You must log in or register to comment.
I good leather belt.
Healthcare.
My healthcare is paid out of my taxes. It’s really hard to cheap out on it.
Oooohhhhhh look at the fancy non American with their basic human right to be human right to be healthy without going into bankruptcy
It means someone else is cheaping out on you. I’m not aware of anywhere that I is your choice, in the US it is my boss
Other people have said better things, but I’ve found flour to be important in baking. Generic store brands can work mostly, but for more precise and nicer baking I’ve got to go with King Arthur flour
Hey King Arthur flour, sponsor me please, I need it to keep buying all this flour!
King Arthur flour
How does this specific thing keep popping up in every corner of the internet I ever go to?? Is it that good?
It really is better than most. This a company I actually think sort of cares. Their recipes for bread products are also spot on, at least the ones I’ve tried.
Their recipe for Cornish pasties has done me well, although my filling is always “things I have on hand”!
Great flour, consistent every time, no filler or weird blends like others might have, great recipes, employee owned, etc.
They also have gluten-free flours (both measure for measure and straight up) and good recipes for them. I’m not gluten free but I have a friend that is and the chocolate cake I made them with their flour and recipe was one of the best gluten free cakes there ever had (it’s better than some gluten cakes I’ve had tbh)
Not really exeptional except it is commercial grade. It’s not the random stuff you get from the local brand. The local brand is whatever. Sometimes it’s really good, other times it’s pretty poor.
The most common difference is in a test called “falling number”. Falling number is a fast easy way to figure out if an enzyme that degrades starch has been activated (alpha-amylase). Intact starch in flour creates a matrix in solution and thickens it. When alpha-amylase is activated it degrades the starch and makes it thinner.
For baking you want a thicker dough that holds together. It’s how you get light and fluffy breads. The thicker dough traps CO2 produced by yeast or an acid/base reaction better.
The falling number method is uncomplicated, but requires an apparatus which follows the international standards.
Any high quality brand will probably do you well. King Arthur is what I can get easily and have used it for decades. Also it’s employee owned, last I knew, which makes me feel a smidge better.
Also their online recipes are pretty nice, and they answer questions!
Their bakers hotline is extremely awesome
A well made coat and a pair of boots.
GPUs
Don’t necessarily go for top tier but something in the top 40% of Passmark’s high end GPU benchmarks will last you years
My current GPU is 7 years old and still plays Elden Ring at 60fps, I’ll probably get at least 3 or 4 more years before I need to upgrade.
Personally, used/old hardware is so dirt cheap I think I’ll only buy a gen behind or two. Not unless there’s some breakthrough akin to X3D cache by AMD.
My phone was like 1400$ 3 years ago and now I can buy it used, in good condition, tested, for like 300$
PSU
I think I need to change mine. Using a $27 Ant esports for the last 2 years.
Ebikes: Don’t cheap out and get an Engwe or Gotrax or whatever other randomly generated name they came up with.
Buy from your local bike shops, not Amazon.
Your kid’s first musical instrument. It’s counterproductive and false economy to buy them a piece of shit guitar or tuba or whatever it may be, in the belief that “if they like it and want to continue with it, I’ll buy them a better one in the future”. You might well turn the kid off the instrument for life if their instrument is harder to play/maintain and worse to listen to than it ought to be.
If you want your kid to be enriched by music and to be creative, buy them a decent mid-range instrument. Make it so that the kid can’t wait to pick it up, don’t make those crucial early days of learning the instrument feel like eating watery gruel for months with an expectation of pizza at some point down the line. A shitty instrument will be an additional barrier the kid will need to deal with every time they use it. Get out of their way, buy them something serviceable. If they lose interest regardless, well at least you know they had a fair shot at it and it wasn’t the crappiness of the instrument that caused them to abandon it. And you can always sell or donate the instrument if they really don’t give a shit about it.
The best instrument you can reasonably afford is significantly more likely to hook your kid than a £50 piece of junk would. It doesn’t need to be fancy, it just needs to be well-made, pleasant to play, and easy to tune/maintain/clean/whatever the case may be.
I’ll counter with the following: if you aren’t sure whether your kid will like it, it’s probably a better idea to start with renting. You’ll typically get a fully-serviced instrument with coverage for accidental damage.
Yes, it’s a fully sunk cost, but it’s predictable and you don’t have to deal with the hassle of selling off an instrument if they don’t get really into it. Once you’re confident that they’re going to stick with it and know they can handle and maintain it carefully, then you should look into buying.
I see a lot of specific examples, but here is a good engineering guideline: do not skimp on physical interfaces. **Anywhere energy is changing form or if it touches your body, don’t skimp on those. **
For example
- tires
- bicycle saddle
- heaters/furnaces
- electrical inverters
- keyboard
- mouse
- engines
- shoes
- eyewear
- clothes (buy used if necessary, but always buy quality clothing)
Quality usually means more money, but sometimes one is able to find a high quality and low-cost version. In my experience though, trying to find the cheap version that works well means trying so many permutations; it would have been more economical to just get the more costly version in the first place.
More expensive doesn’t always equal better, especially for things like keyboards, clothes or eyewear, where branding is huge and inflates prices more than quality.
Running shoes because when you wear ill-fitting shoes, you will hurt yourself eventually.
Shoes in general. Youll have so much more stamina at festivals and other places if you have sturdy shoes that fit well.
I switcthed to barefoot shoes for hiking and everyday. They are the opposite of sturdy, but well worth the investment. As a guy in his late forties, I have fewer little nagging pains.
I second this. I have huge feet (US men’s 15 extra wide) and after a lifetime of cramming my feet into shoes that fit “good enough” I’m developing bunions along with other aches and issues. After a particularly painful weekend on my feet I decided to see if the Internet had any suggestions and I fell down the barefoot shoe rabbit hole. I initially balked at the price and styling of most brands I saw but the cheaper options simply didn’t come in my size. I decided to go for it and got a pair of Xero shoes since they make a men’s 15 that isn’t too hideous and I haven’t looked back. Best decision I have made in the last 2 years.
Never heard of Xero, thanks! I personally swear by my size 15 Red Wing steel toed boots. Foot pain is pretty bad, it screws up your entire posture. Having custom inserts made was really worth it for me.
Gonna start with a few of the usual suspects:
-
Anything that keeps your feet off the ground (buy good shoes)
-
Anything that touches your privates (don’t buy cheap condoms yall)
Condoms are for pussies.
diaphragms are for pussies
Condoms are for dicks*
-
Submarine construction
You’re right, I’m gonna spring for the N64 controller this go around
Penis extension surgery
Ice cream.
Toilet paper.
Get the good stuff or don’t get it at all.
Or upgrade to a bidet if you can afford one for as little as $30.
Yourself. Time and resources you invest in yourself usually grant the highest returns in the long run.
Examples:
- When job hunting, prefer opportunities that give you more valuable experience when possible.
- While planning your schedule, give highest priority to activities that contribute to your physical and mental health.
- At the grocery store, choose fresh ingredients over the cheaper and easier premade options.
- When budgeting finances, pay yourself first by setting aside what you can for your future. If not yet possible, see 5.
- Invest in your continued education, which can include traditional credentialing such as degrees or certifications, but also online and night classes, or even self-guided study.
- Choose relationships and experiences over things. While things can temporarily improve lifestyle, relationships and experiences permanently expand the life you have lived.
