Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

news.ycombinator.com

501–510 of 618 posts

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#501

(lovely thread!) Under $100 - Ember Mug, same as many folks here: 4 years of service, 2 use of their customer service, bought another one for my wife. 100% will reshop when my current mug stop working or is not replaced anymore by their amazing support. - A memory foam pillow: Had to iterate to find the right one, but once you've it, you know it. You sleep better, less pain in the back/neck/shoulder - A vasectomy: ju…

vasectomy for under 100? even with insurance that seems kinda low.

He did mention he lives in France ...

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#502

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like Toto is failing with their marketing, since people are not really aware of their products outside of Japan. No good and cheap alternatives either

Is Toto really that better than others? I have both (very old Toto vs Chinese no-name) and I see no difference.

You can pry my toto drake 2 from my cold dead hands.

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#503
post #484

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find this comment funny. Go to your local grocery store and pick a rice cooker up for $15 and just add the rice and eyeball the water. …that much for a rice cooker—that’s nuts!

The thing they don't tell you about the expensive rice cookers is that they take 40 minutes to make rice, while the cheap ones make it in 20. To me it's not worth planning my day around having "perfect" rice, so I still use a cheap one every day :/.

What rice meals are you cooking that take less than 40 minutes anyway? Just start the rice first, before prep, and you should be fine.

I just have a cheap rice cooker though. I couldn't find a fancy one that avoids teflon (or other similar) coating that I liked.

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#504
post #351

Under $1000: A MIG welder with gasless wire (decent quality). It's like being in control of actual magic. Under $100: cheating a bit, a Corsair K95 RGB keyboard from the local tip shop. Amazing to type on.

Which brand welder did you go for?

CIG. Might just be an Australian brand though

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#505
post #371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes! Abbott Lingo (iPhone only for now) and Dexcom Stelo. They go for about $45 per sensor that last for 2 weeks. I second the OP's suggestion. It's completely changed my eating habits.

How does the Stelo compare to the G7? Do you have any tips for how to start with one and systematically get the most insight out of it?

I've been using the Lingo so I can't comment on that.

Also, it really important to note that I don't have diabetes or any metabolic disorders. I am mainly interested in learning more about the foods that I eat and their effects on me.

The Lingo is the same hardware as the Abbott Freestyle but the difference is in the app.

The way I've been using mine is to consistently log the foods that I eat (the app is really helpful for this) and then seeing what it does to my blood glucose level. My goal has been to minimize spikes in my blood glucose level.

Things I found interesting: 1. Instant oatmeal spikes my blood glucose level a lot. 2. A honeycrisp apple will also spike it but a granny smith apple is much much more modest. 3. Eating bread and rice will spike it. However, eating rice as part of a meal will cause a much smaller spike. 4. Gelato can cause a modest spike but much less than you would expect, smaller than instant oatmeal or a sweet apple. 5. Dark chocolate has little effect on blood glucose. 6. Running will cause a tiny rise (maybe my body is preparing me for the energy needs?) 7. I become borderline hypoglycemic when I'm sleeping.

A very notable effect from this is that minimizing these spikes has been very helpful with my dieting. My desire to snack has been much much easier to control and I've had much better success with my diet plans (I've lost 10 pounds in 3 months whereas my previous attempts only managed to lose 5 pounds before I just gave up).

Once you see what food does what to your blood glucose you sort of remember what foods or groups of good to avoid. I will also say that I'm now super wary of most processed foods. I don't want to be too cynical but I do wonder if the companies knew the connection between blood glucose level spikes and hunger signals.

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#506

Under $100: 1) A bidet! Got one in the pandemic when toilet paper was scarce and I wanted to be more efficient, but now I'll never go back. The Tushy ones are good. 2) A safety razor & accessories. I get a cheaper, closer, less irritating shave, and I get to customize every part of it. This can certainly be a rabbithole you spend a lot of money on, but you can get a solid customized starter kit for under $100 that wi…

I bought some Tushies for my house and they were awful, they were so thick that they broke my toilet seats. I then bought new toilet seats and little stick-on bumpers, but they fell off.

I then visited a friend who had an older Tushy and it was thin enough that he had no problems.

It's like they switched to a cheaper version without testing it, and then marketed the hell out of it.

I ended up replacing all my Tushies with Amazon's toilet seat with a built in bidet. It's decent.

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#507
post #94

Under $100: - A dumbphone. Even if I’m not using it anymore, it has shown me what life I could be living without distractions. My anxiety and stress levels went down from about the second day using it, I became much more aware of my emotional state and the environment around me, it was a noticeable shift. I no longer buy the arguments that we can control our smartphone addictions with will. The technology is too opti…

I really don't see the point of a dumbphone: it seems a lot like buying a ham radio and trying to use that for your daily life. Who am I going to talk to with a dumbphone? No one actually does "phone calls" any more using voice calling, at least in my corner of the world. (They do for work, but I'm not in a customer-facing job so I don't.)

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#508
Under $100:

- Head lamp

- Blinking led lamp for running.

I started running again. I have time after the kids are put to bed. I run outside of a small town where it's really dark (no street lights) so I need lots of lights on me. There are occasional cars and I don't want to be run over.

This is during the cold months. During summer it gets dark at 22ish at best.

Under $1000?

The automatic vacuum cleaner was more than this. I bought the most expensive one I could find that had good reviews. It washes the floor as well and cleans the pods used in hot water and soap.

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#509

Four things for me stick out in the under $100: Like many people here, a no-name double edged metal safety razor: I think I got this for around $25 or so with a set of 100 blades and 3 soaps; compared with disposable razors, this has been amazing - a better shave, a nice experience to it and so cheap. it took me about 2 years just to get through the "free" box of blades for it. Secondly a set of silicon coated spatul…

I’ve found you have to sand the silicone spatula to rough it up. They are so slippery the eggs will actually slip off even at a slight angle

Re: Ask HN: Life-changing purchases since 2020? (Under $100 and under $1000)

#510

Under $100: 1) A bidet! Got one in the pandemic when toilet paper was scarce and I wanted to be more efficient, but now I'll never go back. The Tushy ones are good. 2) A safety razor & accessories. I get a cheaper, closer, less irritating shave, and I get to customize every part of it. This can certainly be a rabbithole you spend a lot of money on, but you can get a solid customized starter kit for under $100 that wi…

Is there a travel bidet that falls into the same category in terms of the quality ? I have tried many but nothing works at the same level as tushy and thought i would make one myself! Would anyone from this community buy one if I made a very strong force bidet thats portable ?
Post reply on HN