When was the last time you felt like you got your money's worth for an item?
I'm looking over a new pair of shoes I recently bought. My feet hurt after walking a few miles in them, so I inspected the insole area, and it was the cheapest 5mm foam imaginable with no other structural support. Below that is basically just the rubber sole. This shit cost $100.
This isn't my first rodeo with overpriced, shitty shoes, so I always have a set of superfeet inserts on standby. Huge improvement, but fuck, why does everything have to be a rip off? Those inserts are $50 for some nicer foam and a simple sliver of molded plastic.
This brings me to the thread title: When was the last time you felt like you got your money's worth for an item?
My local Chinese restaurant today. They upped the prices a bit, but it's still dirt cheap for some of the best food in town. The owner (who loves me to bits, as I'm a generous tipper), went so far as to throw in a free cookie on today's meal.
Etnies sneakers, definitely. Bought a pair ... shit.. its got to be over 5 years now and they're still in serviceable shape for something that I would wear for 10+ hours doing receiving/stocking work. Spent something like 50$ US for them. Bought another pair last year for about the same price, hope they last at least half a long.
Currently thinking that buying a cast iron tortilla press last December as my "christmas" present to the house will probably be another one of my "good value purchases". Been making soft tacos once a week for the last month or so. I think I finally found the cast iron model I had been eyeballing for years, priced around 50$ after shipping.
Never being a skater but having heard of a few brands... found some at Walmart or Payless Shoe Source and they all were garbage.
I gambled years ago at buying blind from an online vendor and eventually found the Etnies website. One of the few times that I actually "won" when gambling on something.
Having one really good mechanical pencil and one really good pen is so useful. It doesn't really cost all that much, and you'll never need to buy another one.
Used computers is probably the most recent time I felt I got my moneys worth. Quite decent ThinkPads can be had for below $200, even. I've also probably spent more time tinkering around with my homelab (all very old hardware) than playing videogames.
I got a first gen kindle like 7 years ago from a thrift store for $5. Definitely would've paid upwards of $20 for one. (I have no idea how much they actually cost)
I bought some red wings for work because I needed steel toe to occasionally move pallets and they’re just over a year old now and still awesome. Just need new insoles every few months. I average 5 miles of steps a day in them.
Before this I was buying running shoes every 3-4 months.
I think nearly any boot could provide this longevity for light duty stuff, it’s the foam that fails first on shoes in my experience.
I bought a pair of Red Wings over a decade ago when I was still doing agriculture work. I kept using them as rain, winter, and hiking boots and only a few months ago had the layers of the sole delaminate. Though I was told their quality has gotten significantly worse over the last decade, so I wasn't sure if I should buy again. I'll check them out again.
I have several pairs of Kodiak work boots, and they are fantastic with inserts, definitely more comfortable than most regular shoes, and plenty durable
I managed to snag a refurbished Optiplex 7050 for 90 bucks on ebay during Black Friday. It had its hard drive, RAM, and power adapter. It didn't come with a wifi antenna, but I just used an antenna from a broken network card I had lying around. Pretty solid deal all around, especially considering it wound up being more powerful than my decade old mid-tier-for-its-time gaming PC.
People have said weed already in this thread and I hadn't considered that, but it's true
I bought 300 bucks of legal weed at a shop and it is over a year later and I am not even 2/3rds of the way through it, it's so strong I only need a little bit for a whole evening
I pay about $180 for my hiking boots with insoles. My last pair survived well over a thousand miles of harsh mountain terrain. My current ones have maybe 300mi and they're barely scuffed. I would wager that both were produced before COVID and the latest round of shrinkflation though.
But as far as I can tell, taking an already-used disc top shampoo container and using it as a bidet spray to clean your butt after defecating is one of the best deals in my life...
Bought a very expensive pair of danners many years ago and I was very unsure. But I can confidently say that these boots are the best that I've ever had. Takes a while to break them in sure, but no complaints.
100% agreed I felt ridiculous buying mountain lights off eBay 2 years ago but now would happily pay full price if I ever lost them, because that's the only way I'll ever need to have these boots replaced
I bought a pair of Oboz shoes 3 years ago as a daily wearer that I just replaced last month. The waterproofing never tore and I got thousands of miles out of them mostly on pavement but I used them for trails too, very impressed.
Alternately, I use those bic 4-color pens almost exclusively, and each one lasts a few years, as long as I don't ruin it by unscrewing and rescrewing the barrel multiple times a day
A CAD$300 camera bag from a company called Peak Design. It's still in like-new shape after 5 years of daily use. Since then I've bought a few other things from them, it's all quality, it's all durable.
Last year I bought a ricer at Amazon for $37. There was a ricer on sale for $23 but the people in the comments said the thing that sets the size of the ricing could bend or break. The $37 one seemed substantial and the ricer sizing thing was built-into the unit so I thought it would last years and years. The jury is still out. The ricer might be substantial. It's not as sturdy as it looked and I wonder if in a couple years ricer sizing thing will have problems and I'll buy another damn contraption.
This comment has reminded me I have neglected to rice the sweet potatoes I have in a lower cupboard. I am a sight-out-mind sort of guy. I wonder if they're still good.
I guess weed as well, kinda forgot about it because I get my money's worth maybe too good and take having like, a little of high quality pot at a negligible expense for granted. I smoke close to an ounce a week of weed and still spend more on cigarettes.
Lamee as shit take, but NBA gametime is my only streaming app right, 15 bucks a month for the season is worth it especially if you aren't in your home teams region. I get to watch my wolves 2-3 nights a week and they're is usually a good game on the nights they aren't playing.
Also shoutout to secondhand wool shirts off eBay, I look for Pendleton or Woolrich stuff if it's made in USA.
I got some barefoot Jim Green boots for about $200 last month, and they've quickly become my favorite boots.I wanted a comfortable very mendable boot, and so far they've exceeded my expectations.
(Generous) single serve teapot from a house and home place. It's red ceramic and has a metal lid and removable basket that makes it easy to ditch the old leaves, steeps and keeps the heat well. It was a birthday gift but I knew the price.
Bout a year ago I was at a guitar store looking at a Les Paul double cut with a coil splitter. $900 before tax. I decided to have a look in the used section while I made up my mind, and I saw a Kramer Night Rider. Never saw one before and it looked cool, so I picked it up an started fiddling with it. Then I discovered a loose knob, but when I went to tighten it, I discovered it was a push/pull knob that activated a coil splitter. I saved $300 and got the exact features I wanted.
Then I looked it up, and it turns out the Kramer Night rider is a rare model with a price tag that's gone up a few hundred bucks since I bought mine.