Asklemmy

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.

• Epson Ecotank Printer

Has ink tanks so money isn't wasted on cartridges and the printer is actually initially expensive unlike those printers that make money back on ink catriges

• Hammer Drill with the proper bits

Makes it easier to mount shit to bricks, goes in brick like butter if you're using the right drill and bits

I recomend Ryobi Hammer Drill & Bits

• Air Fryer

I've stopped using my oven and only use it rarely for things that I don't want blown apart thst I can weigh down with a fork or spoon like Pizza for example

• Refillable Japanese brand pens and mechanical pencil

I recently got these to aid in Japanese study and refillable pens are more economical in the long run

And Japanese brands go hard on the quality of stationary and I got introduced into the cult of stationary obsession with this

I'll edit my comment if I can think of anything else

A bicycle. No gas to pay, no parking fees, no insurance, and I can do most of the maintenance.

Camping hammock, it's what I sleep in most nights. My body complains when I have to use a mattress

I'm going to say my $50 charcoal grill. I've had more propane grills fail on me in 5 years, and charcoal grill keeps going. I know its terrible for the environment.

50ft electric plumbing snake. Cost $60 and saved me $200+ bill first time I used it. I've used it for friends and family as well, making its value well over 10x in savings, not just my own.

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.

My Casio A 168 - I like watches and typically I would opt for more expensive ones but I still marvel at the amount of watch you get for this kind of money. The design is great, very comfortable to wear, very precise and has a very good battery lifetime and background light.

Someone else already mentioned a safety Razor.

My iron pan - much healthier, more ecological and will last longer than I will ever live.

Obviously my bike. Saved so much money on it. Although I still need to figure out what I should do with my very rusty chain. Should I replace it?

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

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

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.

My solar panels have. Literally.

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.

About 3 years I bought a mechanic set of ratchets and wrenches and some other tools for changing my own oil and some other auto repairs. All in I spent about $500. In July, I changed my own brakes and rotors and 2 vehicles I own. On that job alone I saved over $1000 dollars. Not to mention all the times I changed my oil. I also changed my spark plugs on one of my cars and found a gasket leak that I also fixed which was probably another $500.

Best investment of my life.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.