Asklemmy

3d printer. I can make custom things that just can't be bought fairly easily.

My washing machine's motor went out while it was full of water. I designed and printed an adapter that let me manually run the pump that drains the washer off of a cordless drill and successfully drained the washer. (Actually, the adapter broke in the middle, but I had the foresight to print a few spares. It only took a couple to drain the whole washer.)

A lot of the other stuff I print is custom wall mounts for things. A Raspberry Pi NAS that hangs on the wall, a mount for a SAD lamp, a mount for my Nintendo Switch Joycon charging base, etc.

High end PC I built. Players every game I'd wanna play super well and is far more reliable than any other PC I've owned

• Bidet
• Leatherman Micra pocketknife - all I need for most things
• Ebike with a front platform - helps transport
• Acoustic Bike with trunk bag - a trunk bag has a surprisingly large amount of space
• Ortlieb panniers - add to the bikes only on an as needed basis
• Instant Pot - it does miracles with legumes, meats, and a large variety of other dishes
• Instant brand Air fryer - we're working w/o a vent right now so we got this to provide an oven replacement
• IKEA wardrobe - configured and used as a pantry
• Large (40L) backpack with good suspension - great for all sorts of travel

The original Guild Wars released in 2005. Damn that was an awesome purchase. Insane number of hours for the money spent.

Kerbal Space Program 1. I bought it in early beta for like $14, have received all subsequent updates for free because I bought it so early, sunk literally thousands of hours of enjoyment into it and come out with a solid basic understanding of orbital mechanics.

I cant think of a better return on investment I've ever made.

I bought the Rockwell 6S razor a few years ago and it's one of the best purchases i've ever made.

A decent blender. Not anything industrial like a Vitamix, it's a Magimix which was about half as much but still durable and has replaceable parts. It's fine for what I need and is lasting much longer than the pile of crap I had before.

Vacuum pack bags for clothes is another one. I like to keep my wardrobe seasonal but I don't have much space, so packing it down helps.

Also anything reusable: PTFE/silicone baking sheets, rechargeable batteries, reloadable floss handles. All of these have saved recurring purchases, money over time and reduced waste (which made me feel good.)

Proper leather boots. I got the red wing irons rangers. Took 3 months of to break them in but it was worth it. Now I have boots that will last me half my life if I take good care of them, plus they fit like a glove!

I can't take credit for this, as I found it in a comment in a similar post and want to give that guy his props. It's a microwave sandwich grill press. It's inexpensive, and I use it all the time, especially when I want something, but I don't want anything big or heavy. I microwave grill a sandwich, and it's fantastic!

I was skeptical about how it would work, but it does. This is the Amazon link to it.

without a ton of thought, and other than my current house:

• travel, in general. recently a trip to sail out of svalbard down to norway. it's another world up there

• an inexpensive handtruck is one of the most useful tools i have

• a 'prosumer' grade espresso machine and a grinder is used and loved every single day

Proper chef's knife and vegetable cleaver. Most of my military surplus clothes. A vaccuum sealer. Second hand books. My Traynor YBA-1. Some good boots. There's definitely stuff i forgot, i don't really buy items anymore.

Prob my house.

Electrostatic capacitive rubber dome keyboard. …Such a pillowy, smooth travel compared to every mechanical keyboard. I wish there were higher demand so I could get an ergonomic one instead of basically being limited to what Topre or NiZ release.

One of those nice traveling Bluetooth speakers about half the size of a brick. Whenever I travel I bring it and it is a huge improvement having music that sounds good everywhere.

It was more than I wanted to spend but it was money well spent these many years later.

Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X headphones. Love the sound profile on them.

In 2009 I bought a lot of 10 late 90s Sun servers (1997 machines upgraded a few years later with better CPUs) for $300. Original list price about $2.5 million. After fixing a few problems and swapping parts to max out half the machines, I kept a few as my compute servers, and traded the rest for SGIs. An Onyx for the museum, and a small (one 6' rack) Origin-2000 for myself.