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Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

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Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#251

Post by jimmaswell »

TuringNYC wrote: post #190

App "Scanner Pro" - feels like a professional scanner, always available on the go and auto-uploads to GDrive. Use it extensively. Google Voice (until it stopped working well) - I could not have lived overseas for 3yrs w/o Google Voice. An absolute lifesaver while I was making 12-15 transnational trips a year doing both business and grad school at the same time. Google Fi would have been great, but the overall system…

I've found the extended features of paid Lose It, mainly protein tracking, to be worthwhile but I wish it wasn't a yearly subscription.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#252

Post by polygot »

SamvitJ wrote: post #191

Not a tiny purchase, but I use this 250W corn bulb lamp all the time for lighting up my office room in the winter months: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07W5DGBJZ/ . Amazing amount of light (35k lumens) and does not overheat.

Totally agree. I have a 300W equivalent attached to a $10 IoT plug that turns on when my alarm goes off in the morning.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#253

Post by ibdf »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #10

Mail processor. I spend $20/month, they receive all of my mail, open it, and digitize it. They discard the junk mail if I want. I never have to visit a mailbox again. I can even register it as my address on my driver's license and for my vehicles. EDIT: The service I use is https://www.sbimailservice.com/ .

Wow, I never knew this was a thing.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#254

Post by SkyPuncher »

corny wrote: post #130

Prescription glasses optimized for the distance to my computer screen. I was getting eye strain after even a short time in front of the computer. The new glasses completely solved the eye strain. I highly recommend it for anyone who is near sighted and uses a computer.

There's a change you have astigmatism.

I purchased cheap glasses online and intentionally turned down the astigmatism correction. Significantly reduced eye strain.

* During the day, I use my "correct" prescription. Even though it gives me a bit of eye strain.

* At night, I switch to my adjusted prescription. Not as visibly clear, but significantly less eye strains.

It's nice having a clear separation between "focus" glasses and "relaxing" glasses.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#255

Post by SkyPuncher »

bmarquez wrote: post #13

A vacuum insulated water bottle. It reminds me to drink more water and it stays cold the entire day.

Target sells a Zulu Ace water bottle that I really enjoy. The bottom screws off, so it's incredibly easy to clean.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#257

Post by hypertele-Xii »

Clothespins, carabiners, tiedown straps, and S-hooks. They are all physical fasteners. My apartment and equipment are littered with them. Any thing that has a loop can thus be attached to any other thing with a loop. Any cable can be simply knotted once to hold a carabiner, thus any cable can be attached to any loop.

It feels like adult Lego. Just wish more things had loops.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#260

Post by tmaly »

tenfourwookie wrote: post #100

I buy high mileage Honda minivans for no more than $3000 because they're dependable and cheap at high mileage. I generally get 100,000 miles out of them, so 4 mostly dependable vans and 400,000 miles for about $12,000. You'll lose $12K in depreciation alone just driving a new car off a lot. I've lived in them safely and comfortably for a total of about 3 years, living all over the western US from New Mexico to Montan…

Where do you look online for minivans like you describe?
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