What do you refuse to get generic versions of?
Tires. Never cheap out on tires.
This I agree with.
I once heard someone say: «never skimp out on what seperates you from the ground».
For bed and tires I really agree, but with shoes I’m not as strict.I had this exact stance until I won a pair of $200 running shoes in a raffle. My occasional backpains and joint problems disappeared almost immediately. I started buying the best footwear I could afford and my quality of life went measurable up after that decision.
The BIGGEST changes were going to a reputable podiatrist and getting shoe recommendations based off of my arch shape, weight and gait. They put me on a treadmill with highspead cameras at the sides and rear to record how my stride landed both walking and running. That and custom molded insoles.
Now Shoes are a part of our yearly budget to make sure we have good condition, supportive shoes at all times. Also re-soleing if applicable.
Side note: Dress shoes can die in a fire.
Ok fine, my running shoes I got the same way you did.
I still skimp on the everyday shoes though, and like you avoid flat soles like fire.
Cheers for sharing though. I know what you’re doing would benefit me in the long run.
I agree from the opposite direction:
20 years ago I switched to zero drop minimalist footwear for running, hiking, and almost all everyday activities (everything except weddings and funerals). I only wear footwear that has no relation at all to my foot’s arch, my weight, or my gait.
Best decision for my knees, ankles, and hips I think I ever made.
That’s actually pretty interesting. I started with minimalist footwear once I was old enough to start making shoe decisions myself and apparently that was partially causing some of the problems I was experiencing.
Five Fingers were my go to’s (once they came out) for most days and Vivobarefoot’s / Nike Free’s for when the social side of five fingers was in questionable taste.
It’s always fascinating to me how wildly different solutions are the exact remedy needed for different individuals. It’s why I always get a little irritated when you read someone saying “Use this thing AND THIS THING ONLY! everything else is junk and dumb and you will be a worse person for using it.” such a close minded approach to the world.
I’ve been out of the minimal shoe worlds for a bit minute, anything cool to come about recently?
Same same, although VFFs only came out in the 2005, so it hasn’t been quite 20 years. The only shoes I wear that have support are my motorcycle boots and cycling shoes.
I’d go barefoot everywhere if I could.
Same can be said about the power supply unit of your homemade PC. Cheaping out on that is a good way to fry your PC or burn your house down.
Like Bronzie said, never skimp on what separates you from the ground. Or on this case, what separates your computer from the ground.
Changed my tires for the first time last year. Bought the cheapest tires acailable to me and now my car feel a bit wobbly. I’m definitely buying better tires next time.
batteries.
This one is interesting, because I’ve heard certain generic brands are actually just repackaged Duracells
I’ve also been thinking about getting some rechargeable Ikea ones, heard those are decent
I wonder if they’re repackaged due to not meeting certain quality control thresholds, but still technically useable
Rechargeables are definitely a good upgrade for most applications where people use alkalines. They have better performance under high load, are much less likely to leak corrosive electrolyte, and you can use them again after you drain them. I’m a little surprised they aren’t more popular.
The Panasonic Eneloop is the gold standard for rechargeables, particularly the white ones which are more shelf-stable and have a longer service life than the higher-capacity black Eneloop Pro. Made-in-Japan Ikea rechargeables are suspected of being rebranded Eneloop Pros, but I don’t think that’s been conclusively proven.
A few years back a guy did agood dive into this on (other website name redacted). He said for things like digital camersand other high draw items, Duracell is still the champ - however, $/hour of use, some cgeaper bands came out ahead. I still have half a giant pack of AC Delco AA / AAAs that have been quite solid.
Here’s a comparison site that graphs the voltage during discharge of a bunch of AA and AAA batteries with various loads using a high-end battery tester.
NiMH rechargeable AAs trounce every alkaline under heavy load. It’s not even close at 0.5A and above. Disposable lithium is better still up to 2A, but extremely expensive. Few devices will draw more than 2A from an AA battery, but I can think of a couple of flashlights that do; disposable lithium is unsuitable for those.
I’ve heard certain generic brands are actually just repackaged Duracells
Might depend where you live, I live in Nothern Europe and the cheap generic brand batteries from a popular electronics store chain, rechargeable, are quite shit when I compare them to my 5+ year old Eneloops. Haven’t tried IKEA ones though.
The Ikea Lada rechargables are rebranded Eneloops. Panasonic is the only manufacturer making rechargable batteries in Japan.
I’m pretty sure ikea just spent a bunch on R&D and tooling to set up their own battery manufacturing plant in Japan.
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I’ve got eneloops that are 10 years old and still kicking. I tried Amazon’s as well and those are shit. 100% are dead and I got them over the years after I got the eneloops as I needed more.
Some of the IKEA batteries are rebranded Eneloops!
Definitely! For electronics, Eneloop batteries are worth every penny. I think I have ~10 AA and AAA, and I haven’t bought disposable batteries in years. I try to make sure I have 4 of each available at all times so I don’t have to wait for them to recharge. I’ve tried cheaper (Amazon) batteries, and they fail much more quickly, and sometimes swell to the point where I have a hard time removing them.
Some people say IKEA’s batteries are just rebranded Eneloops, but I haven’t had a chance to try them
Toilet paper. My asshole deserves Angel Soft.
Angel Soft is garbage tier IMO. Charmin or bust for me.
I find Charmin tends to shred too easily, even the ‘strong’ kind. Angel Soft is at the right level between firm and soft for me. Might be less of a problem if I had less ass hair.
Women with much less ass hair here. I too, choose angels often as the superior brand.
It’s not, its actually wonderful. It’s one of the few brands that doesn’t shed bits off, and whatever chemicals/softeners they use doesn’t irritate my skin like other big-name brands.
Same but cottonelle
Oh yeah, how is your husband?
Computer hardware
which brands do you trust for GPU heatsink+board (not chip) manufacturers? there’s so many to choose from and I don’t know who to trust.
I personally trust Asus, EVGA (Rip), Gigabyte, Palit, PNY, Sapphire and XFX when buying graphics cards.
My current card is a Geforce GTX 1060 6GB from Asus that I bought in 2017, and it hasn’t skipped a beat.3A
Running shoes. Antipronation shoes are fucking expensive, but having bad support will eventually hurt my feet, ankles or knees. I would get hurt very fast if I started running in cheap sneakers or something.
My rule has always been “don’t skimp on the things that separate you from the ground.” Shoes, tires, chairs, beds, etc, get the best you can afford to and don’t pinch pennies.
get the best you can afford
Ah, so the cheapest option available. Got it.
Yeah, same for motorcycle tires.
I do not fuck around with motorcycle tires at all. Its a life or death consideration
Mac&cheese
It’s Kraft Dinner or nothing.
I didn’t have to open your username to know what instance your account is on…
because I agree.
Gotta be KD
Honestly PC white cheddar is very good
Kraft isn’t even remotely better that every other shitty brand of that “stuff”.
Go buy real pastas, real cheese and seasoning and learn to make real fucking food.
Garbage food is genuinely enjoyable for people.
Also dog food and bogey, doesn’t mean it’s a nice thing.
I sometimes make my mac and cheese with real pasta and Kraft singles. Tastes almost as good as the real thing.
Tires. Every time I’ve tried to save money by purchasing some PrimeWell or Sentury or other no-name tire I’ve worn them out in no time flat or they burst when I hit any bump that stands more than 1cm above the road surface. If they are that weak then they aren’t safe.
I work in the rim and tire industry so I find this really interesting. Haven’t seen either of those two brands before where I am, but most cheaper brands nowadays are all made at the same two or three locations and just get a different name stamped into the sidewall.
It’s been a while but I think primewell is Firestones bargain brand. They’re shit but compared to anything wal-mart was selling they were tolerable. I never saw as many broken belts as when I was working there starting out.
My information may also be out of date, it’s been years since I was so broke that I had to just buy whatever cheap tires I could afford.
I had a set of “Sentury” tires I put on a Mitsubishi Mirage, and they were worn to the wear bars in 9,000 miles. They were carrying a 1,900 pound/860 kilogram car, and that was heavy enough to wear all four tires down in less than 1/4 the tread warranty period.
That’s really bad, sounds like a winter compound tire was sold as an all-season or something. That sounds like the typical treadwear for a winter tire that gets run in the wrong season.
Also for anyone reading this, If you ever need cheap tires try your local independent mechanics or to a lesser extent franchise mechanics shop, lots of people swap tires when they have 35%+ tread life left. Lots of shops will let these tires go for cheap if you get them put on at their shop. I would gladly take a good quality tire at 40% tread life vs a cheapo crap set at 100%
Mooncakes for mid-autumn festival. Như Lan bakery or skip. The other brands (even the ‘fancy’ ones) have too much sugar. In HK there are other good brands too, but in VN Như Lan is the best.
I guess also expensive tools like oscilloscopes (Siglent, Uni-T). It’s a big enough investment that I need it to work well, but I’m not rich enough for the fancy brands.
Oh, and motorcycles – Honda please (yes, we have unbranded motorcycles here, we call them ‘ghost bikes’). There’s always a repairshop that can fix a Honda within walking distance, but I’ve never actually needed to go to one. When I had a Yamaha it broke once in a while, and that meant a long walk in tropical heat.
Toothpaste. Generics are awful.
How come? I’m asking because my dentist said the opposite.
You have the tenth dentist!
I asked my dentist about that, too. The physical act of brushing is the most important part and the toothpaste is just to apply some fluoride, essentially.
Liqueurs, because usually generics don’t exist
And Ziploc bags. The quality is worth the extra dollar over the store brand. I might start doing the same for trash bags as well
The dollar stores here sell offbrand Ziploc bags but, like, reusable. They are amazing.
Are ziplocs not reusable?
They are, and we still have some in circulation, but these ones are designed for it. They have rounded corners that won’t wear or hide dirt, and they’re made out of pretty thick, rubbery plastic sheets.
There are dozens of vodkas and gins, fake and slightly different whiskeys, rum and so on but I totally agree on buying the brands (not just the top 1 or 2)
Liqueurs, not liquors. I don’t buy big name brand liquor (unless you count Plantation rum, or stuff that happens to be owned by Campari).
Soda, chips, candy, etc. If I’m gonna buy it, I’m buying the good one. I’ve tried many different off/store brand peanut butter cups, and they’re always fucking horrendous.
Surprisingly, frozen pizza is the opposite. The store brand ones are really good (at least the ones I get at Shaw’s and Market Basket). Meanwhile, I’ve payed much more in order to try out the big name brands. They are usually smaller, lower quality, and taste worse than the store brand ones that cost nearly half as much.
Kroger salt and vinegar chips tho
I take vitamins because of malabsorption related to celiac disease, and I’ve read that a lot of cheap vitamin brands are total scams.
Fortunately, I’ve been finding some major brands at the dollar store, of all places, for $1.25USD
You probably already know all this, but in case it would be helpful to others: Your doctor should also be able to write you a prescription for whatever vitamins you’re taking, from what I understand the ones you get from behind the pharmacy counter are actually what they say they are.
I have low vitamin D, and when it was atrociously low (#1 lowest my dr had ever seen! 🥴) I got an actual prescription for it.
YMMV on whether insurance puts up a fight about paying for it, if applicable. If not and you have to stick to OTC I try to get stuff with the USP verified label on it.
Yeah true, but last time I went to the doctor they charged me $200 for just the office visit, so it’s not really sustainable for me
Q-Tips (cotton swabs.) Generics seem universally worse.
Butter. Kerrygold is simply the best.
Would you say it’s better than all the rest?
Oh, better than anyone!
Dawn dish soap is simply unbeatable
We ran trials in my middle school home economics class on various popular dish soap brands, and at the time (23 years ago) Palmolive absolutely blasted the shit out of every other brand, Dawn included. So my wife and kid now ride or die with that brand. It’s green, too…
That’s what Consumer Reports concluded as well, when they independently bought and tested all the brands.
Dawn doesn’t seem to dry out my hands like Palmolive or every other dish soap. I think they all work good enough but I hate the way they make my hands feel.
It smells and feels awful, though.
Interesting. I have a huge jug of Palmolive at home because it was the cheapest dish soap. Didn’t expect it to also be the best. I’m curious, what did you measure to determine that it was the best one?
I don’t remember precisely what properties we scored it on, but we had cooked a very messy/crusty/greasy meal of some sort, and afterward we washed the pans with two or three leading dish soaps. I think Joy was the third. Anyway, Palmolive seemed to perform the best overall at cutting through grease and grime in fewer passes. I know there were other aspects to it, but it was just too long ago to recall. I never forgot how impressed I was with Palmolive, though. And it’s green!
