Ask Lemmy

Broke single mom here. My H&M usually offers a buy one get one discount on boys’ cotton boxers, so whenever I buy a pack for my 12 year old son, I grab myself one as well and they serve pretty well as pajama shorts which I pair with a cheap oversized cotton tee.

An ezel. You know, the kind that artists use to put their cavvas on.

I'm a digital artist, so I have a display drawing tablet. Eventually having the tablet completely horizontally flat got annoying to draw on. I ended up sitting cross-legged and awkwardly perching the table on the edge of my desk on my lap to get some sort of comfortable angle on it. However that was annoying too.

I went and looked what a tablet stand costed for my tablet model and... It damn near costed the same as my tablet! The. I had an idea. There's this cheap ass hardware store called Harald Nyborg in Denmark, maybe they have cheap ezel?

Lo and behold they do. Made from the crappiest cheap wood available, it serves its purpose perfectly! I've had it for a few years now and never needed to think about getting that dedicated stand for my tablet.

Waterproof mattress protector. Pays for itself after one accident or spill.

An emergancy fm/am radio with a crank generator and solar panels.

Came in clutch when power was out, not only could I listen in on the news, I could also charge my phone.

I'd list it as unexpected because I did not expect to actually have to use it. But im really glad I had it.

An Aeropress. I bought it when work removed the free coffee and was super surprised at how good it tasted vs what they were serving. Later, I found a bean hand grinder that fits right inside the Aeropress plunger and now I take it on work trips, vacation and camping.

It's not fully inclusive for $20 because you need a cup, some way to procure and heat water and beans but still, it's served me well.

A swiss army knife sd classic. I have it on my keychain and use it a lot

Vacuum sealer.

They are always available used at thrift stores and they are simple machines but I can reseal bags of chips or other grocery items.

You can make your own bags for cheap from a roll and then individually wrap portions for the freezer that stay longer and don't get freezer burn.

And if you get one that has a hose attachment you can seal bottles of wine, mead, or Tupperware for the fridge if you get the right lids.

Once found a whole functioning pc (minus ram and the hard drive) at a thrift store for $3. My guess is it came from an office, and when they plugged it in, and when it didn't work, they assumed it was junk. Actual value of the parts was like $300.

A very thin piece of linen cloth for summer heat. Soak in water, press against body, when it becomes too warm, let it fly in the wind for a few seconds, then press again.

A package of blue-tack - it is basically sticky play-dough that is completely opaque and you can use wads of it to blunt the pain of stupid LEDs on on your tech shit. I am currently sitting in my living room looking at my TV and various components including router and stuff...easily 20 gobs of blue-tack masking 20 blinking LEDs.

Small drafting table I got at Goodwill for $4. I've used it for actual drawing, and it has an adjustable tilt so it can be flat to use as a plain table.

10 foot long phone charger

$20 bread maker I found at at a thrift store. There's no telling how many hundreds of loaves of healthy, fresh baked wheat bread I've churned out of that thing over the past two years, especially now that we're grinding our own wheat too.

A Victorinox Swiss army knife. Bought it used for 10€, and it has everything from a very good blade to screwdrivers, a bottle opener, pen and tweezers. Always in my pocket in case I need it.

[edit: I'm rambling about a lanyard!]

I don't know what it's called, but I chord you put around your neck, goes down to the belly with a metal hook at the end? Used to keep backstage/security passes visible, but I keep my keys on there instead.

Keys always end up at the bottom of my bag, and it can be frustrating and even painful to dig them out. I don't always have pockets suitable for keys. I have a place for them at home, but still misplace them constantly.

With this chord I can keep my keys around my neck when in use, like at work or going to the store, and even if I put them in my bag I can loop the keys around a handle and down through their own chord and they'll hang there to be pulled out when I need them.

The chord is long and colourful and way easier to find than just the keys, and often hang visible out of a bag when I haven't put the keys in their place.

It's great. I have different colours for different sets of keys, one colour is home+bicycle, other is work. Other keys I add only when I need them. It gets annoying having too many keys on at once.

Electronic hearing protection. It's earmuff style with a speaker on one ear that you can turn on with volume control. It automatically cuts out if volume exceeds a certain decibel level.

A key holder/shelf combo. It hangs by the door and I put my keys on a hook and my wallet and spare handkerchiefs in the little shelf part. I tend to unload my pockets right at the door and grab my keys and everything as I leave.

I got a cheap office chair when I moved out after college. It was like $15+20 and it's super comfortable and still use it daily over 10 years later.

It's just foam stapled to plywood but really good support.

Extra long shoe horn. I eventually upgraded to a solid metal one when the cheap one broke.

I have a little fold-out rack with (I think) 24 individual clips on that hold socks and other small items. It can then be attached to the washing line, taking up a lot less space than hanging things along the length of it.

It was £3.99 and it makes putting the washing out so much easier. I much prefer to line dry things outside than using the dryer when I can.

Wool poncho. I've used it to stay warm, stay cool, as a groundcloth under my sleeping bag, as a blanket, as a pillow, as a decorative throw, as a cat bed, as a picnic blanket, as a beach blanket. It's incredibly useful and versatile.

A screwdriver kit with multiple head tips, can repair almost anything as long as I am given some schematics

Unexpectedly? I’m not sure. But for under $6 I got a secondhand Faberware medium and large pot. We have a glass cooktop and our current pots tend to “bow” on the bottom when heated so they don’t sit flat. Was fine when we had a gas cooktop, but now the bow makes a hotspot in the center on the flat glass. The old Faberware pots sit perfectly flat. Awesome.

Not a comercial; But I bought on a whim a very cheap, usb midi pedal from temu, that I use for triggering hotkeys on many apps by using a midi to hotkey converter. It's awesome for streaming, it is sturdy as hell and the midi protocol allows me to do a lot of trickery under the hood. Like toggle buttons or different keys for press and release states. It makes me want to try out more midi equipment from that site.

Also for about 3 dollars I bought a used ceramic crockpot back when I was in college and I am still using it to this day. It instantly became a staple of my home cooking it's stupid easy to use and the thing will probably keep working for decades.

I bought a Rada Quick Edge at a thrift store for $2.

Was always taught my my metal-smith grandfather how to properly care for and sharpen knives, but when I tried it out on a knife I cared little for, I found it was such a shocking difference in efficiency I couldn't help but notice.

It completely changed my relationship with knives and knife care, which was so helpful for me because I cook everything from scratch and whole ingredients. Everything, so having good knives is not kids-play for me.

It made me discover that for me, using a quick sharpening wheel and a hone gets my knives beard-shaving sharp in less than 30 seconds. I could never go back to the "right way" and I firmly joined the "dark side" of knife ownership.

Yes they destroy knives with some aggression, far more than traditional methods, but in the forensic audit it has saved me hundreds in a literal way, and hundreds of hours laboring over sharpening stones.

I no longer need to pamper knives, I buy cheap German steel chef knives on sale for $5-$20 and I throw them out in 3 or 4 years. I'll never go back. All the hysterics from knife "gurus" on YT be damned - in my personal cooking world where I have 10,000 Km on my knives and cutting board, I could give two shits what they think. Nobody better ever give me a $300 knife for a present because it's going back in the box.

Dual-wheel sharpener and 14" hone is all I'll ever use from now on.