For me it has to be:
- Helix mattress ($1,217). Sleep is great.
- Home gym power cage & weights (~$1,000). Look good, feel good, get strong.
- Netgear Nighthawk AXE7800 ($339). No more random, annoying internet disconnects/slowness.
- Books ($0 @ library)
- “Ultralearning” - Scott Young (how to learn efficiently)
- “Enlightenment Now” - Steven Pinker (the world overall is improving)
- “The Bogleheads’ Guide to Investing” - Taylor Larimore (how to invest)
- PS5 ($500). So many great games like witcher 3, god of war, spiderman.
I’m searching for some more deep value purchases. Give me what you’ve got.
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).
I can’t recommend a bidet enough. I’ve stopped using toilet paper all together and just use soap and a towel to dry off.
It’s especially amazing if you get the hot water hooked up to it.
Can you elaborate on this routine? I’ve heard of folks using clean rags that go into a bin. Or air-drying…
So when I first got the bidet I was using tp but it would get soaked from drying myself off. I figured if I’m going to get my hands wet may as well use soap and towel myself off, right?
So I have a towel warmer next to my toilet. It heats about 4 small towels at a time. Once I am done with my business, I clean myself with the soap and towel myself off with a warm towel (pure heaven). Afterwards, I hang the towels on the shower door so they can dry before going into the dirty clothes bin.
I spent like $700 for a 13" boox max and it’s amazing. Smaller ones are functional enough for standard prose, but stuff like textbooks and programming books that have more structured formatting really take advantage of the larger pages. I can’t put a single page of any of that on my older kindle oasis, but I can comfortably do a landscape two page setup with the max.
I tried having a bidet a couple times, but I ended up having issues with certain delicate skin becoming cracked and bleeding. Not sure what the cause was, but no bidet for me.
Adding water to your skin surprisingly can make it worse. Drinking water tends to help moisturize but washing removes oils and stuff from your skin which in excess can make it dry and cracked over time. If your skin is delicate enough then excessive washing may be a lower limit than you can handle with a bidet. And slathering lotion on your ass after you poop just seems to be a worse solution.
Kitchen stuff:
- 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
- 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.
- A decent cast iron or stainless steel pan. Learn how to use it and maintain it, and it will last you forever.
- 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.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
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 toothbrush.
Invest in your teeth. Trust me.
