An air fryer. It’s really a badly marketed product. Its real utility isn’t that it uses less oil, but that it cooks incredibly fast. Essentially an oven on steroids. It’s made cooking so much easier. I usually toss some boneless chicken in with a light coating of soy sauce and cornflour. While the chicken cooks, I prep a basic Asian sauce on the stovetop. The chicken and the sauce are both done within 10-15 minutes.…
Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
971–980 of 1001 posts
Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
#972Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
#973Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
#974A huge (A0, 33-1/8 x 46-13/16 in-sized) 12-month calendar with the months laid out in long strips. I wasn't doing enough. Too much YouTube and reddit, so I stopped and decided to do things. I used different colored markers for different aspects of my life-- health, work, fitness, recreational travel, home maintenance, etc) and decided I had to do something every week. The different colors even accounted for down time…
Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
#975An air fryer. It’s really a badly marketed product. Its real utility isn’t that it uses less oil, but that it cooks incredibly fast. Essentially an oven on steroids. It’s made cooking so much easier. I usually toss some boneless chicken in with a light coating of soy sauce and cornflour. While the chicken cooks, I prep a basic Asian sauce on the stovetop. The chicken and the sauce are both done within 10-15 minutes.…
The device itself was more expensive than $200, obviously, but the "small oven" aspect of it saved us from having to run our regular-sized oven at all. I'd been wanting a small (not quite toaster-oven style) oven for a while, but without the counter space we could only justify it by sharing space with the microwave.
Not a literal lifesaver, but definitely a figurative one.
Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
#976Samsung T5 SSD, a short USB c cable, and a sticker pocket to attach it to my 2016 MacBook. Why get gouged by apple on storage when you can just duct tape an SSD to your laptop?
Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
#977A wheatbuck pillow. Like 50 bucks, keeps it's shape, keeps it's chills (regular pillows come stoves to me), keeps my head straight without folding a pillow in 4, keeps some support of my head why I tuck my arm under so I don't put much pressure on my shoulder. Been travelling for 3 months and carrying it, makes every bed a good bed.
Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
#978Wacaco Nanopresso. I'm travelling a lot these days and I need coffee every morning. Many hotels don't have electric kettles so I also had to buy a tiny water heater to boil water right in its tiny cup. Saw some people go as far as using a portable coffee grinder but that's a heavier toy
Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
#979For me: - Philips OneBlade (use it weekly and have not needed to charge in 6 months) $35 - Large desk pad $20 - Shooting hearing protection with white noise (drowns out pretty much all other noise while coding) $100
Re: Ask HN: What sub $200 product improved your 2022
#980This is a weird one—Fiskars 4-Claw Weeder https://www.homedepot.com/p/Fiskars-34-in-Aluminum-Handle-an... Our dogs are frequently out in the yard, so other than spring pre-emergent I try to avoid herbicides. I bought it after a hand weeder broke pulling up crabgrass. This thing has oddly been one of the most satisfying purchases I've made in years. You put it in the ground, step on it and the thing easily pulls out w…