Something some people may not know about me is that I am a massive fan of thrift stores, as well as the dollar store. I have found some truly innovative items there for way less than you would find anywhere else. My husband found a pasta maker at Savers for only a few dollars, and now he uses it to make his own pasta. And it's gooooood.
Of course, you can find incredible, mind-blowing products anywhere for super cheap--you just need to know where to look. ToteMyRatchet asked:
What life changing item can you buy for under 100$?
You can really find some game-changers for cheap if you go to the right places.
Be warned- these can work a little too well.
“Blackout curtains! I've never slept so well, and could kick myself for not doing this years earlier.”
“Pair them with a blackout curtain rod, and it's next level. I'll never go back.”
Soooo worth it.
pillow GIFGiphy“A good pillow. Granted, bedding can be unreasonably overpriced, but $20 pillows at Target are not awesome. Invest in a good pillow. You spend 1/3 of your life on it.”
“I bought an 'expensive' pillow from €100 to €50 in a sale. It makes so much difference! Any hotel I stayed couldn't offer the same comfort.”
A must-have.
“An emergency roadside kit for your vehicle.”
“At Costco right now (in the US) you can get a CAT jump starter that's also a compressor to fill your tires as well as a power station with 120v, 12v, USB plug ins for $99.
Perfect for camping and if the power goes out as well.”
Good shoes are a necessity.
“A decent pair of shoes on clearance. Nice shoes, like Eccos, that are good for your feet. You might not think about it, but your feet and how you treat them are crucial for the health of you ankles, knees, hips and back. You're standing on those mfs all the time. They work hard for you, so get good shoes!
I'm not talking about designer bullsh*t or whatever is trendy.”
Think of all the amazing stuff you can get for less than $100. That’s cheaper than a night out!
Ooooh this is a good one.
Season 1 Episode 6 GIF by Living SingleGiphy“Ladies... get a shower stool. I have a teak Japanese style one.. Shaving is infinitely easier without having to do shower yoga. Also, I no longer almost fall and die while switching legs. And it's easier to dissociate under the water.”
“I'm 1000% with you. I've had a chair in my shower for only a couple months and it makes everything easier. I also feel like I can sit in the shower and really REALLY tend to my feet without fear of slipping, falling, and dying lol”
Crazy Historical Events That Sound Fake But Are 100% True | George Takei’s Oh Myyy
Life-changing af.
“A weighted blanket - my sleep life will never be the same.”
“Weighted blankets are great for people who like to cuddle or snuggle up to something when they sleep.”
Grateful gums.
“Electric toothbrush. Your teeth and gums will thank you forever!”
“Can confirm. Was gifted an electric toothbrush and have been teeth ever since. Gums still send me holiday cards.”
Of course, some things are much more crucial than others.
Much needed.
season 2 dancing GIF by NETFLIXGiphy“Condoms. Your life will change if you DON'T use them!”
“True. It won't be $100 anymore but your soul and your paycheck.”
A lot of useful info here.
“A good flashlight. The tl;dr here is that you need one more than you think, it's one of the most useful things you can own, and maglites and plastic crap are not even close in capability to what you can get these days.
Many of you have probably seen the feds recommending owning a dedicated flashlight- not the one in your phone. Which is absolutely good advice, because in the event you need a flashlight to see there's a good chance you're in a situation where you are not going to be able to charge your phone, and will have better uses for your phone battery.
And a lot of you are probably thinking "yeah no worries I have that plastic flashlight laying around here somewhere" or "oh yeah my dad's old maglite is in the garage." Guys, I love to break it to you, but the flashlight you have is probably terrible compared to proper modern flashlights.
And no, I don't mean the ones you get in the sporting goods section of WalMart- although some of those are reasonably okay, they're almost universally overpriced for what they are. And I sure don't mean this US MILITARY HIGH POWER EXTREME BEST FLASHLIGHT IN THE WORLD marketing traps you see on TV ads and kickstarters.
Nowadays you can get incredible flashlights that will light up your house better than your actual overhead lights, turn nighttime off in a 50 yard radius of you outside, or even fire a beam of light across a field or lake a mile away. For less than $100 bucks. Hell, in many cases, less than $50.
Now obviously I recommend heading over to r/flashlight if you want to do some research- although fair warning, you might catch the flashlight collecting bug and there's no coming back from that. But if you want my personal recommendation for some to check out-
The Sofirn SP36 is about the size of a soda can, and can put out about 100 times as much light as the flashlight on your phone in a big floody way that fills up rooms easily. Hovers around $60 on Amazon.
The Astrolux FT03: this is about as typical looking a flashlight as you can imagine, but the standard model can put out about 50 times as much light as your phone and will blast it out over 800 meters. About $35 if you're willing to sit around and wait for it to come from China in a couple weeks.
The Lumentop EDC18 is a pocket sized flashlight about the size of your thumb that can do over 50 times as much light as your phone. If you don't want a fancy user interface, go for the EDC18L. $50, or as little as $30 with a coupon on Amazon.
Anything from Olight, Sofirn, Convoy, Emisar, Noctigon, Nitecore, Wowtac, Thrunite, Surefire, Fenix, or Zebralight is going to blow your mind if you've not used a real modern flashlight before and will be probably be more than enough for a normal non flashlight fetishist. There are plenty of other companies I've forgotten to put in there I'm sure but I'll personally vouch for all of those.”
That sounds fantastic.
“Smart bulbs. Put one in a lamp in your bedroom and have it slowly brighten in the morning. It will change your life.”
“I have them all over my house and love them. I set them up with Alexa so they turn on and off on a schedule, I can tell them to dim or brighten, you can go party mode with different colors that flash or brighten along with the music, they're LED so they'll last forever, and it's great "security" when I'm out of town to make people think I'm home. All for like $10/each. Worth every penny, my lighting matches my moods now”
I hope all of you have added a few of these things to your shopping list. Put $100 aside from your next paycheck, and invest in a few of these truly life-changing item. You won’t regret it.
Experiencing death is a fascinating and frightening idea.
Who doesn't want to know what is waiting for us on the other side?
But so many of us want to know and then come back and live a little longer.
It would be so great to be sure there is something else.
But the whole dying part is not that great, so we'll have to rely on other people's accounts.
Redditor AlaskaStiletto wanted to hear from everyone who has returned to life, so they asked:
"Redditors who have 'died' and come back to life, what did you see?"
Sensations
Happy Good Vibes GIF by Major League SoccerGiphy"My dad's heart stopped when he had a heart attack and he had to be brought back to life. He kept the paper copy of the heart monitor which shows he flatlined. He said he felt an overwhelming sensation of peace, like nothing he had felt before."
PeachesnPain
Recovery
"I had surgical complications in 2010 that caused a great deal of blood loss. As a result, I had extremely low blood pressure and could barely stay awake. I remember feeling like I was surrounded by loved ones who had passed. They were in a circle around me and I knew they were there to guide me onwards. I told them I was not ready to go because my kids needed me and I came back."
"My nurse later said she was afraid she’d find me dead every time she came into the room."
"It took months, and blood transfusions, but I recovered."
good_golly99
Take Me Back
"Overwhelming peace and happiness. A bright airy and floating feeling. I live a very stressful life. Imagine finding out the person you have had a crush on reveals they have the same feelings for you and then you win the lotto later that day - that was the feeling I had."
"I never feared death afterward and am relieved when I hear of people dying after suffering from an illness."
rayrayrayray
Free
The Light Minnie GIF by (G)I-DLEGiphy"I had a heart surgery with near-death experience, for me at least (well the possibility that those effects are caused by morphine is also there) I just saw black and nothing else but it was warm and I had such inner peace, its weird as I sometimes still think about it and wish this feeling of being so light and free again."
TooReDTooHigh
This is why I hate surgery.
You just never know.
Shocked
Giphy"More of a near-death experience. I was electrocuted. I felt like I was in a deep hole looking straight up in the sky. My life flashed before me. Felt sad for my family, but I had a deep sense of peace."
Admirable_Buyer6528
The SOB
"Nursing in the ICU, we’ve had people try to die on us many times during the years, some successfully. One guy stood out to me. His heart stopped. We called a code, are working on him, and suddenly he comes to. We hadn’t vented him yet, so he was able to talk, and he started screaming, 'Don’t let them take me, don’t let them take me, they are coming,' he was scared and yelling."
"Then he yelled a little more, as we tried to calm him down, he screamed, 'No, No,' and gestured towards the end of the bed, and died again. We didn’t get him back. It was seriously creepy. We called his son to tell him the news, and the son said basically, 'Good, he was an SOB.'”
1-cupcake-at-a-time
Colors
"My sister died and said it was extremely peaceful. She said it was very loud like a train station and lots of talking and she was stuck in this area that was like a curtain with lots of beautiful colors (colors that you don’t see in real life according to her) a man told her 'He was sorry, but she had to go back as it wasn’t her time.'"
Hannah_LL7
"I had a really similar experience except I was in an endless garden with flowers that were colors I had never seen before. It was quiet and peaceful and a woman in a dress looked at me, shook her head, and just said 'Not yet.' As I was coming back, it was extremely loud, like everyone in the world was trying to talk all at once. It was all very disorienting but it changed my perspective on life!"
huntokarrr
The Fog
"I was in a gray fog with a girl who looked a lot like a young version of my grandmother (who was still alive) but dressed like a pioneer in the 1800s she didn't say anything but kept pulling me towards an opening in the wall. I kept refusing to go because I was so tired."
"I finally got tired of her nagging and went and that's when I came to. I had bled out during a c-section and my heart could not beat without blood. They had to deliver the baby and sew up the bleeders. refill me with blood before they could restart my heart so, like, at least 12 minutes gone."
Fluffy-Hotel-5184
Through the Walls
"My spouse was dead for a couple of minutes one miserable night. She maintains that she saw nothing, but only heard people talking about her like through a wall. The only thing she remembers for absolute certain was begging an ER nurse that she didn't want to die."
"She's quite alive and well today."
Hot-Refrigerator6583
Well let's all be happy to be alive.
It seems to be all we have.
Trying to lose weight is a struggle understood by many people regardless of size.
The goal of reaching a healthy weight may seem unattainable, but with diet and exercise, it can pay off through persistence and discipline.
Seeing the pounds gradually drop off can also be a great motivator and incentivize people to stay the course.
Those who've achieved their respective weight goals shared their experiences when Redditor apprenti8455 asked:
"People who lost a lot of weight, what surprises you the most now?"
Redditors didn't see these coming.
Shiver Me Timbers
"I’m always cold now!"
– Telrom_1
"I had a coworker lose over 130 pounds five or six years ago. I’ve never seen him without a jacket on since."
– r7ndom
"140 lbs lost here starting just before COVID, I feel like that little old lady that's always cold, damn this top comment was on point lmao."
– mr_remy
Drawing Concern
"I lost 100 pounds over a year and a half but since I’m old(70’s) it seems few people comment on it because (I think) they think I’m wasting away from some terminal illness."
– dee-fondy
"Congrats on the weight loss! It’s honestly a real accomplishment 🙂"
"Working in oncology, I can never comment on someone’s weight loss unless I specifically know it was on purpose, regardless of their age. I think it kind of ruffles feathers at times, but like I don’t want to congratulate someone for having cancer or something. It’s a weird place to be in."
– LizardofDeath
Unleashing Insults
"I remember when I lost the first big chunk of weight (around 50 lbs) it was like it gave some people license to talk sh*t about the 'old' me. Old coworkers, friends, made a lot of not just negative, but harsh comments about what I used to look like. One person I met after the big loss saw a picture of me prior and said, 'Wow, we wouldn’t even be friends!'”
"It wasn’t extremely common, but I was a little alarmed by some of the attention. My weight has been up and down since then, but every time I gain a little it gets me a little down thinking about those things people said."
– alanamablamaspama
Not Everything Goes After Losing Weight
"The loose skin is a bit unexpected."
– KeltarCentauri
"I haven’t experienced it myself, but surgery to remove skin takes a long time to recover. Longer than bariatric surgery and usually isn’t covered by insurance unless you have both."
– KatMagic1977
"It definitely does take a long time to recover. My Dad dropped a little over 200 pounds a few years back and decided to go through with skin removal surgery to deal with the excess. His procedure was extensive, as in he had skin taken from just about every part of his body excluding his head, and he went through hell for weeks in recovery, and he was bedridden for a lot of it."
– Jaew96
These Redditors shared their pleasantly surprising experiences.
Shopping
"I can buy clothes in any store I want."
– WaySavvyD
"When I lost weight I was dying to go find cute, smaller clothes and I really struggled. As someone who had always been restricted to one or two stores that catered to plus-sized clothing, a full mall of shops with items in my size was daunting. Too many options and not enough knowledge of brands that were good vs cheap. I usually went home pretty frustrated."
– ganache98012
No More Symptoms
"Lost about 80 pounds in the past year and a half, biggest thing that I’ve noticed that I haven’t seen mentioned on here yet is my acid reflux and heartburn are basically gone. I used to be popping tums every couple hours and now they just sit in the medicine cabinet collecting dust."
– colleennicole93
Expanding Capabilities
"I'm all for not judging people by their appearance and I recognise that there are unhealthy, unachievable beauty standards, but one thing that is undeniable is that I can just do stuff now. Just stamina and flexibility alone are worth it, appearance is tertiary at best."
– Ramblonius
People Change Their Tune
"How much nicer people are to you."
"My feet weren't 'wide' they were 'fat.'"
– LiZZygsu
"Have to agree. Lost 220 lbs, people make eye contact and hold open doors and stuff"
"And on the foot thing, I also lost a full shoe size numerically and also wear regular width now 😅"
– awholedamngarden
It's gonna take some getting used to.
Bones Everywhere
"Having bones. Collarbones, wrist bones, knee bones, hip bones, ribs. I have so many bones sticking out everywhere and it’s weird as hell."
– Princess-Pancake-97
"I noticed the shadow of my ribs the other day and it threw me, there’s a whole skeleton in here."
– bekastrange
Knee Pillow
"Right?! And they’re so … pointy! Now I get why people sleep with pillows between their legs - the knee bones laying on top of each other (side sleeper here) is weird and jarring."
– snic2030
"I lost only 40 pounds within the last year or so. I’m struggling to relate to most of these comments as I feel like I just 'slimmed down' rather than dropped a ton. But wow, the pillow between the knees at night. YES! I can relate to this. I think a lot of my weight was in my thighs. I never needed to do this up until recently."
– Strongbad23
More Mobility
"I’ve lost 100 lbs since 2020. It’s a collection of little things that surprise me. For at least 10 years I couldn’t put on socks, or tie my shoes. I couldn’t bend over and pick something up. I couldn’t climb a ladder to fix something. Simple things like that I can do now that fascinate me."
"Edit: Some additional little things are sitting in a chair with arms, sitting in a booth in a restaurant, being able to shop in a normal store AND not needing to buy the biggest size there, being able to easily wipe my butt, and looking down and being able to see my penis."
– dma1965
People making significant changes, whether for mental or physical health, can surely find a newfound perspective on life.
But they can also discover different issues they never saw coming.
That being said, overcoming any challenge in life is laudable, especially if it leads to gaining confidence and ditching insecurities.