We just got one. We even splurged for the fancy one that hooks up to warm water. It is life changing. I feel very dirty whenever I have to do a poo somewhere else. Underrated appliance, for sure.
One of my life purposes is converting people to The Way of Bidet. I have bought over a dozen as gifts for people and pretty much anybody who is actually willing to install it and try it loves it and hopefully converts others in turn. Clearly superior to wiping in terms of hygiene, saving money on TP, and not irritating the bum.
TIL after Americans totally fucked up the meaning of “bread”, they went on with the word “bidet”. 😝
In Europe they’re made out of porcelain and installed by a professional (at least that’s how I’ve encountered them here)
Put in rice, add water, push start button, and you get perfect rice every time. I'm usually against single-purpose kitchen tools but a rice cooker is soo worth it.
Really only if you eat a lot of rice. For once a year or so, a pot on the stove works just fine. The actual benefit I've see for ricecookers is how well they can hold the rice for hours ready to go, but that's more of a commercial benefit I think.
[...] but that’s more of a commercial benefit I think
For me, this is the primary benefit of a rice cooker. Having warm, cheap, filling food on demand at any time is fantastic. I am so lazy and my little rice buddies are always ready to go when I can't be bothered.
Living in Japan, this almost didn't register to me. I have literally never met anybody that didn't have one. When you move out, you use your family's old one until you can buy a newer one.
I recently got an instant pot and gave my rice cooker back to my parents, the tough part was figuring out how to make it not stick of you don't have a nonstick liner. Letting it naturally release pressure with the keep warm off seems to do the trick for mine, I'm guessing quick release releases too much moisture, and the keep warm doesn't help either. With that I get good rice every time with no sticking.
Hmm, okay, I’ll bite. What’s the secret with low pressure for long grain rice like basmati? I’ve been using 1:1 ratio rice:water for 6 minutes on high with a 10 minute natural release.
I used to do that for years, but rice cookers really do some magic to get perfectly fluffy rice. I thought my technique was good, until I tried rice from a rice cooker.
So much this. I’m usually responsible for cooking for the week, and prepping rice was so much of a hassle in the middle of cooking everything else that most of the time I didn’t even bother and went for pasta instead— way easier to cook, but easily 3x the calories.
After I got a rice cooker, I just pop like 4 cups in that mfer and we got enough rice to last through like 2 days worth of dinner + bentos for lunch the day after.
Speaking of, be careful about consuming too much rice because of arsenic. There are plenty of other grains that don't soak up arsenic so readily and have a better nutritional profile. It's fine to eat rice, just switch it out throughout the week.
When I make chicken or beef stock I put it in I've cube trays. On some mornings I add the rice, a stock ice cube, and maybe some miso. I let it ride while I get ready and then crack an egg on the cooked rice and add some avocado, tamari and rice seasoning (nori and sesame)
ok this might sound heretical but a "hack" i learned from cooking youtube is to just boil rice like pasta then drain. I do this for about ~12 mins with white rice and it comes out perfect every time with no risk of messing up. Downside is you need to drain it.
unsure the validity of this claim? but apparently there can be a non-insignificant amount of arsenic in american grown rice, and boiling can help
leech it out into the water.
Is it different from a pressure cooker? Because pressure cooker is similar (add water, rice, start cooking, wait for X whistles) and has multiple use cases.
Rice cookers are not sealed for high pressure (they are in fact not sealed at all, just like regular pots and lids, because they need to lose excess moisture) and they are configured for this one particular thing: every rice cooker is calibrated for a fixed serving of rice (or couple different settings) with fixed amount of water. All it really does is turn off at the perfect moment, which is determines by weight.which is determined by a thermostat (magnet-based in this case)
The relatively good larger instant pot that I bought a couple of years ago was around $79, so I reckon you can still get one for under $100. Although I also have a rice cooker, I find this thing indispensable. I often have 5-8 people at my house, so a go to is throwing a bunch of chicken breast, soy, ginger, garlic, brown sugar, etc, in the instant pot for around 30-40 minutes total time while the rice is cooking. Shred chicken, turn to sauté, add a little corn starch slurry. Boom teriyaki chicken.
We do a similar thing for chicken tacos, but spicing with chicken bouillon, cumin, cayenne, chili powder, garlic, onion, tomato. Shred, enjoy meat for tacos, enchiladas, etc. I make a passable birria in about around 2 hours.
Country ribs/pork shoulder, bbq sauce, apple juice, onion, garlic. While it's cooking in the instant pot, simmer down an onion. Not quite caramelize until it's jelly, but sweat until onions are soft. Turn oven to broil, cut the entire pack of kings hawaiian rolls or similar in half, butter and brown under the broil. Shred the pork, spread on the rolls, add a little bbq sauce, the onions, and cover with provolone slices. Broil again until cheese melts.
Chili is another good one. Although I haven't done it, you can use unsoaked dry beans in some recipes. I usually just throw a few cans of my faves (I prefer it bitier, so more kidney) with spices and browned meat of some sort (feel free to omit) and we're good to go.
Most of the things I make in the instant pot are things that I would normally have to wait all day for, or at least 3-4 hours. Not great after a work day. Low and slow recipes work really well in instant pot with a minor adjustment here and there, and often you turn a 4 hour recipe into a 1 hour recipe. And as a poor, this type of cooking can be a game changer because low and slow is often for foods that are cheap. if you head to the store and buy a ny strip, you can come home and be eating great in 15 minutes. Not so much with a much, much cheaper piece of chuck.
For anyone who doesn't want a rice cooker but can't find a good basic white rice recipe:
Put rice and water in a pot (1 cup rice to 1.5 cup water. People will tell you 2 cups water, punch them, or ignore them, your choice.) Turn it on high until it boils, stirring lightly occasionally to stop it from sticking. As soon as it starts boiling (not simmering) cover it with a lid and turn on low. Keep covered until it's done (just taste it to test if it's done.)
P.S. You can add whatever seasonings you want if you find something good online or something. It's not important to actually cooking the rice.
My husband got us a Zojirushi rice cooker for my birthday one year, and I love it so much! We had an old $15 Oster one previously, which was also pretty nice to have, but oh boy. I'm spoiled by Zojirushi now. We could make a cake in it! I haven't yet.... But I could! Lol.
If you have a car get a dashcam. It’s more valuable than any insurance because it will definitively prove what happened when something goes wrong. Bonus: you can post videos of bad drivers doing stupid things on the internet for imaginary points.
If only there was actually a good car dashcam, but every time I go down that rabbit hole I give up frustrated. The quality (build, mounting, video, whatever) is shit in pretty much all of them, and the "passable" ones look like a web cam from 2005 still.
I've bought the N2 Pro from Vantrue a couple of years ago and I've been super happy with it. The quality is pretty good and it has actually capable night vision and parking surveillance. I've also bought one for my brother in law (who got into an accident just a month after) and one for my grandma. Not to sound like an ad, but these are definitely worth checking out even if it's an older model.
Definitely get one for your teenage driver. It keeps them honest and safe. And they will pay for themselves many times over if you get in an accident that wasn't your fault. It's like having your very own personal unimpeachable witness riding with you.
A pair of high fidelity earplugs (aka concert earplugs or filtering earplugs). You can get a good non-custom pair for $15–$40, and that’ll work well for the average person for a long time.
They’re excellent for live music, airplanes, and anytime you want the world to be quieter but still need to be able to understand speech. And for music specifically, they can bring the volume level down just enough to be safe without muffling the sound like traditional foam earplugs do. Protect your hearing, kids!
I know it’s way more expensive, but the last gig I went to, I used my AirPods Pro in transparency mode, and it reduced the sound down from an insane ~110db to peaks of 90! Definitely worth protecting your ears.
Yeah, I can't stand losing the high frequencies and overall feel of the music with "musician's" earplugs. How anyone other than a drummer plays with them and is satisfied is beyond me. I have some Etymotics just sitting here.
For anyone reading this, I definitely recommend Earasers. I have spent the better part of my life around really loud music things, especially because of my job. These things work wonders and are incredibly comfortable and low profile
Even regular earplugs at a loud concert work amazingly well for me. I can still hear conversation (people yelling over the music) but the deafening volume of the concert is brought down to acceptable levels.
I don't understand why concerts are so loud. They're just...so, so fucking loud...
A bike. Poor people in underdeveloped countries can use it to get access to education and markets, while people from developed countries can ise it to keep healthy and reduce their environmental footprint
I was going to say that, but out of the 6 bikes in the garage none of them are under $100 even second hand.
In fact I would advise against getting a cheap shitty bike that isn't going to last. Spend the extra money, get something good. It's better for the environment and your wallet in the long run.
I've driven "good" bikes all my life. Aluminium frame, disc brakes, fancy suspension, 3x9 gears. That sort of thing.
Wanna know what my best biking experience was? Riding a steel frame, 3-speed dutch-style rental omafiets with no suspension and regular-ass brakes on a vacation. That thing was hella comfortable, sturdy as a brick and convenient.
If I lived in a not fully car-brained city where you can safely bike and was tight on money, I'd absolutely buy an old cheap used regular-ass steel frame bike with no frills and use the hell out of it until it's irreparably broken. You can leave that thing standing in the rain, locked with just a frame lock (or perhaps even no lock at all) all without worrying that it might get damaged or stolen because there isn't much to damage or steal in the first place.
I also don't see how buying a "good" bike in any way helps the environment when the alternative is re-using something that's already been built and successfully used before.
I love my 2000€ Brompton that I daily-drive but I'd be nearly as happy with a 100€ bike like I described above. You don't get more bike when you go above that price point, you only get a more fancy bike.
If you live in America, there are certainly a lot of things to consider on this point; mainly whether cycling in your area is even safe—obviously the ideal solution would be to move to an area with safer cycling, but that's not an option for everyone—and I'd much rather someone not cycle than die because their area has horrible roads for cycling and they didn't think about that. Check the safety of your area, and consider moving to a safer area for cycling if necessary (Or if you're in it for the long haul, consider pitching in the community and trying to lead it towards a safer cycling future)
3 dozen pairs of identical socks. Mine are black crew cut. I'll wear them until the last few pairs are worn through and I'll never have a sock without a mate.
Yep I have that problem now. All the toilet seats in my house are soft close and I slam public toilet seats whenever I'm out of the house now without thinking
And a disaster kit, tailored to the most common disasters in your region. If you have a first aid kit you already have a large portion of what it needs!
Very important that whatever first aid kit you get has a tourniquet, or that you buy one separately.
They are easily the most important life saving device in any first aid kit. 99% of the time you won't need it for normal cuts but when you are dealing an injury that needs one you WILL regret not having one.
Maybe specific, but if you do any DIY housework, get an endocscope. Baiscally, a 10 foot long flexible wire with a camera and light at the end. Uses your phone as a screen. Can be had for <$50. So many of my house projects would have been impossible without it. Also good for finding stuff under the couch.
The Haynes manual for your car. Even if you're not a mechanic they are so detailed they will walk you through fixing almost anything, they're made for the laymen. I'm a diesel mechanic and even i own one for my cars.
When friends buy a new car i buy them a Haynes manual.
They don't do them for ever single car in the world and the coverage isn't as great on later model stuff but if you own s car 5 years or more old they're great.
A water kettle. Doesn't have to be any fancy one, but it really fucking rocks for anything you might think of : want hot water for tea? No problem. Need hot water to steep something? No problem.
Most mid-range ones are insanely power efficient too, often being alot better than just boiling water on a stovetop, or using a microwave. And, depending on insulation, heat can be stored for over 6! hours.
A rice cooker making rice in a saucepan will yield different results almost every time, a $20-50 rice cooker is just a set it and forget it kitchen tool that yields the same results every time. Very nice and easy
If you have any doubts about the pipes in your house or have a feeling that water might enter your basement, sensors will help you sleep at night.
Water damage to your home is no joke. I know two separate homeowners who have had leaks from their refrigerator's plumbing (water and ice dispenser). The damage for each homeowner was quite extensive given how small the leak was.
Most people who have heard of water sensors know of the moen one. I'm in Canada, and my plumber recommended a Canadian company, Sinope. They were much less expensive and had a sensor in the line and ones you could put in and around appliances that use water.
The in-line flow sensor shuts off the water if it senses abnormal flow anywhere. But the physical sensors shut off the water when it's leaking at that spot.
We've had no leaks, but the flow sensor shut off the water when I filled the kiddie pool and forgot to turn it off. It also cuts short, excessively long showers (that can be turned off).
The safety net is fantastic to have. We can install that freezer ice cube maker without a worry.
I went to go check out Sinope's site, and it was already in my browser history. I wonder what past me was looking up...lol
Besides that, the smart valves are so much cheape than Moen! I might have to actually get one now. The ever looming threat of potential water damage stresses me out way too much.
Seriously, these are a lifesaver! I add a couple to every housewarming gift. Some models can even email/txt you when they trip so you can have peace of mind when on vacation.
Yes, indeed! I have an automatic sump pump in my basement, so that covers heavy rain and potential burst pipes. But my cousin had pipes freeze and burst while he was away for Christmas. Even though he had insurance, the repairs took months.
You know those people who seem useless and forgetful all the time? They don't write anything down so they are lost when they try to do things and too embarrassed to ask for advice again because they forgot what you told them. You also end up repeating stuff to them over and over again when they just don't do a task or mess it up.
My dad would say a cast iron pan. That would outlive you and your kids.
I would say maybe an air fryer, I think you could get a decent one for less than $100USD. I use mine every day.
Otherwise, maybe good waterproof boots. I got some decent ones at an outlet store. They are kind of dressy so nice enough for work, but also warm AF and during the winter they are so good.
An air fryer is an appliance with electrical parts, including probably some fragile cheap electronics, moving parts (the fan that blows the air around) and parts made of different materials in a machine that is going to experience lots of cycles of heating and cooling. That is to say, there is a pretty sizable room for wear and tear. Hopefully it'll last you many years, but one doesn't really expect a machine like that to last for generations, especially considering things like planned obsolescence. A pan has no moving parts, no powered components, nothing but a hug sturdy slab of metal formed into a specific shape. As long as you take care of it properly to avoid corrosion, there's not really anything to break about such a thing. So the idea of the later lasting practically indefinitely makes sense, the former not so much.
Plus one for airfryer. Bought one that was on discount a few years back, has a spot on top of the cabinet when not in use but it's almost always on the counter.
I find that I use it pretty much every day for one thing or another, so mine has earned permanent counter residence. I’ll probably buy a much fancier one when this one kicks the bucket.
We had an air fryer, loved the food but it was SO difficult to clean. The sides would shred our sponges. Eventually we stopped using It because timed save from cooking was lost twice over from cleaning it. And then it was recalled anyways
What do you use it for? I can’t think of a single thing that I would need an airfryer for. Between a standard convection oven and a deep fryer there is a better tool for anything you would possibly use the airfryer for.
I know people like air fryers, but I personally would recommend a NuWave. I know As Seen On TV, but it can be an air fryer from what I can tell, but is also just a really easy to use convection oven that's reasonably cheap (though it is over $100), and everything that is going to be touched by food or it's drippings can go in the dishwasher!
A sun hoodie. Sun hoodies are meant to be worn on their own, cover your entire upper body, be very light, and have a high UPF (clothing equivalent of SPF). Instead of dealing with globs of sunscreen that wears out as you sweat, you can slip on a sun hoodie in an instant and get lasting protection. I got the REI store brand, which is around $50. Unfortunately, it looks like they're almost sold out of the nice visible orange color that I bought. It's only available in XXXL.
As a homeowner, a Dremel. I've replaced half my tools with a single device and counting. Best 80 bucks I've spent on useful stuff in ages. You can get literally anything as an attachment, Lol. I'm waiting for the attachment that will do my taxes.
They covered this in Hitchhiker's Guide. The answer is a towel. A towel is just about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can carry.
I already had one, but thank you for subtly reinforcing my irrational fear given I have never known a single person in my area who has ever gotten bed bugs. One can never be too safe....
It's one of the worst things that's ever happened to me. I still have the pest control service come every month and check even though it's been a year and it's always fine.
And it's good for more than just bed bugs - Mattresses are one of the more expenses items in your home (at least they are if you've got your priorities right), and all it takes is one accident (whether pet, child, or drunk spouse) to completely ruin it
Amen. Not so much an issue for 40 year old me but I had so many friends in my younger days who didn't own one because they didn't think they needed it...until they needed it.
I know that feeling. When I was in college neither me or my roommates had a plunger when the toilet backed up. We tried to use a clothes hanger to unclog the toilet. It didn't work well.
A well stocked toolbox. Not just a random assortment of things but a well considered, well stocked toolbox with everything you need to tackle basic home repair.
To all those saying that tools are too expensive, they are not. Everything you need to tackle most home repair scenarios can be had under $100. Will you be turning screws by hand and adjusting wrenches? Yes. Will it be enjoyable work? Probably not, but you absolutely can have a good set of very basic tools for under $100 then add to it over time.
Get a hammer, adjustable wrench, angled pliers, razor utility knife, and 11-in-1 screwdriver. Buy additional tools as needed.
If you have any interest in working on things, a ~$30 set of calipers is an awesome tool for figuring out hardware sizes and so much more. You can definitely spend much much more but as a hobbiest I'd recommend against it.
A few spare charging cables to keep plugged in around the house are always great too, I also recommend keeping one in your travel bag so you never need to think about packing one.
A good pocket knife or multi-tool like a Letherman or Gerber. I always have a pocket knife on me and a multi-tool in my car. Either one gets used pretty much daily.
I bought an Opinel Carbon just last week. I got the size 9. It lives in my work laptop bag and comes with me every day. I also got the Opinel non-Carbon (stainless?) size 7 for my wife, and she has been using it a lot to open packages, food cartons, etc. Its handy just to have a sharp knife at hand when you need it. The Opinel models are very good for the price.
I was going to say, a Swiss Army Knife. Lifechanging. I use it quite a lot. It's small for men's pockets, and you can get smaller ones too (mine is a cybertool, so on the middle-large size of SAKs). I also have a SwissTool that's huge and just tool porn and fun to use as a fidget device, but way too big for me to EDC, and way overkill for what I'd end up needing it for. Also the SwissTool is over $100. The Cybertool was at $99, and there's plenty of less specialized SAKs going down to like $30.
Though I haven't actually found good bluetooth headphones for sub $100. My favorite so far were the Senheiser PXC550 (I think thats it). But mine have gotten chewed by a dog :(. I liked the audio quality, didn't love the touch controls, but the cheap headphones I've gotten to replace them just sound awful.
I am impressed with this pair of Silensys PRO Bluetooth headphones. I got them on sale at Amazon for around ~54.00 USD and they're surprisingly adequate. I don't have the money to justify a better pair. They're even noise cancelling too.
Not headphones but the Samsung earbuds are pretty good and I picked them up for ~60$ on Amazon. I hadn't used earbuds for years and had no idea how good the tech has gotten. Super comfortable, pretty good noise muffling, fancy wireless charging. Makes doing yard work go so fast.
It sounds crazy, but trust me: a corn cob backscratcher.
It’s essentially just a dried piece of corn on a wooden stick. But the texture is perfect, and because it’s rounded, it covers a much larger area than a regular backscratcher and is much more satisfying to use. My wife bought me one for $11 and I swear by it. You simply cannot go back to a regular backscratcher after trying one.
Oh, and they’re indestructible. My in-laws still use one from 1979!
Admittedly for $100 you might have to choose one or the other (though I used a $12 ergonomic mouse from Amazon for years until I switched to a trackball, and I loved it) - but if your job is computer based, you really should consider switching to ergonomic equipment.
Your average keyboard and mouse setup is absolute murder on the wrists in the long run - if you spend more than a couple hours at the computer every day without ergonomic equipment and your wrists don't hurt, then it's only a matter of time.
Granted, it's not just about buying a cool new keyboard and mouse - you also need to cut out bad habits like wresting your wrist on the table while typing and so on, but a good KBM will help you build those habits naturall
A basic set of tools. Car jack, tire iron, jumper cables. Rice cooker, crock pot, and air fryer (probably more than 100 collectively, but each one should be less than 100).
A streamlight stylus pro is $20, uses 2 AAA batteries, is barely bigger than a pen, and can be an absolute life saver. It produces way more light and throws it way further than your phone's light, and I've been carrying the same one every day for nearly 15 years now with no signs of it failing. I use it nearly daily in my personal and professional life, you will genuinely wonder how you manages without it if you make it a habit of carrying it.
Or go nuts and get yourself a something like a surefire G2. Bigger, heavier, but more durable and incredibly bright.
yeah I don't doubt that a dedicated flashlight is miles better than my phone, but I rarely need a flashlight at all, and the times I do 99% of the time my phone is more than sufficient. I don't want to carry something around all the time just so that in the rare occasion I do need it it's marginally better (from a purely practical perspective) than what I was already going to have with me. When I need a flashlight, it's because something fell under a piece of furniture, or the lights went out in a room - it's never a scenario when i need to be able to light up a field or something
The phone flashlight is barely adequate for some uses, but like a lot of stuff on a phone has some serious compromises. YMMV if that matters to you. For me, I find it's really hard to hold a phone when I need a flashlight and hit where I need the light, whereas a more traditional flashlight doesn't take up an entire hand exactly - you can grip it with like 2 fingers or in your teeth, or under your arm etc. Hard to describe but try it without getting the phone to thing you're trying to turn the flashlight off. (I might suck at using smartphones though).
But worst than that, it's got a really short throw and isn't that bright. It might be me just getting older, but I've found a "real flashlight" like a "real camera" makes a world of difference. I have some cheap Anker one I got as a gift which is like 10 times brighter and throws probably 100 times as far as my smartphone. I have to imagine new "high end" ones are much better.
I also recently got a "improved phone light" off of tech dirt and I probably overpaid, look on Temu to save money. But it clips to my SAK, or keys, it's a lot brighter, it has a fold out stand and a magnet and is pretty tiny.
Again - if you don't ever curse out your phone as a flashlight, then you don't need any of this, but if you regularly do (or just want to save your phones battery for something other than being a flashlight) - check some of these out.
People need pens more often than you'd think and you can be their hero. They're nigh indestructible in a bag or pocket and the thick ink will write on many things a normal ballpoint pen can't. I've written on ceramic, glass, wet cardboard, and one time (in the 90's) high school cafeteria roast beef.
The only downside is that if you damage the tiny ball in the ballpoint pentip and then don't use the pen again for a while, the sticky ink can ooze out and make a mess inside the lid.
An 8-10 inch mid level chef knife. One with a single bevel made of quality steel that can hold an edge will make a world of difference. You haven't lived until you've cut paper thin potato slices like butter
One compact bag with a first aid kit, a knife, fire stone, rescue blanket and a turniquet. All really cheap, small and light and it can be life saving.
Asthma puffer - they are cheap, and if someone has an asthma attack (and you can have one if you don't have a history) it saves a person's life. I have one in my backpack, just in case. This was a tip from a first aid course I did years ago.
At least one GMRS radio, along with the license to use it. In an emergency where cell lines are down, that's what people will be using for communication. In the US, there are also NOAA weather stations that are very resilient that many GMRS radios can pick up. Just be mindful of etiquette, since there are a limited number of channels.
I took a selfie for a car hire application recently and only looked at it closely after I sent it. Now I'm cursed with the knowledge that whoever processed the application saw me with a long white nose hair hanging.
Does it do a good job on ear hair? I’ve tried multiple groomers that get the nose hair well enough but every one of them has been trash at getting the ear hair so I’ve resorted to plucking it.
A water heater/dispenser, you can find some smaller capacity ones for under 100.
I have one that was more than 100 but it's because I love it so much that I wanted a 5 liter one.
I can make tea in an instant and always have plenty of near boiling water. They're extremely power efficient so they don't cost much too run.
I have these too. They are motion activated night lights for the toilet bowl, so you can leave the bathroom lights off at night and save your eyes, as your destination lights up to greet you. It's fantastic.
A mug warmer for my coffee and tea cups. No more drinking cold coffee or having to rush through my cup before it gets too cold. It was less than 20 bucks and I use it basically every day. Wonderful purchase
This Baseus USB C 65 Watt 3-port charger. I recently bought one to carry in my laptop bag as a portable charger, and it has proven to be indispensable. I've already used it while out and about or on trips out of town to simultaneously charge 3 devices at once. Such as my phone, earbuds, and laptop. It's so small and lightweight, and you can bring a single charging brick to take care of all your devices. I'm never going back to having to carry multiple chargers with me.
The brand I buy (don't want to say and be branded a shill) is like $20/pair, which is pricey for sure, but I've been wearing this brand for like a decade now and have only gone through one set in all that time, not to mention that they're comfortable AF.
Good hiking shoes and some hiking pants. Especially the pants, got a set from the Decathlon for 40 bucks or so, light, airy, but not cold, extra pockets with zippers, zip-off bottom parts, elastic bands at the bottom. Use them for hiking but almost any activity that just requires a comfortable and efficient pant (actually it would work everywhere except at the office now that I think about it).
Get a used electronic pressure cooker and high power blender. Both products generally run $100+ but you can get them used or refurbished much cheaper and these products hold up really well so you aren't losing anything. You'll eat healthier and cheaper, soon saving more money than you put down. The pressure cooker is amazing for beans which I rarely made from dry before having one, and the blender is great for smoothies, soups, and homemade sauces among other things. You can also probably pick up a rice cooker at a thrift store for $10 or less.
Yeah you can. But a notebook is just always there and doesn’t need a chord to charge.
All kidding aside: if you have ADD tendencies, your phone often distracts you before you can write down that thought or that idea. This is why I always have a notebook with me.