After building my first pc I will never buy a pre built again. I might never buy a pc again (pc of thesius!)
you’re only saying that because you have the one computer
wait until you start running your own servers and whatnot. used prebuilts with some expansion room are the most cost effective
for my gaming pc, though? fuck no. just keep changing parts out as required
Alcohol, tobacco
- Phones on contract payment plans
- New monitors: Maybe my eyes suck, but my set of two 21-inch LCD monitors from 2005 is still going strong
- Third-party meal delivery: I’m fine sitting down with a microwaved meal or some canned soup if I don’t feel like cooking
- A new car every x years: My car of choice is old and relatively cheap, so I could afford to pay in full in cash. Bonus of being spyware-free, so I’ll just maintain it for as long as I can.
- Stuff from Aliexpress, Temu and the like: the user experience is horrendous, customer service is nonexistent, and discount codes are pure gimmicks
my problem is I can’t even find a car to replace my old one. been trying, but when 2012-2014 is the newest model they make of what I want… hard to find for a reasonable price
I just want a small wagon
I might end up looking at newer stuff, but… how tf am I going to avoid shitty touchscreens, spyware, LED headlights, and all that garbage?
I wouldn’t be surprised if the Slate Truck/SUV ends up being just marketing hype, but I’m keeping my eye on it since they promise a minimalist EV where you plug in the smarts in the form of your own smartphone. Otherwise, it’s just a dumb EV, which is how I’d keep it.
New monitors: Maybe my eyes suck, but my set of two 21-inch LCD monitors from 2005 is still going strong
Your eyes don’t suck. You just want to abuse them for some reason. Modern display tech is way easier on your eyes.
My eyes would bleed at the sight of my laptop’s 1366x768 TN panel if I got used to anything better! Those are the “good” monitors haha.
A 144hz monitor has been the biggest upgrade to my computer since switching from an HDD to a SSD. It’s that big of a difference.
Yeah, cant go back from that. I have one myself, 30 inch. Everything looks super crisp and smooth on it.
Not as dramatic of a shift, but going to 4k HDR OLED has made me so spoiled in terms of movie watching experience.
Anything apple
Apples are my favourite snack!
Television. It’s like paying to see ads.
Hand soap. Dish soap works better and you can use it on dishes in addition to your hands.
A dining table. I eat at my desk or standing at a counter. I was pressured into buying one by family because it was apparently bizarre to them I did not have one. Got the cheapest one I could find to appease them. I have now owned it for 4 years and it has never been used once, it just takes up space.
Not if you have a media player… I dont watch anything with ads.
Yes, that’s what I mean. I don’t pay for TV because I just put all of my media on a Jellyfin server as I also don’t want to watch ads, let alone pay to watch ads.
I couldn’t live without a dining table. Where else would I keep car parts when they come out of the dishwasher?
Just wanted to add that dish soap is actually very strong and removes all the natrual oils from your skin. If you are prone to sensitive skin it’s a bad habit to regularly use dish soap as it can aggrivate it. Every now and then isn’t going to hurt though.
I’ve had glasses for a long time and interestingly they clean better with hand soap. Many have suggested to use dish soap but it seems to be less effective. I’d imagine most of the stains come from being in contact with skin so I’m a bit surprised.
True enough. I haven’t had any problems in using it myself but I supposed you could ratio it with some water or something to make it not as intense for hands.
It’s a lot cheaper than hand soap too so in doing this you could probably get a tonne of hand washes out of it for really cheap.
The primary downside to it for me is that it lasts ages and I get kind of tired of the smell.
Soap and detergent are different things. A bar of soap is way cheaper than dishwashing liquid.
Yes but there I think there is a miscommunication here.
I’m not talking about detergent/dishwashing liquid - I’m talking about liquid dish soap which I can purchase locally for about $3 to the litre and is different thing.
Detergent/dishwashing liquid is definitely much more expensive and probably would not be great for washing hands.
Bar soap is definitely still cheaper though overall, you are correct.
Not enough people watching Technology Connections in this comment chain…
Shame
Ah I seem to recall a video he did about dishwashers and why the pods are bad etc. I think he may have briefly touched on making your own detergent using bar soap and borax as well as the manufacturer recommendation to put some detergent in the bottom in addition to behind the spring loaded door.
He has a new video now with his new formula that’s part of ecogeek. Once I’m in the position to have a dishwasher again, I’m be going that route.
Oh neat, I’ll have to go watch the new one when I have a chance. I recall it working quite well and being absurdly cheap - I can’t recall if he did a cost analysis. Maybe I’ll watch the old one again and then the new one haha.
Restaurant fries and drinks.
Was on a really tight budget for a time, so I know I can feed myself for a few Euros a day. Going back to fast food restaurants at all still instils some guilt in me, but there is 1 that has unbelievably good prices and I can still appreciate the convenience at times.
But fries and drinks are just a scam with how big the profit margins are, and not even hard to prepare at home if you’re ordering take out or have it delivered (I also don’t pay for delivery, my bike is free).
I agree for the drinks. But I can’t cook fries like my local burger place does. And it’s cheap, like half a dollar (USD equivalent of my home currency) for 1 box of fries.
Yeah and I just don’t like fries that much anyway. If I get fast-food, I’m getting two value menu burgers, not one regular full meal.
God restaurants have gotten so expensive, especially delivery. $15-$18 for a burger, another $4-$6 for fries, multiplied by two, plus delivery fees, taxes, and tip… easily $50+
Software subscriptions. I’ll buy a perpetual license if there’s no decent open source alternative as long as it will run offline. For example, $300 for Marvelous Designer back in the day was reasonable, but they can fuck right off with the subscription-only model.
Hair product. I use a bar of Irish Spring for everything.
A few people are saying “streaming services”, I go further and rarely-if-ever buy entertainment media. Music, videos, games, websites.
Not even pirating most of the time, there’s a whole world of good Creative Commons music, FOSS games and actual creative communities (not just parasocial fan communities) for me to be entertained for lifetimes. It’s just healthier to be outside the world of profit and addiction machines. (It amazes me that people can think ‘influencer’ is not a creepy ominous title)
Jarred tomato sauce. It’s one of the easiest things to make and every jarred sauce I have ever had tasted like shit
I buy the cheap store brand stuff and flavor at home. Spices, fresh garlic, a little sauteed onion.
I make my own marinara, but I used canned tomatoes and sauces for the ingredients. I’m not par boiling and peeling fucking tomatoes. I’m dumping a shitton of ingredients into the pot, mixing, and letting it simmer for an hour or so, mixing occasionally.
That’s a lot of stuff but very to what I end up adding to the generic garlic/basil sauce I usually buy.
Definitely going to try adding Tapatio, cinnamon, and more paprika.
A car. Gas/petrol for a car. A parking spot for a car. Car insurance. A driver’s license. Winter tires for cars. Anything car related.
It’s so ridiculous to pay for a mobile living room that needs to be parked everywhere people go with it.
For me the car meant i felt like a grown up with tons of freedom. I can go anywhere, see anything.
I used to feel like you until i got one. But now, no way im ever living without one again. Its a life upgrade you cant go back from.
So I guess never by a car so you can live without one.
And people actually use that as an insult. “You’re not an adult until you own a car”. Which is a sad way of seeing millions of people that have been living without a car for their whole life.
And the freedom feeling depends mostly if you live in a region that is offering you ways not to be car dependent. Where I live, we have a very decent network of bike paths in the city but also going into the countryside and traversing the province. I live on the island of an archipelago and can pull my inflatable kayak with my bike trailer, explore the islands around, access nature nearby. I can also go camping and hiking and into the wilderness 200 km away by using this cycling network. I often go visit my parents and family 140-170 km away by cycling there. I could have start to drive and bought a car 25 years ago but I moved somewhere I wouldn’t need one, and my bike represents freedom. I’m free from having to pay big oil to fill a tank to go anywhere. I’m free from monthly parking fees. I’m free from paying the plates and the insurance.
Over the years, what I learned about cars don’t make me see them as freedom. I see them as a way to keep people perpetually paying for gas, sending billions to big oil. I see them as an endless sea and stream of pollution. They pollute the air and the sound. They are bad for mental and physical health. They take an ungodly amount of space. They kill about a million people every year. On the planet, every 30 seconds someone is killed in a car related “accident”. Every year, two billion animals (yes, billions) are killed by cars.
Going to see my nephew for his birthday in the suburbs where my sister lives is comical. Twelve people invited to go park their cars around a house that only has space for the cars of the occupants. You have to find parking everywhere you go for this thing, then whine that there’s no parking anywhere. Going to a funereal is also depressing, but even more so because you can see the traffic and congestion created by someone that died.
Cars are a horrible for humanity. They’re like a drug that everyone tells you to try. You’ll see. They’re so useful. Of course you can’t go back.
I just moved back to a city with decent enough transit and dumped my car and god I’m so much happier. I hate driving and car ownership with a fiery passion.
Sadly, many cities are designed around cars where owning one has become more or less a necessity.
Yeah. I moved into a city and region with enough transit for my needs but my family still lives in a place where there hasn’t been a coach or trains in 30 years. There were before but not anymore. And going to other regions or cities without a car is also becoming more and more difficult, if not impossible.
Unfortunately my province and country only care about cars. I really don’t want to drive but I fear that I won’t have any other choice at some point in the future because my other options are actively deteriorating.
Ethanol, caffeine, mushroom, and cauliflower
At the same time?
Is this a recipe?
Why cauliflower???
Onions. Can’t stand 'em.
Cook em?
I hate fresh onions, but grilled / sauteed / caramelized onions are fantastic!
Nope! I hate all forms of onion except powdered. I can occasionally stand them if they chopped very small.
It’s a texture thing mostly.
😢
Any paid subscription which doesn’t either
a) Save me money, eg Amazon prime (although someone else in my family has Prime so if I need something from Amazon I just use their account) b) Do something I can’t setup myself
And especially no subscriptions which give me the licenses to digital media, without hardware, eg xbox or netlfix
for amazon i think, it makes sense if one buys a lot of small things for some reason online,
but like otherwise often it is possible to buy from the website of the product company directly with free shipping (if one orders enough)
and i feel like every money amazon does not get is good
I agree. Amazon is probably the worst big tech company.
Especially when AWS goes down.
Pre-built computers. I’ve just been building PCs for so long I can’t imagine buying something that meet my specifications within a reasonable budget. And it’s fun.
I have never tried building a PC myself but I have gotten into reviving old ones. I haven’t bought a computer in over a decade. I just inherit people’s old ones and bring them back to life with linux, maybe replace a dead PSU or something. I’m new to hardware stuff. I really wish I knew a way to get these computers into the hands of people who can’t afford to buy one and don’t know how to do this themselves.
I built my own because I wanted a gaming computer with a blu-ray drive. That was the only way. I also added a floppy drive for shits and giggles.
Wouldn’t a pre-built secondhand pc be cheaper, if your just starting out?
I went this route. I don’t need something powerful to scroll Lemmy and watch downloaded TV/movies.
Made sure it had two display port outputs for dual monitors. Added another 16GB of RAM because why not. It is way more than I need. Probably could have gotten away with used micro PC.
I also have a NAS and micro PC “server.”
Pretty unlikely to find a second hand system with the highish specs I’d want.
But if you mean if someone just needed a computer, then yes used would be much cheaper given how quickly things advance.
