| Image by Horst Tinnes from Pixabay |
Who doesn't love a good deal?
Reddit user, u/wiisportscow, wanted to know where to redirect their money when they asked:
What thing did you buy because "it's just $5" that turned out to be great?
You wouldn't think these items would make an impact, but if you take a moment to think about how often stuff falls in-between the seats of your car, you'll realize how items like these can make your life better.
Keep Your Stuff Where It Belongs
"I absolutely hate it when I'm driving and something falls between the seat and the center console. So I bought this little foam thing that's suppose to prevent that from happening."
"I didnt realize how much of a life saver it has been, until recently when I started borrowing my bfs truck."
"What?!!! I need that? What is it? Where can I get one?"
"I think they're called "drop stop".
"I got mine in automotive at Walmart, but you could probably try Amazon."
"I hope you find one. Might just be the best small investment I've ever made lol"
A Stuffed, Comfy Heaven
"Bought a gigantic dog bed at a thrift store. It was like $5, still had the tags on, looked like the previous dog laid in it like once based on how much hair there was (not much). We have chihuahua mixes, this bed is over 8 times as large as either dog. It's basically the favorite place in the whole apartment for the older dog now. She stretches out in it and then just bakes in the sun for hours."
"It's also really comfortable for me, a human, to sit in it, so that's cool."
Keeping The Elements At Bay
"An umbrella from a street vendor in Manchester UK was £5. Started raining heavily hence the purchase and didn't expect the umbrella to last the day assuming it was junk for tourists. Brolly still going strong after 5 years, use it regularly and strong wind doesn't faze it. Fairly large too so both my wife and I fit under it. The spring loaded release is very satisfying too."
Your Burnt Fingers Will Thank You
"Mini wooden tongs to pluck the toast out of a hot toaster."
Look Where You're Shooting
"The toilet light."
"It runs off batteries, has a motion and light sensor, and hooks over your toilet bowl"
"Now I can pee at night and see without blinding myself!"
Who doesn't love the odd, impulse purchase? Especially when it's cheap? A buy like this might not seem like a game changer at the time, but with the power of hindsight, you can see positive results.
Live By A Lot Of Caves?
"A tiny LED flashlight on a keyring."
"It was so tiny that I could just put it on my middle finger when exploring narrow passages in caves. And the light was good either - though in several months it started to slowly die out."
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Bringing The Family Together In Competitive Glory
"A game for the Nintendo Switch called "Ultimate Chicken Horse". The description was very vague, but my family said "F-ck it. It's got local multiplayer and might be fun" and it turned into probably our favorite game on the console."
"This is an incredible party game."
"For those who haven't heard of it, it's a competitive platformer where the participants build the stage as they go. Tons of fun, with plenty of customizable rules. Well worth picking up if you regularly host events with friends."
"It has online play, but there's probably some lag issues that can make it annoying."
Altered Life's Course For Free
"I purchased my favourite video game of all time (Baldur's Gate) for literally $0.00. My grandmother found it on a shelf in a department store, brought it to me and was like "the price tag says $0.00, does that mean it's free?" I had no idea what the game was, but I figured if it was free, why not take it? So we took it to the counter and it turned out they had been giving copies of the game away back with some Windows 98 promotion they'd been running, but one copy had been left over, so they put a $0.00 price tag on it and hid it in a section of the store it didn't belong so that the first person to find it and ask if it was free could have it. They still had to put it through the register and give us a receipt and everything though, so I'm still counting it as a purchase."
"When I got it home and played it, it was easily the greatest game I'd ever played in my life. It got me into RPGs, Dungeons and Dragons, and board gaming (my biggest hobbies to this day), and it remains my favourite video game ever. And I bought it for $0.00."
Getting A Buddy On The Cheap
"I've always kinda struggled with depression/anxiety on some level, but it was pretty bad in college because I had the extra stress of classes and perfectionism constantly looming. One uneventful day in May, my girlfriend (now wife) and I were looking through PetSmart getting food for our rabbit and just looking around, because that's just what broke college students do. I'd always wanted a cat to show mutual unconditional love and just never pulled the trigger because it never felt right. Well, this little calico, ~two months old, reached out from her cage to grab my finger without her claws while sadly looking up at me with the most beautiful green eyes. I fell in love."
"As luck would have it, they were running a promotion called, "Cinco de Gato" (a play on Cinco de Mayo) where adoption fee was $5 as long as you bought the typical "I just got a cat" stuff (carrier, food, toys, etc), which I did gladly. While the other stuff obviously cost more than $5, adopting Sushi was one of the best $5 impulse purchases of my life. I still have depression/anxiety, and Sushi clearly knows because she'll rub against me whenever I'm particularly stressed, which actually does help most of the time!"
You'll Never Go Back To The Old Way Of Eating Pizza
"Back around 2003 when I was in university, I got a cheapo pizza-stone that was on sale. I figured it might help make the even-more-cheapo frozen pizzas come out a little better."
"Well it did do that, and I still have it and use it regularly all these years later. I've even perfected my own pizza dough recipe and make homemade pizzas from scratch now. Using a pizza stone completely levels-up the pizza-making experience."
And then there's these.
Not sure what would push a person to buy any of the items below, but they did, and here they are.
You Got Your Own Bugout Bag!
"I bought a hiking backpack at an auction for $5 and it turned out to be a great purchase. It was being sold by someone's ex wife along with a bunch of other stuff. I also bought a 3-person tent for $1 at the same auction. When I picked it up it felt a bit heavier than I expected. When I got it home I found several packs of fire starters, waterproof matches, and an emergency shelter/tarp inside. The tent is gone but 12 years later I still have and use the backpack. It's been with me across half the country."
Can You Really Put A Price On Emotion?
"I once went to a local auction of old stuff in my city. I had nothing to do really and i thought maybe id find some records or something. I checked through the place but basically all of them were junk. However there was a guy selling cds. We talked a little and he was really chill and a fellow music lover. I sweeped through his stuff and saw a used copy of Björks debut. I have heard about the artist but never bothered to check her out. I thought it's 5 dollars and i doubt ill find something like this here again so i bought it. It became on of my favorite albums since. It's amazing especially Anchor song. Check it out if you have a spare 40 minutes."
Gaming The School System
"When I was in early high school I stopped at a garage sale with my mom. I saw a green hard baked book titled "CRC Mathematical Tables". I knew about the CRC Chemistry Handbook from my chemistry class but had never heard of this book. It didn't have a price and the woman running the sale sold it to me for $0.25. I had no idea if the book would be useful, but it was only a quarter."
"I used that book as a reference for all of my upper level math classes, many of my engineering classes when I forgot the math from my upper level math classes and still use it as a reference at work from time to time. My college study group called it my "magic green book" because it always seemed to have all the answers we needed when we were stuck on a homework problem. Best $0.25 I ever spent."
Something To Show Off At Parties?
"A $10,000,000,000,000 bill from Zimbawe's hyperinflation period off of eBay."
"People seem to love it, although it's like a 50/50 split on people believing it was actually manufactured to be real currency and not just a novelty joke item. "Weimar Republic" doesn't seem to ring any bells with folks that didn't pay attention in history class."
A...Good Smelling...Foot?
"I went to one of those party places with arcade games and prizes you can buy when you exchange tickets, probably happened when I was 11 or 12. I bought a foot that smelled like cherries for 15 tickets. It probably only cost them a nickel or something like that, but even 20 damn years later that thing still smells good."
"It helps me relax when I'm stressed. It's gotten a lot of use over the years."
Keep your eyes and ears open for any great deals. Think critically about how something like it could help your life. You never know what oddities will make things better.
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