Asklemmy

A lot of my work gear is sort of pricey but it keeps me safe and working. Usually pays itself off within a month or two and will last at least a few years.

A slipping torque wrench, two jack stands, and a hydraulic jack. I change the summer and winter tires on several cars twice/year and have been since the 90s

I bought a big pack of eneloop rechargeable batteries a decade ago and they are just within the last year or so starting to fail.

• Beefy Laptop
• Rechargeable tools (especially the Impact Driver)
• Local library membership

When Germany first came up with the idea of subsidising electric cars, we were able to snatch an electric golf for about 20k€. We're commuting a lot, making roughly 25k km per year on each car.

When we were using our regular electricity provider, we reduced our monthly gas bill from more than 300 € to less than 100 € for the golf. Since we switched to a contract that is bound to stock market prices, we lowered it to less than 40. Saving about 270 € per month now.

Factoring in about 500 € of taxes saved each year and between 1000 and 2000 Euros worth of repairs for our old combustion engine cars per year, the car already paid for itself and saves us money.

• Smart Lighting - My mum replaced most the lightblub in our house with Philips Hue. Nearly decade on and still using them which as an Autistic, I love that I can tweak the lighting to however I want from an app and compare to regular lightbulbs, it doesn't give me as much sensory nightmare as I find some of the lighting to be really harsh and distracting.
• Noise-cancelling Headphones - Often use it if I'm in sensory overload, walking as I tend to listen to music as well as being on the bus to distract myself which otherwise, I start panicking how full the bus is.
• Desktop DAC & Bookshelf Speakers - Always find changing volume on OS itself to not be perfect as it too low or high for my liking. I can simply tweak the volume knob of my Desktop DAC to get the volume just right. Also great way to listen to music

My Nancy pelosi stock bot has done really well

Hair clipper. Paid for itself in two uses. It's been years.

The modem. At some point ISPs started charging a rental fee for their provided modem. When I noticed it was 12 dollars a month, not sure what it might have gone up to by now. You can buy a decent modem on the lower side of a hundred ish dollars. Pays for itself in the first year.

While it hasn't paid for itself yet literally, getting a hybrid electric/gas car has been amazing. I only fill up roughly once a month and it costs ~$20. I've already had it 6 years and the only thing I've had to do is bring it in for the occasional recall notice for system updates.

A comb binder for bookmaking.

I print off a lot of RPG books and music that would otherwise cost a fortune. Now it's basically the cost of toner and paper.

I like having an e-reader for most stuff, but some things are just better as physical objects that can be marked up and tabbed.

My Sodastream has saved me a lot of money—with some cheap syrups I just make very inexpensive nice drinks. Especially considering I got mine second-hand and refill it through a local guy who fills the cylinders for half the price. I suppose I could save even more money if I figure out how to refill the cylinders myself.

First thing that comes to m8nd is my Pitbull head shaver. I s(h)aved several hundred euros on simple head shaves, 2 minutes a time.

Bicycle for sure. I'm going to get one fitted for winter and hopefully be able to use either depending on weather all year round going forward.

Dishwasher. It might not have paid for itself in money but in peace of mind - how I hate doing dishes. It ruins my day and stresses me out, so not having to deal with it has been truly valuable.

Hiking boots. They're meant for summer hiking but I use them all season, but with studs in winter. Have saved my ankles and feet from twisting, blisters, heat and cold.

Okay so this is a little awkward because I'm a big advocate for using cars as little as possible and fighting to remove car dependant infrastructure. However, I have a truck that's as old as I am, its the only car I've ever owned and its stunning how well it is chugging along. It's seen around 300,000 miles, both coasts of the US, immense hail storms, a small tornado, a multi-car pileup, a few bullets, and multiple hurricanes. It leaks just about every fluid, its hood is a different color because I pulled it from a junkyard, and the trunk has a large bloodstain. Yet the fucker refuses to die, its never even broken down and left me stranded. Every major issue was cheap and fixable at home. I must be immensely lucky because I do not treat it kindly. I didn't personally buy it but its served my entire family for over 2 decades so I'd hope it had payed itself off by now.

Robot vacuum. We have pets and children and our floors used to be disgusting all the time. But then my partner had the smarts to buy a cheap robot vacuum and now our floors are mostly clean most of the time.

Cheap Chinese diamond grindstones. I can have razor sharp knives any time I want now, it makes cooking so much more enjoyable.

Used Wacom Cintiq 21UX I got off FB marketplace for like $300 (MSRP went for $1500+) about 5 years ago. No new drivers are being updated or released for it because it's so old, but it still works great. I've likely made back what I paid for it in art commissions since then.