There’s 3 things that really stand out for me that I would say made a massive difference to my life:

  1. Cordless screw driver. Bought the day after building a flat pack bed with a crappy screw.driver that just shredded my hand. Thought it was frivolous at the time, but I’ve used it so much since. It’s light, small enough to fit in my pocket and good for 90% of DIY tasks.

  2. Tassimo coffee machine. Bought it 9 years ago, use it every day. Nice quick easy coffee. What’s not to like.

  3. My first DSLR camera. It was a Nikon D50 back in 2005/6 and it sparked my interest in photography to this day. It gave me a hobby I can take lots of places and do it alone or with others. I never loved the D50 camera itself, but I did get some really nice shots with it

  • UnpopularCrow@lemmy.world
    1·
    9 months ago

    I bought a 97 Ford Taurus off a friend for $800 back in 2008. Her dad thought it was on its last legs at 155k miles so he wanted to sell it. I drove it for four years. It was running fine until someone blasted it out in front of my girlfriend’s house and drove off. At the time it had 206k miles. 50k miles for $800 was certainly one of my best purchases.

  • johnyma22@lemmy.ml
    0·
    9 months ago
    1. Bidet toilet seat
    2. Good mattress & office chair.
    3. Home Automation devices (mower/vacuum/lights etc).
  • YⓄ乙 @aussie.zoneEnglish
    0·
    9 months ago

    Bidet which i installed during covid when stupid fucking people were fighting for TP. Been using it since then. Worth every cent.

  • OhmsLawn@lemmy.world
    0·
    9 months ago

    By order of lasting positive effects,

    1. First vape (a cigarette-shaped item from the corner store, cherry flavor). I had been smoking with suicidal enthusiasm for 18 years. I was out of breath, coughing, stinking, and (at $7 a pack) broke. A decade later, I still vape, but I can breathe now.

    2. First not-fully-depreciated used car (3-year-old 2012 Focus SEL hatch with 30K mi). Apart from warranty transmission work, the car’s been stable, and pretty. The real change was introducing me to finance and lending. I grew up poor with a debt addicted dad. At 32, I had never had a credit card. I’ve still never given the bastards a dime, but I’ve pulled in thousands in rewards and have an outstanding credit score.

    3. Passport / first international airline ticket. I mean, yeah. I hadn’t had any desire to leave my state, let alone see the world. At 20, I grudgingly flew to Europe to visit my girlfriend who was studying abroad. We didn’t last, but the travel bug did.

    Honorable mention, only because it isn’t technically a purchase would be my first union payment. Best deal ever.

    Edit: how do you add line breaks? It worked, magically, when I made the list heading bold, but that was hella annoying.

    • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
      0·
      9 months ago

      People that say “vaping isn’t good for you!” etc etc are people that are missing the point and people that have clearly never tried both.

      Firstly, no one is saying it’s good for you, just that it is better for you than smoking is.

      Secondly, maybe listen to people like yourself who have extensive experience with both options, the different in you personally health is night and day.

      • Atemu@lemmy.ml
        0·
        8 months ago

        The statements “vaping isn’t good for you” and “vaping is a lot better than smoking” do not conflict with another; they can both be true.

        Whether vaping is an improvement or not depends on what you were doing before. If you were smoking before and are substituting cigarettes for vaping, you hurt yourself a lot less and it’s an improvement.

        If you weren’t smoking before (the case for most teens for example) and would start to vape, you’d be hurting yourself significantly more than before.

        You should be advocating to never touch a vape (or cigarette) to non-smokers and to try vaping to get out of smoking addiction to smokers.

        • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
          0·
          8 months ago

          Fair point.

          It’s obvious that the best thing for your lungs is clean and fresh air and the best thing to do with nicotine is never try it.

          But some people are always going to be attracted to that sort of thing and it’s sensible to not fear monger the option which is clearly the healthier choice.

  • 8565@lemmy.techtriage.guru
    0·
    9 months ago
    1. Back in 2017 while stationed in AZ I adopted a dog who was the cutest little Blue Heeler, for $5 we have been inseparable since and she is the single greatest thing that’s happened to me.
    2. Last year in April my Powerstrokes transmission failed and on a whim I bought a 98’ 4 runner with 245k miles. We have now built the hell out of that little rig and have put 15k miles on it in 11 months
    3. 100 pairs of socks on Amazon. This sounds nuts but, I got 100 pairs of black socks 2 years ago for $60 because I was tired of my socks always missing. I still have 50 socks I haven’t touched.