy ones from Walmart that will never let a large volume of liquid get up to temp without scorching whatever is touching the bottom. Better to save your money for something with thicker material.
Also,
Cookie dough and ice cream scoops
Instant read thermometers
kitchen scissors
cutting boards
enameled cast iron (cheap stuff flakes off)
measuring cups (do everything you can by weight, but when necessary, you want them made from steel, and with markings embossed on them, not painted)
charcoal (and probably propane) grills. Poor quality craps out so quick
probably a lot more things
For non-kitchen stuff, one that immediately comes to mind cause I just bought one is plant grow lights. Even with LEDs, you need a pretty high power output for it to be worth anything, and power output isn’t even the right metric. I’m far from an expert at it, but a couple of things to look out for is if it uses a USB port, it’s junk. USB (specifically type a) cannot produce enough power to be remotely useful for plants, so all those weird no-name brands you see are just annoying purple lights. Good brands will tell you the wattage, the PAR, the brand of LED used, and so on.
I always just use a spoon (or sometimes two, in the case of portioning cookies) without issue. I never saw the appeal of these. Then again, there are probably people who eat more ice cream and make more cookies than I do.
Definitely agree on the rest. For measuring cups, also pay close attention to how the handle is connected to the body; I've had some that look like a single tack weld was done and they break off in now time.
That’s the point, if they are super cheap grocery store quality, regular spoons will do the job better, at least for cookie dough. I’ve bent spoons using them to scoop ice cream.
When I talk about the expensive version of a cookie dough scoop, it’s also still really cheap. Just checking prices online, I can get the restaurant supply store cheapest imported one for $5 (the brand is Choice). The made in America one that I have (Vollrath) goes for $12, and it seems like the exact same design.
For dedicated solid aluminum ice cream scoops with defrosting liquid filled handles, the cheap one is $3.50, and the fancy one I have was probably a whole $10.
The ones you’ll see for sale at a grocery store end up being roughly the same price, but way crappier.
charcoal (and probably propane) grills. Poor quality craps out so quick
Weber kettles are fantastic in this regard. They’re not super expensive brand new and can be downright cheap secondhand, but if you take care of them they’ll last decades. Also, Weber is pretty good about their warranty, and replacement parts can be found in most bog box hardware stores
Lol, that’s exactly who I was thinking of. I have had several cheap kettle grills, and they only last a couple years, even taken care of decently. I got a weber, and it still looks new after a few years, plus the metal is way thicker so it holds steady temperature way better.
Everything that you use for prolonged amounts of time every day. For me it was ergonomic chair, keyboard, pillow. Expensive is a word, but I would rather think higher quality when choosing replacement for stuff I use.
Another category of things is hobby equipment, for me it’s instruments. When I buy one it’s to last. So when I was buying digital piano I went for one over my budget because I don’t plan to get rid of it for next 5-10 years still, and it was 5years ago. Overall stuff that you don’t usually think of buying frequently.
Last category I think of i go for higher quality stuff then generic ones are travel stuff. Last thing you want during your trip, short or long, distant or near, is to deal with faulty bag, broken wheel, or such.
I'd take issue with the "only," but setting that aside: musical instruments. Guitars, for example. You can find perfectly serviceable guitars for cheap and they'll be playable with a decent setup, and you can obviously find deals. But in general, if you try your $100-$200 Fender acoustic guitar or mandolin and then go to a guitar shop and try out a high-end Martin, for example, there's a world of difference.
I’ve actually heard that a lot of beginners quit because no matter how hard they practice it sounds like trash and feels bad to play, and it’s to do with the cheap guitar they got.
I don’t know about that. I’ve run across some real turds from Yamaha over the years. That said, it’s been about 20 years since I last played one and maybe they’ve upped their game. For my money Guild makes the best lower-priced guitars, though granted they’re mostly more expensive than Yamahas.
Yes, this is especially true when dealing with a cheaper guitar with high action (distance of the strings from the fretboard). Without a proper setup (which will generally try to get the strings as low/comfortable as possible), it can make the process really hard on your hands, especially with an acoustic. You're much more likely to quit if, in addition to slow beginner progress, it also literally hurts you to play it or the strings won't stay in tune properly, etc...
I’m saying this mainly from bass perspective. But generally you have to get lucky in the cheap department to get decently good instrument. When you shift to like $500 range it gets better and for “normal use” $1000 is good enough (normal = not professional, just hobby player). Most things above $1500 are usually just waste of money to show off.
Another approach for electrics is to take a cheap body and swap out the electronics with something from a much nicer instrument, in addition to a proper setup. Far cheaper route and you'll end up with a $100-$200 guitar that sounds and feels like a $1,000+ guitar.
I got a super cheap electric guitar kit that I'm going to build (someday). Is there a good source for electric guitar electronics (pickups, etc.)? Or would you just recommend buying cheap used guitars and "stealing" the electronics?
I'm thinking that my electronics are super low quality so I'd like to upgrade.
Aside from ebay, Reverb will have a lot of pickup options, both new and used. For example, I bought a set of bass pickups out of an $850 Fender bass to put in my ~$100 Squier bass. I think I paid like $50-$80 for the pickups by themselves.
That used to be really true when I was a kid in the 79’s, but not so much today. Back then, a quality guitar cost way more than the cheap stuff and the cheap stuff was rubbish.
Nowadays, with CNC machines everywhere, there are lots of modestly priced guitars that are very playable. The junk that we used to have to settle with back in the day only exists in the realm of “toy” instruments that almost aren’t intended to be played.
Seriously, $300 can get you a very playable instrument, especially in electric guitars.
Agreed. In my experience you need to spend at least $400 to get a decent acoustic guitar, but even then it can be hit or miss. On the other hand, I have a $400 Guild that plays and sounds every bit as good as my stepdad’s $2k Martin, much to his chagrin, so you never know.
The best acoustic guitar I ever had though was a 1958 Gibson J50 which you can’t really find for under $5k, so price definitely can matter.
You don’t want to be repacking your shit while late a for a flight because you’re a kg over the limit and it’s gonna cost an extra $100 if you don’t and mistakenly rip the zipper off your carry-on. You really, really don’t.
You don’t have to completely break the bank either, but if you value your sanity, I wouldn’t spend too much less than $200 on a carry-on/check-in pair.
I grew up with the cheapest and most worn down vacuum cleaners. It was awful, everything from having to pull it out of a cabinet to finding an outlet and, having bad suction, awful cleaning heads and annoying hoses.
So when I got my own apartment and worked for a bit I decided to go all in on a Dyson Absolute V12 Detect. It’s actually very painless and super quick to vacuum now. Also a bit fun.
With a rechargeable battery it’s wireless and the battery lasts me about 4 vacuuming sessions in my apartment, no keeping track of vacuum bags and filters. All in all it takes me from touching my vacuum to being done cleaning my, albeit 1 room apartment, about 10 minutes. It’s great!
My Ninja has worked just fine for me for a few years now. I don't really have Vitamix money to spend (especially since they are even more expensive here in Japan)
I bought a ninja blender and I was so proud of myself. And honestly it’s a great blender. But then I tried my mom’s Vitamix and holy shit it’s in a different league. Like the difference between JV basketball and the NBA.
Office chairs around 400 to 800$. It’s god damn pricey but an absolute life change if you spend a ton of time at your computer. Are so much better for your back and butt and is worth the money 10x over considering the pain it’ll save you.
If you can’t fork up the cash, do a ton of research, learn a lot about specific models and then on Facebook marketplace (or any other local marketplace) search up “office chair”. Oftentimes people sell premium office chairs without ever knowing, this way you can snag some for ridiculously cheap. Usually around 100-200$ but if you are lucky 10-30$.
Also avoid “gaming” chairs. Like most gaming related stuff, they’re awful and you’re just paying for the edgy look. I had multiple of these and each one was an ergonomic catastrophe, even expensive ones.
The suffix “gaming” implies bright colors, low quality, and a higher price tag. It’s right next to “premium” for identifying garbage products.
Also, I’ve had so many cheap chairs in my life that just failed. The “leather” peels, the gas lift breaks, or the seat cushion wears out and causes pain and discomfort.
That said, you can buy new gas lifts to fix a sinking chair very cheap and buy additional cushions to reduce pressure. If you can’t afford a good chair, don’t keep buying new bad ones!
Yeah, personally I find that everyone can afford luxury if they are clever enough. So either finding a used one cheap, fixing an old one for cheap or modifying another one. It’s what I’ve done for all of my knives and tools and they work like a charm without the price tag.
Most ‘gaming’ chairs are trash material covering shipping foam - garbage.
There are exceptions though. A couple years ago I bought the least gaming looking full leather seat from noble, same foam as good car seats, leather very good, and got it on sale for a silly price. 2 years later it still looks the same as day 1 and the foam hasn’t started to deform yet, I work in it all day.
All my back pain from previous shit chairs was gone in a week too. After that I’d have been happy to pay double.
As in most markets, there are always diamonds in the rough, the hardest part is just identifying them.
It used to be headphones but the stuff in recent years out of China is so good on sound quality. You can get what used to cost over $1000 USD for < $350 with great stuff @ $150 & even servicable stuff @ $20 for a spare.
Shit, Samson’s SR850 headphones are $50 and they sound absolutely OUTSTANDING for the price. Get some deeper ear cups and they become the comfiest things on earth, too.
I haven’t seen it mentioned, so let me say: Outerwear. Especially if you are into snow sports, the difference between quality outerwear and cheap garbage is not just getting wet sooner. It could very well save your life if you’re wearing something that will keep you dry while maintaining breathability. And nothing beats lifetime no questions asked warranty where you just hand it in and it gets repaired for you. In the long term this saves a decent penny whil also reducing your environmental impact
Same goes for base and mid layers. Cotton will kill you, and lots of cheap synthetics don’t breathe well. Spend money or higher end synthetics or merino.
Lastly, don’t get cheap goggles from Amazon or eBay. Heck, don’t get the cheapest models from even more reputable brands. You will want your goggle lenses to provide good UVA and UVB protection, while also providing contrast enhancing features like polarization and very importantly: fog resistance. You will not have a good time if you can’t see where you’re going. I can’t stress enough how big of a difference visibility makes for your enjoyment and safety.
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