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Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#101

Post by giardini »

Lio wrote: post #57
RattlesnakeJake wrote: post #37

Swiss Army knife

Yep same for me. The knife you can take anywhere without alarming people. Nicely made and always useful.

I'd nursed a foot callus for years that hurt badly when I walked barefoot. Weeks ago, sitting on the locker room bench, I hit my limit. In desperation I pulled out my pocket knife to do some field surgery. A few minutes into it I glanced up to see two guys sitting across the room staring at me open-eyed as I dug into my foot with the tip of that pointy knife (8.5" with 3.5" blade)! I just smiled and dug that sucker out.

Should have gone after that callus a year ago! Amazing how such a tiny thing can aggravate.

But you're right about a knife alarming people. Years ago in another life I opened a similar knife to cut a cable and my boss literally jumped backward and exclaimed in fear. But he came from a place where, when someone pulls out a knife someone else usually gets stabbed.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#102

Post by zeech »

phoobahr wrote: post #99
jahnu wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Aeropress is great. If you like a large mug of coffee have a try of the Clever Dripper. Had Aeropress at home and CD at work and eventually bought a CD for home because it’s so good.

It's even better with a "AeroPress Flow Control Filter Cap". No dripping, no inversion, and a little extra resistance improves the cup (I think).

You can also insert the plunger a small amount (maybe half an inch or so, if that) and pull it back up a tiny bit for a similar effect.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#106

Post by oidar »

xnx wrote: post #81

Nesting silicone bowls with lids. Quiet and good for everything.

I want to use silicone bowls and lids, but silicone dishes always come out sticky and cloudy out of the dishwasher (even with rinse aid, whole house filtered water and extra rinse/wash cycles). Other dishes don't have this problem. What's your secrete for this?

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#107

Post by mrgoldenbrown »

ortusdux wrote: post #50
jjcm wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 to wool undergarments. I prefer Unbound Merino to Smartwool for shirts, though Smartwool's socks are better than Unbound.

How do Darn Toughs compare? I've managed to wear through 8 pairs of costco wool socks without loosing any, so the idea of a lifetime warranty sounds promising.

Darntough socks last much longer than smartwool for me.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#108

Post by frogperson »

Im having alot of fun with my new RTL-SDR dongle and Baofeng radio. I pretty quickly found SDR++ which really deepend the rabbit hole and generated about 1000 new questions.

A few weeks ago I knew nothing about radio or ham, but im learning alot and having fun. Its been a good distraction from "stuff".

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#109

Post by atombender »

Lerc wrote: post #67

Rechargable, motion sensing led strips for inside my wardrobe. Not a big thing but improved my ability to find things no-end. The only issue is they don't turn on when it is light enough to see and we slightly disagree on how light that is. Ceramic head tweezers. ~$3 on AliExpress, indispensable for some tasks. An import die grinder that cost about the same as a new power switch for my Dremel. More powerful, better s…

What's the brand of LED strip? I got several battery-powered motion sensor LED bars on AliExpress for use in closets. After the first charge they lasted maybe three weeks, then they rapidly faded, and no longer last more than maybe a day, so I've taken them out. I'm curious to hear if there are high quality versions, maybe something that can run off regular AA or AAA batteries so they can be changed when they inevitably burn out.

Speaking of tweezers on AliExpress: I love my $5.99 nail clippers that collect the clippings in a small compartment so they don't fly off everywhere. Super solid stainless steel construction that's considerably nicer than the cheap classic clippers I already had; it it had "Swiss made" on it or something I would have believed them. The ones I found are in a store called OURINER, but there are lots of weird brands making the same thing.

Re: Ask HN: What are your best purchases under $100?

#110

Post by floxy »

giardini wrote: post #101
Lio wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep same for me. The knife you can take anywhere without alarming people. Nicely made and always useful.

I'd nursed a foot callus for years that hurt badly when I walked barefoot. Weeks ago, sitting on the locker room bench, I hit my limit. In desperation I pulled out my pocket knife to do some field surgery. A few minutes into it I glanced up to see two guys sitting across the room staring at me open-eyed as I dug into my foot with the tip of that pointy knife (8.5" with 3.5" blade)! I just smiled and dug that sucker o…

> staring at me open-eyed

They were probably just envious you were rocking a Kershaw Iridium Dessert Warrior. Which also comes in at under $100. And the Iridium family are pretty nice knives.

https://www.bladehq.com/item--Kershaw-Iridium-Dessert-Warrio...

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