Ask Lemmy

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

balaclava. I wear it all the time. It’s a great way to keep my mouth and nose covered from the nasty germs when out in public.

A pry bar. I use it to open cat food tins because my fingernails are not up to the task.

https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B0BRBTHK8Z

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Got a second-hand Walmart folding table + chair set at the beginning of my PhD, I think the entire set was like $15 or $20; it was the only furniture I had that lasted my entire grad school