…to a reasonable degree, at least.
Wine - it is full of marketing gimmick and usually the mid range is best. The same is with whisky, rums and other alcohol.
On the other hand, at least here, is better to pay premium for craft beer.
If you like the taste, why pay more?
Depends on the country you’re in.
I think there are some really good Bourbons in the USA, but idk how they compare to expensive whiskeys.
More expensive bourbon tends to be more interesting but not necessarily more pleasant to drink. In my case it quickly becomes too fancy for my taste buds around 2-3x the price of the cheapest one. Whiskey is a bit more complicated.
For wine it is universal, but yes I can’t get decent cider without paying premium, I think that in UK it is different.
I’m in the UK and there’s definitely better cider if you’re willing to pay £5+ for a single bottle but there used to be a really cheap South African cider that was way better than the big UK brands. IDK what happened but you only seem to be able to get it online at a way higher cost now.
A lot of basic foods, for instance: tuna, Pop Tarts(toaster pastries), Frozen Veg, Dry Pasta.
The store brands are so much cheaper and often higher quality.
Malt-O-Meal cereal is often better than the name brand and even comes in a resealable bag.
Don’t know about the rest but canned tuna has an enormous taste difference. Try a good 10 USD can!
There’s also ethical concerns regarding sustainable fishing practices.
It’s depressing that most responses ITT ignore sustainable or compostable products that can cost a bit more. Also super depressing that people are going with the cheapest ultra-processed food options. Seriously people, you’ve got to take better care of yourselves.
We would if we could afford to
The stores I go to do not even sell $10 cans of tuna. Rich people really do live completely different lives huh.
Disagree on tuna and especially for Pasta.
For pasta if you want to have a bite to it (al-dente) and not become soft you need to get a good quality one. Doesn’t need to be a lot expensive, but typically Italian ones are safer in this front. Better ones are bronze extruded as it leaves the surface that is porous. If that is not important to you, then ignore:)
T-shirts.
Apparentlyv Mr Clean MagicErasers are just melamine sponges which are actually mucho cheapo
I buy the giant blocks of 100 generic melamine sponges from Amazon.
However, having a couple of the Mr clean versions around is prudent. They are slightly different. They deform more easily and disintegrate faster but they get deeper into crevices. It’s super rare that I find something that generic ones won’t do a great job on but it’s good to have a couple of the name brand ones for that time when they don’t cut it.
Yeah, great for cleaning, and I got a pack of 100 for like $4
Mr Clean is like $4 for 2 if you’re lucky
If you’re not a contractor, power tools. Buy the harbor freight version first when you need it. If you end up using it enough to break it, then you get a quality one.
This is very situational. I’m not a contractor, but I spend a significant portion of my time doing hobbies that require power tools. I don’t need a drill that will last for an entire day at a jobsite. Ryobi works fine for me. On the other hand, I wish I had never spent $600 on a cheap planer; I knew I’d want a better one eventually, and sure enough, I found a need to upgrade after a few years. Now I’ve spent $3600 on planers. I could have just gone with the $3k one and saved myself $600.
If I’m going to use it once, I borrow it. If I’m going to use it every few months, I buy a cheap one. If I’m going to use it every week, then it’s worth it to me to buy something I can keep for at least a decade or two.
I have never broken a 10 mm wrench, but I have lost a few. So I bought a ten pack on Amazon.
It’s always the 10!
I keep one in my center console, my keychain, and random cheapies mixed in around loose tools, on top of whatever is part of the sets. Periodically we’ll still have a hard time finding one when its needed and have to replenish.
Are they hanging out with the lost socks?
nice, you’re good for 6 months
So long as he doesn’t try to use them!
I forget which brand it was, but I once bought a drill…charged the battery overnight, went to use it…and it died within 3 seconds. Literally 3 seconds. Thing cost like $100 a couple of years ago. Now I got a DeWalt, and it’s fine.
That is something I would disagree with. Especially when it comes to battery powered tools which seems to be everything nowadays.
If you go with one of the big brands you are almost guaranteed to get a spare part later. If you only use your drill once a year, the battery might be dead in a few years if you don’t take care of it. Of course your battery might cost the same as a no name drill, but that is still a fair point IMO.
Now that you have a drill maybe you need a saw later. If you went with a big brand they typically have a large range of devices that work with the same batteries. So you can reuse your battery from the drill and also don’t need another charger for that single device. This is also not limited to tools only. Maybe you need a light or a battery powered radio for something totally unrelated.
Pretty good for anything that can’t kill you if it fails. Even beyond power tools.
So, for example, yes to drill. No to compressors, jacks, etc.
That’s pretty good advice, thanks.
For jacks I always assume that it can break at any moment. That is why I put the spare tire under the car when I have the car lifted. If the jack breaks, the car will fall on the tire and not on my face.
Jack stands too. But not harbor freight ones
Sorry, but this only applies to drills and sanding machines. Maybe a bench grinder also you can cheap out on. Hand tools are fine to cheap out on also.
Circular saw, table saws, miter saws, angle grinders, etc…
Any spinning blade, if you cheap out, don’t be surprised if you get life-alteringly injured when you “use it enough to break it”. I was just helping some friends renovate where they had a dirt cheap miter saw and it was just about the most dangerous experience of my life.
If you are doing any big renovations, at least get makita, Milwaukee, or dewalt. You can get a TON of cheaper stuff second hand. Quality at a lower price. I got a professional older model hilti hammer drill at a tiny fraction of the price.
It really depends anymore…it can be a tough call.
I grew up using only quality tools, because cheap tools were truly shit until perhaps the 90’s, at the earliest.
HF tools used to be utter shit, but their “branded” tools are good these days. The wrenches and sockets are as good a Craftsman used to be, and equal to the store brands from Home Depot and Lowes. And overpriced Matco/Snap On can kiss my ass. I have some of their tools, they’re nice, but not worth the price.
Their branded cordless tools are good too. One thing they do differently is put the battery controller in the tool, while Milwaukee puts one in the battery. So don’t do anything foolish with the battery.
I don’t think they’re as durable as Milwaukee, the plastic seems harder, so more prone to cracking. And the warranty isn’t very long.
But with the massive cost difference, it’s a good place to start.
But exactly, that is the difference between a drill and spinning sharp metal at high speeds.
If a drill breaks, it isn’t going to send shards of metal-cutting fiber disc 20 meters per second at your face.
If a saw sucks ass like the one I used a few days ago, you can’t safely cut through wood and you end up doing dangerous things like putting your body weight on the top of the miter saw to get it down all the way, gripping the piece closer to the blade to try to get it to cut better with less tear out or to not slip, etc… which can easily lead to a finger being cut off. It is MUCH more expensive in the US especially to have to deal with a dismembered finger than the cost difference between a chinese amazon $100 miter saw and $200 entry level 10 inch dewalt.
There are a ton of people who can’t afford that. That is fine. Then spend $100 on good quality assorted hand saws. a $40 japanese pull saw, $30 for a Spear & Jackson hand saw, $40 for a pair of bacco chisels, and an angle cut box and you can do a lot more than that $100 miter saw much more safely at the cost of it being at half the speed.
If a saw sucks ass like the one I used a few days ago, you can’t safely cut through wood and you end up doing dangerous things like putting your body weight on the top of the miter saw to get it down all the way, gripping the piece closer to the blade to try to get it to cut better with less tear out or to not slip, etc…
There is a big difference between cheaping out on blades/never replacing them and cheaping out on the saw itself. I agree I wouldn’t get the absolute cheapest miter saw, but a relatively cheap one with good blades that are replaced often shouldn’t be significantly more dangerous than a more expensive one.
I think you hit the nail on the head. Prioritize quality on the sharp things. Works the same way with kitchen knives, not that you have to buy something expensive, but you should always keep it sharp. A sharp knife is dangerous, but a dull knife is dangerous and less predictable.
Seconded. This has been my strategy for accumulating personal tools.
Proper/professional grade stuff I have:
- Circle saw
- Drill
- Screwdrivers of various sizes, especially PH2
- 13mm ratchet spanner
The rest is of a lot more dubious quality.
Mascara. There are some $6 mascaras that are way better than the $25 ones.
The trial and error is important, so you might end up buying a bunch anyway
As someone that often doesn’t wear makeup but keeps some on hand anyways in event of special occasions, can you point me out some $6 brands?
Not op, but i personally like this one: https://a.co/d/73OQhwB It clumps up a little bit, but a lash brush helps.
I like E.L.F. volumizing mascara.
Toothbrush. Anything you’ll use comfortably will do the job.
Same goes for toothpaste, apparently. I asked my dentist once, and according to her the type or brand doesn’t matter that much as long as it has fluoride in it.
as long as it has fluoride in it.
that’s the standard dentist answer for that question, except when you ask the 10th one
I thought it was 4 out of 5? 😆
We’ve been brainwashed by advertising to think that the paste and mouthwash are what matter. They help, yes, but brushing is what matters most. The toothbrush is not just an applicator.
That said, I personally find Sensodyne to work better than other brand’s product for sensitive teeth.
I have to disagree. A good electric toothbrush makes a big difference, personally.
Electric toothbrushes with the rotating head collect germs behind the brush head. Enjoy your tasty germ colonies…
I always clean my brush after use. Take off the top rinse and completely dry whole brush
Sonicare might be expensive but it leaves my teeth feeling cleaner. It’s like having that perfectly smooth clean feeling after a dentist visit every day. No way I’ll ever go back to manual scrubbing like some sort of troglodyte.
My dentists visits improved dramatically after getting a sonicaire
It can, yes, but even a cheap toothbrush used properly will do the job. No need to buy brand name when the store brand will do.
This is a miopic viewpoint. It may be good enough for you but not everyone’s gums/teeth are the same. Some people are predisposed to gum disease and using a good electric toothbrush helps immensely.
Possibly an unpopular opinion among parents, but: Diapers. I’ve noticed no negative effect on my kids when going offbrand.
I remember the expensive ones, Pampers, being way worse, the pee is so absorbed the kid doesn’t feel it but is still in it and get irritated skin, and poo leaked way more easily.
Ditto. They also smelled worse too. We found that the Target brand diapers when Target has their gift card deals was the time to stock up on their whipes and diapers.
Yeah, that’s the only real difference I’ve noticed: The fit. On my oldest kid, libro fit best. The rest were offbrand. I think it’s mostly down to each individual kid and not so much the brand.
Shit, I never thought that might be why, but we’ve dealt with a lot of skin irritation, and our kid prefers keeping a dirty diaper over getting changed. My day is ruined.
We tried cheap ones, but our kids get irritated skin from them. Pampers works for us. That being said, I’d go for the cheapest brand that works for the little ones.
pets.
When people ask which breed my cats are, I respond with the truth: Purebred neighborhood conglomerate. They’re both healthy, happy, and awesome.
Just make sure you don’t cheap out in their medical care - sterilization and any necessary vaccinations.
God’s perfect killing machine is the pinnacle of cat “breeds”. It’s heartbreaking seeing people do to cats what we’ve done to dogs with selective breeding for purely cosmetic traits.
There was a book I read called “Domesticated” that permanently changed my view on pets. The book had chapters broken out by animal and also had before/after pictures of certain animals from a century ago vs what we have now, after the influencer puppymills and such got their hands on them/inbred them to shit.
We have hideously deformed some animals that used to look much, much different a century ago, and those animals now pay a steep price in pain and life expectancy.
https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/617uIoOR97L._AC_UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg
Neighborhood kitty is still cute kitty!!! But they gotta be healthy kitty.
If you are looking for a companion, definitely. If you are looking for an animal bred for a specific purpose, find a reputable breeder.
Jean creamer. Even the cheap stuff works wonders.
Can you give me an ELI5 on what that is? Google only shows me picture of various women.
I use the free stuff, like, all the time
Instructions unclear, I creamed my jeans.
Unpopular opinion but wine.
From my experience majority of people can’t distinguish between 5€ wine and 500€ wine. And even if they do, they say it tastes “a bit better”, not worth the 495€ difference. Pick one that tastes good to you and don’t be ashamed if it’s cheap.
I will disagree with a caveat. Basically yes there is a difference between wines, and it’s not BS.
There is a world of a difference between a $5 and a $500 wine. But there isn’t a world of a difference between a $5 and a $30 wine, nor is there a world of difference between a $500 and a $1000. It’s about a class structure of the product as with so many things. There’s cheap and simple and there’s more sophisticated and expensive. But once you’re comparing within the same class, it’s really just a matter of varying subtleties. There’s certain distinctions that are absolutely distinguishable such as dry, sweet etc. and there are undertones. This stuff is absolutely real so if someone says it’s all nonsense that someone has not really had the experience needed to make that kind of judgment.
I drink between $5 and $500 bottles, and while I will agree there is a distinct difference at the higher end, it doesn’t mean the $500 bottle will be better than a $20 bottle to the person drinking it. I humor the people that care about the price, but distinct notes of so-so music doesn’t spin my wheels.
Yeah, no it’s all a question of the person’s relationship with wine, as with other things. If you are perfectly fine with a cheap wine then yeah, plenty of them are delicious. But a connoisseur can and will appreciate what a $500 wine offers them, and it’s not qualities you can find in any $5 bottle.
Like with many things, if you appreciate the higher-end selections among them, then you’re getting something you can’t at the low end. The question is, even with those qualities, is it really worth $500? And that’s just a matter of economics.
When my son was born I got a $100 bottle of Glenlivet 18 year French Oak Finish. That’s a rather sophisticated single malt; by no means is it the best because I know people who have bourbon or scotch that costs like 5x that. However, you will not anywhere or anytime find a cheap scotch that even comes close to that Glenlivet. It was some of the smoothest and most delicious single malt I’ve ever had. Lasted me nearly a year.
Sigh. Due to a medical condition I don’t consume alcohol anymore, and haven’t for a long time. But goddamn do I miss good scotch, bourbon, beer… sigh.
Oh god, right there with you on scotch, all whiskeys (and whiskys) in fact. But wine can be hit or miss, even at the high dollars. Years ago I found an amazing cabernet with a full body and heavy chocolate notes for $2.12, and dank it for a year. But I agree that as you get up to $20-100, the likelihood of something terrible is less, and over $90 very rare.
I’ll have a glass of something with Glen in the title in your honor tonight.
If you’re reading this and curious about wine, a couple of things.
1 - Drink what you like. If you want red wine with fish, fine. The people who care, care more about rules than enjoyment.
2 - Drink what you like. I opened a $500 red for my dad’s birthday, it was so-so to my palate. I love $12 NW pinot noirs. Don’t fixate on a price.
3 - When you find something you like, take the bottle to a wine store and ask for a description of the notes of that wine. Ask them to suggest similar wines, and learn to pick out the notes that matter to you. People who don’t know wine talk price, but your sommelier really wants to hear “I’d like something full-bodied, no acid, heavy tannins, smooth finish with some fruit notes.”
4 - Your waiter is rarely a sommelier and just wants a region and type of wine. West Coast pinot noir generally makes a table happy.
Awesome.
I agree about the wine; I was just going on like the broadest scenarios because of course when it comes down to it, there’s nothing objective about it. And I agree with the pairing if I see someone bring up the issue of this wine with that protein I take pity on someone who is so stuck to these absurd notions they don’t know what enjoyment actually is.
Hah, it turned out it was 15 year Glenfiddich 25 years ago. So Cheers!
There have been so many studies showing that everyone from average joes to top-tier judges can’t tell the difference between cheap and expensive wines.
I’m far from a wine connoisseur and my favorite is an $8 rosé wine you can find at your local grocery store.
I highly disagree. I always walk in and say. “Vitner! Your finest box of wine, on the double”
Seems something like [Proportion of People OK w/the Wine] - [Price] might be:
50% - $5
75% - $10
90% - $20
95% - $30
99% - $50I made all of this up. Who actually drinks wine? Did I come close to your made-up numbers?
Also assume some of the highest-rated wines at each price point for consumers who appreciate that style in general.
Wine is a huge scam.
Sommeliers are just salespeople making shit up.
It’s bullshit, you don’t detect notes of 15 different things all mixed together.
It’s actually not really that hard, any cook worth their salt can make a good shot at reverse-engineering a sauce from tasting it. It just takes a lot of practice at tasting things.
The French Fiasco (or whatever it was called) in the mid-70’s is proof.
I’m not much of wine drinker myself, but I once did a chef menu with the wine pairing. Every two dishes, they’d bring out a new glass of wine. It was kind blowing how the would taste one way with the first dish and a completely different way with the second dish. I’m not sure I can tell the difference between a $12 bottle and $40 bottle, but in that one meal i understood two things: first, if you know what your doing, wine and food pairings can be magical and, second, I don’t know what I’m doing.
I somewhat disagree, 5€ is too low to get a decent wine imo. Buy a wine for 10-15€ and there is no longer any difference from the 500€ one.
The last point however is the key, and I agree wholeheartedly. If you can find one for 5€ then that is good enough
Clothes and housewares. Buying secondhand is vastly cheaper, better for the environment, and can get you surprisingly high quality sometimes.
Over the counter medications. If the active ingredient is the same, delivered in the same way and in the same dosage, the effects will be the same.
Games. There’s no good reason to not wait for a price drop and/or sale unless it’s some multiplayer thing and you want to play with friends. In the modern day, you’ll even usually get an improved product after more time has passed for patches and updates.
Fun Fact, Zertec is just Citrizine Hydrochloride but 10x the price of generics.
I love second hand shopping for everything, even smartphones and laptops. Just yesterday I bought several pairs of shoes for the kids, some nice sweaters, toys and two wine glasses second hand and I paid 18€ in total, no lie.
Society was brainwashed into buying new shit, while drowning in second hand shit that just looks slightly different. Insanity!In case someone needs to hear this:
DO NOT PREORDER GAMES FROM AAA-DEVELOPERS/STUDIOS
On board with the thrift shops! I got a $250 brand new wok for $10 and it’s the best one I’ve ever used.
I agree with all of those. Some of my favorite clothing I’ve gotten thrifting. I’ve been able to find never worn brand name clothing for way cheaper. Heck. I recently got a pair of Eddie Bauer shorts, never used (still had the baggie with spare buttons attached to the waistband), for $5.
Second thrift stores, especially for any small appliance that a couple might get 2 of from their wedding. You can often find a brand new crockpot or juicer or coffee maker. 👍
Also anything potentially breakable. Crockery, glassware etc. Best to have something that’s already been stress tested in someone else’s home.
Tbh about everything. Most of retail is just an industrial scale of the addage “a fool and his money will soon be parted”.
Buy second hand, its fine. You probally can figure it out yourself, try to diy. Look at what people are actually doing not the brand of tool they are doing it with. Its a saw, you saw with it, you can get away with sawing a lot of stuff with the same cheap saw.
Soaps are just collections of chemicals, powerwash for example is just dish soap plus water and isopropal alcohol.
You can probably cook it at home. It will probably be better and better for you, because a pound of lard or cup or sugar looks like the red flag it is when you go to cook with it.
Your bed might be better on the floor, then on a frame.
You are probably better off walking or biking then driving.
You probably don’t need to watch more shows anyways so why get fleeced to subscriptions. You probably don’t need to play games as much so you can pass on that game. You probally don’t need to go out for a drink. You probally don’t need to go out for a meal. Etc etc
Honestly, I’m a hypocritical ass saying some of this, but its true. The urge to go spend spend spend, isn’t a fluke its just successful sociol engineering to separate us fools from our money.
Oculus Quest headstraps.
The official “pro” headstrap (~$70) is cheap quality for an expensive price point and isn’t as comfortable as the stuff you can find on Amazon for, like, thirty dollars.
Buy that from the sellers own website for even cheaper.
Yeah, fair.
Really just gave an Amazon link because I can just ask my search engine for
!a quest 2 headstrapand quickly find the one I got at the top of the list.
I usually by the house brand of anything the first time I buy anything. Cooking ingredients, household chemicals, drugs, tools, and anything else you can think of. I have found a number of places where saving money is not worth it, the difference between organic tomatoes and the conventional ones is huge for example but if you don’t care about tomatoes you may be fine with the cheap ones.
There are a few things I will spend good money on first time through. Basically anything I am not going to have a chance to replace if I don’t like it. I had to replace the floors in a few rooms in my house. When we first moved in and could not afford nice carpet. It took 10 years to wear out the carpet and for us to have enough to replace it. If I had to do it again I would have stuck with the original longer to save a bit more and put in better flooring.
