Asklemmy

I have two 10,000 liter water tanks in my basement that I use to harvest rainwater, and another 2,000 liter tank on my roof. From October to around May I close the city water and use only rainwater. I’ve been doing that for a bit more than 10 years now, and it paid for the installation cost in about 4 or 5 years. I also have solar water heaters, but it’s hard to tell how long they took to pay for themselves because I also have on-grid photovoltaic panels for energy generation. My energy bill is about 1/6 of my neighbors’, and the photovoltaic panels paid for themselves in about 5 years as well.

Boring answer but my hair clippers.

Ain't been to the professionals for years.

I do look like the wild man of the woods though

My power tools. I'm not a professional but doing all the diy home repairs myself with the right tools for the job has probably saved me tens of thousands of dollars in contractors. And believe me when I say get the right tools for the job, it's worth it. You can fight with the wrong tool for hours trying to get a job done poorly or do it right in minutes with the right tools for the job. Not only is your time valuable but having the project done correctly the first time means you don't have to pay to fix it a second time. Even if you're the one doing it the second time, you still have to spend the time ripping out the garbage you put in and pay for the materials to do it right the second time.

My bike is the only thing I can say for certain has paid for itself. If I had paid $1 for each trip I’ve taken on it, I would have spent far more than it cost me.

Ditched gaming chairs, got an ergonomic office chair with several adjustment points.

It's mesh seat and back, so its breathable in summer, gentle and supportive. I sit upright with no back pain. I lock it in place upright if I'm not using the armrests (eg: controller). Comfortable enough you quickly forget its even there, which is what you actually want in your practical furniture.

Every 'gaming' chair I've used cost almost as much, was a sticky pleather mess that flaked within months, pneumatics shot within a year, weird 'racecar' leaning back, fucked up my neck. But hey, at least it was in garish pointless colours? (Also, fuck those chairs that have the little 'edges', are they supposed to cup me in my seat Luke a cot? Because they get in the way).

I will never game in a gaming chair again. Quality ergonomic office chairs are DESIGNED for sitting in for hours at a time, and it shows. I've converted several others now.

I’m not sure I’m quite there yet but I’m on my way: my sewing machine.

I sew clothes for me and my husband. I sew my kids’ Halloween costumes. I sew bags; my last two purses have been made by me. One is still in great shape aside from the handles; my kiddo said I should get (or sew) a new purse and I replied, nah, just need to re-sew the handles, no biggie.

The only reason I don’t think it’s paid for itself quite yet is because I bought a pricey machine in 2021 after struggling with a hand-me-down for a while.

A book. Teach yourself Perl in 30 days. (Edit - may have been 21 days)

I bought it around 25-30 years ago. I have dyslexia and autism and have had problems learning from books in the past, but something about the way that was written just clicked for me.

It allowed me to write some pretty cool software, including a huge system that ran a large animal charity for a very long time, tons of automation software and scripts, and several full webuis. Indirectly it led me to a new career where I write perl every day.

(I can write in many other languages now, but that was the keystone of everything for me)

My sous vide, 100% I have never gotten a steak from a restaurant that was better than what I make at home with my sous vide and a good thick iron pan. It cost $100 and it probably paid for itself with one package of steaks from Costco.

My noise cancelling headphones.

Bose QC35s and I’ve worn them until the ear cups basically fell off, then replaced those for ~$20USD and am still getting daily use out of them.

They have made public life actually livable and music is fantastic with them, plus noisy roommates are no longer as upsetting to be around, lol.

Hair clippers. I started with a $25 cordless rechargeable one that I got on sale during the pandemic when everything closed down. I recently upgraded to a much better and more powerful corded variant. Looking at how much haircuts are these days plus tips, it definitely has paid for itself multiple times over.

Robot mower. I bought one on sale 4 months ago. It hasn’t paid for itself yet because I’ve only had it for a short while, but I believe within a year it will, with how much time and effort I save for myself. That and my knees and back are thanking it.

During covid I bought a 4x4 pickup for 10 grand and it is maybe the best purchase I've ever made in my entire life. 2007 Sierra with every option except sunroof. It's been to the arctic circle and back and I've been out camping at least every second weekend since obtaining it. It's a little beat up but mechanically sound so I don't feel guilty about things breaking or putting kilometers on it and I use it way more than I ever expected to

My 3d printer(s). I bought my first one used for $100 ~10 years ago and offered to print a small model for someone's college capstone project. People learned I had a printer and started coming to me for all sorts of small things. I would only charge for substantial jobs but people would end up paying me anyway. I quickly got a resin printer and started selling miniatures for friends. I eventually got contacted by one of the major manufacturers who would send me return units and replacement parts so I could repair and tell them what was broken, if anything, then I could keep or sell them.


Everything I have done with 3d printing has been subsidized by side jobs. It's a super fun hobby because 3d printing sits at the nexus point of basically every other hobby. I have done jobs for people building rat rods, model trains, cosplay, interior designers, hydroponics, brewing, architects, drones, and more.

Safety razor

Blades are extremely cheap and always gives a great shave.

Elliptical and dumbbells

Gym memberships add up quick so went with a cheaper elliptical and a nice set of adjustable dumbbells.

Kobo ereader

As I get more into reading I've come to appreciate that this one allows loading my own ebooks from my PC which can save a ton depending on use case.

I have a kegerator that isn’t seeing much use as I don’t really get full kegs of beer anymore these days. We were buying cans of seltzer by the case and I figured I could just make my own. So I got a new 5 gallon keg for around $100 and some connectors and stuff. Got my co2 tank filled. Filled the keg with water and cranked the pressure up. After a day or two I had decently carbonated water. Pour a glass like you would a beer, add a little lemon or lime juice for flavor and boom. Seltzer. Been doing that a few years now. Between the co2 fills and the water from my tap it probably costs me $2-3 per 5 gallon “batch”. Compare that to $10-15 for a case of twenty four 12oz cans.

A cargo ebike. No insurance (very cheap anti-theft insurance if you want), no registration fees, $20/year in electricity. I can get anywhere in the city as fast as driving but that's no longer stressful. Instead of being stuck in traffic and dealing with road raging drivers, I get to zoom along nature paths with the strength of an Olympic athlete. My commute feels liberating instead of like the first and final insult of my day. It's the first thing I've purchased since a smartphone that feels like it's a foundational 21st century technology. Most of my problems with 20th century development go out the window with it.

Stainless steel cookware. Spend the extra money to avoid shitty non-stick and aluminum. Steel heats evenly and maintains temperature. My food has improved a lot just with this change

Related: a good knife. Get a good santoku and you'll be prepared for the vast majority of kitchen tasks.

Leatherman. Spent like $140 on a good one (Signal) and it was used nearly every day. Pliers, screwdriver, pry, cut, etc. Great to have easily available on the hip.

My robot vacuum! My robot vacuum with the little home dock tower thing that lets it dump its load and keep vacuuming! I had the original robot vacuums that didn't have a dock to dump their garbage in and it helped some but mostly it needed to be cleaned more often than I would have vacuumed my house without it, the newer ones with big receptacles are so worth it, once a week I dump his container and change his filters and maybe give him a little wipe down with a dust rag and he's happy as a clam. I bought a set of replacement filters so that I can take the old filters out and use my big vacuum on them to get most of the dust and then chuck them in the washing machine, once they're clean they go in the filter drawer and I just rotate filters once a week.

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

House insulation.

I live in Australia where the minimum insulation required by law is a long way below inadequate, and many cheap contractors go below the minimum because it's so hard to prosecute them.

I already had solar and a house battery, so the next obvious step was replacing the insulation. With my already very low electricity bills I cant say that it literally paid for itself (although it would have without the solar and battery), but it has made the house so much more comfortable. On some summer days, the AC would be using 7kW and barely keeping the inside temperature down to 30°C/85°F. Now it uses 3-5kW and the whole house stays comfortable.

Also, finding and patching the massive gaps from the previous "landlord special" house extension made a huge difference to the temperature of that room, and explained how lizards had managed to get inside.

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.

Setting up a fully automated system to download, track and organise Linux distributions onto a NAS under the stairs. I used to subscribe to a bunch of services that would provide access to all sorts of Linux distributions for a flat monthly fee, but I realised that I often was only really interested in one or two specific Linux distribution so I really didn’t need to pay for these services.

Now I just download the Linux distributions that I actually want to install. It also prevents my kids from endlessly installing different Linux distributions. Not really a productive use of time.

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.

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.

DE-razor I shave with a new blade every second shave and it's still cheaper than any other shaving method that I've tried. On top of that the shaving soap last for ages (literally years) and the shaving experience is fantastic if you get the right razor.

Don't go down the fancy road to start with though. I have some expensive stuff that I don't use and have fallen for a cheap razor from temu and proraso green soap. Also just a nylon brush works fine for me to lathe up the soap

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.

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.

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

A local NAS for storing all my files, especially if you consider all the value I deprived from Google and Microsoft by not engaging with their cloud bullshit. Even if you don't, I paid like $500 CAD one single time for a 16 TB server hard drive and $300 for a consumer hard drive I'm using as an offline emergency backup. Meanwhile just 2 TB of Google Drive costs $139.99 CAD per year. I wasn't able to find pricing for 16 TB but assuming it scales linearly (like if I had 8 2TB accounts since Google seemingly doesn't offer any higher capacity for individuals), that would be $1,119.92 per year. Even factoring in the hard drive enclosure and the server itself, they've paid for themselves in literally half a year. That's saying nothing of the kind of internet connection I would need to match the read speed of a mechanical hard drive on the local network. I could literally upgrade my entire house to 10 gigabit with the money I saved.

My motorcycle has paid for itself many times over in terms of the enjoyment I get out of riding it. It's something I can recommend to anyone, and lets you see the world in a way most people never will.

My solar panels have. Literally.

I guess my bike? Have saved loads of money on bus tickets and it's much more reliable too.

Sewing machine pays for itself quite quickly as paying a tailor to repair your clothes is like 1/3 the cost of a brand new sewing machine, so just repair like 3 items of clothing to get your money back.

Eufy 11S Max robot vacuum.

We had a Roomba back when they were new. It did ok, but it wasn't really that impressive. My wife had a rechargeable upright vacuum after that. When that died, I argued for going back to a robot vacuum because her health problems were both making it hard for her to use the vacuum and also leaving me too busy to do it.

She resisted because she was never happy with the job the Roomba did. However from day 1, the Eufy vacuum did a visibly good job cleaning and won her over.

We have it set to run once a day. There's one chair it occasionally gets stuck under, and we have to block the base of the fridge or it gets stuck there. Aside from that, it's very independent. It does the vacuuming and then finds its base to recharge for the next day. It needs to be emptied out every day and cleaned more thoroughly once a week.

We've been very pleased with it.

We named it Meryl Sweep.

I got a hot air rework station with a soldering iron many years ago.

The things I've repaired with it are so numerous, I cannot even recount them all, but here are a few:

• an assortment of gaming controllers
• a ghetto blaster from the 1970's
• a few gaming consoles (Xbox 360, PS3 "Fat Lady")
• retro technology (at least two 3Dfx Voodoo's and a rare Abit motherboard)
• a full-metal eBook Reader (Sony PRS-505) that will probably survive an atomic fallout
• a Panasonic broadcasting camera from the 1990's (because it looked cool and I wanted it to work)
• a few LCD monitors

Even though some of that work was just replacing old capacitors, I have saved so much money by buying "broken" stuff and fixing it up. No regrets. Over the years, I paired the station with a hotplate and a solder sucker and now I could probably open up an electronics repair shop. But I mostly do these repairs for fun. Fixing things calms my mind and soothes my soul.

Put 11.6 KW of solar on the roof. I'll hit break even next year. Should have 15-20 years left of use.