Sometimes the cheapest things end up being the best investments. Seriously, the dollar store has pretty much everything you could ever need, and there are bargains everywhere from Ebay to thrift shops. It all just depends on where you look.
Reddit user MrAnimeFanime asked:
What was a sketchy cheap buy, that ended up being one of your best purchases?
A solid investment.
"Seed packets from the dollar store."
"While in college my boyfriend and I were broke.'
"Really broke.'
"But I still wanted to do something to celebrate spring."
"We were getting a few cheap things at the dollar store when I noticed they were selling these seeds packets from a big old bin that you had to dig thru. 4 for $1."
"No tax."
"I immediately begged to buy one despite our strict budget."
'Boyfriend was incredulous I'd want to buy sketchy seeds but dutifully handed me a quarter."
"I ended up picking out tomatoes."
"Well we got home and I carefully placed about 3 seeds in washed out cans."
"I watered them and watched them sprout."
"I loved tending to my little garden."
"I ended up with 3 beautiful HUGE tomato plants."
"It was a bumper crop."
"More than we could eat."
"I sold the extra produce to my classmates."
"Made like $25."
"Good seeds!"- viceroywaffles
Thanks, Sanrio!
"I was traveling in Japan and needed nail clippers."
"All I could find is this cheap pink Hello Kitty grooming kit."
"These clippers are the best I ever owned."
"They have stayed sharp and functional for 20 years."
"I'm very protective of them."
"Everyone in the house knows, you don't touch Dad's pink Hello Kitty nail clippers."-miraculous_spackle
GiphyWe love a good flannel.
"Dad bought me a flannel jacket for $2, from the equivalent of a dollar store, in 1994."
"Wore it for everything you can think of."
"Wore it yesterday."
"Still going strong after 25 years."- Essembie
Nice of them to give him advice.
"Guy said there were a bunch of bricks in his back yard he wanted to get rid of."
"$5 for all of them if you'd come pick them up because they were 'larger than regular bricks and were very heavy'."
"I grabbed a friend and headed out because I needed some cheap brick for the edging of my garden."
"Guys house was across the river and in some really run down looking neighborhood, really glad I grabbed my friend at this point."
"We pull up and the guy is waiting outside, and he looks like he's 80 but I know he must have been a 35 year old guy who just smoked 10 packs a day."
"So the guy takes us to his back yard and shows up the pile of bricks, which turn out to be 50+ antique Louisville Fire Bricks."
"So I look at the guy and tell him, 'I'll take half of them...and as payment I'll give you $20 and some advice'."
"And of course the guy is looking at me like I'm an idiot, but he accepts my money and helps me and my friend load up about 30 bricks."
"After I close my truck and get in the car to drive off I tell him to google the antique fire bricks and adjust his craigslist listing."
"I went back to look at the listing a few days later, and he had changed the price from $5 for the whole pile, to $5 PER BRICK, which was the going rate at the time."
"Nowadays they go for $20/brick."
BEST BUY EVER!- Whylizlovesyou
Meow Factory!
"Bought my kitty for 20 bucks on Craigslist from a druggie."
"I had never had a cat before and this little meow factory has been my best friend ever since.-Rubixcube3034
Giphy$5 bras are the best bras.
"I was traveling from a different city straight into work, where my uniform was a white shirt, with a conspicuously black bra."
"Wasn't stopping home, so I did stop on the first corner store I found and bought a five-dollar white bra that looked roughly my size as they had nowhere to try them on."
"Just to wear one night."
"10/10, comfiest bra I ever owned, wore it every day of my life for about a year."
"It gave in at some point - it was still a 5 dollar bra."
"But damn, I dream of the day when all my bras fit that well."- NewVerses
That's a super lucky Lyft ride.
"I was giving these college aged young women a Lyft ride."
"One asks how 'that Craigslist thing went' so my ears perked up."
"The other says something like 'he complained it went back too far, just don't put it back so far, duh'."
"Eventually, I deduce they are talking about a recliner - which I've been looking for one for some time now."
"I interject and ask about it."
"Lady has a Laz-E-Boy electric recliner she just wants 20 bucks for."
"I'm like, 'listen I know it's sketchy but if you've got Craigslist rando's in your house Lyft at least gave me a background check."-
"We pull up, I end the ride, and follow these ladies into their house."
"I knew I wanted it as soon as I laid eyes on it."
"So, this college chick is helping me stuff a recliner into my back seat and all I can think is this is how Buffalo Bill kidnapped that girl in Silence of the Lambs."
"Twenty dollars for a recliner so lazy it reclines for me."- OctoberThirteenth
RIP sunglasses.
"At the end of a long road trip with some mates, I bought a $20 pair of sunglasses in a gas station just outside Chicago."
"They fit me better than any pair of sunglasses ever did, or ever will, and they made me look awesome."
"For years I constantly received compliments about them and was asked where I got them."
"I lost them after 5 long years and have hated myself for it every since."
"They were so no-name they didn't even have a brand name on them at all, so I have no idea who made them."
"I have no way of finding that gas station, either."
"I've literally spent hundreds of dollars trying to find sunglasses that come close to that same perfect fit/style, but I can't."- visijared
GiphyDefinitely cursed.
"The Bra of Mystery."
"First strike: I bought it from a grocery store."
"Second strike: It was marked down to $2, and plastered with stickers reading, 'Final sale!', 'No returns!', 'We're not liable if this kills you!', 'I'm sure there are people who love you!' and the like."
"Third strike: Upon ringing it through, the cashier did a double-take at the screen, looked at me with great concern, and asked if I was sure I wanted to buy it."
"After failing to self-combust and send me straight to hell, it wound up being one of the nicest bras I ever had."
"Wore it for two years before the inevitable underwire tit-shanking."
"I still wonder what they thought was wrong with it."- mus_maximus
A nice surprise.
"I randomly found a wedding videographer online and booked him for a very affordable rate for my wedding assuming it wouldn't be very good quality."
"Two weeks after the wedding, he emails me a high quality, well-edited video."
"He had a drone I hadn't noticed because he was outside of the venue getting b-roll with it before I even started getting ready for the big day."
"I was floored and now I recommend him to everyone who ever plans to get married ever."
"He has definitely upped his prices since then, he did the videography for my wedding last summer, and rightfully so, because he does great work."- Ticonderoga10-11
What a steal.
"Traded a kid in middle school a sandwich size ziploc bag of lego pieces for a ps1 and thought I got best deal ever."
"But when I got home it didn't work at all."
"My dad opened it and found a couple broken pieces stuck inside and fixed it up and it worked perfectly after that."
"Made me learn how easily a deal could be too good, but at least that kid felt stupid after I told him how easy it got fixed."-malificide15
GiphyWish
"I buy things off Wish that are a serious gamble."
"For those who are unfamiliar, wish is an app where you can buy things for seriously cheap, and sometimes they're just that — cheap."
"I once bought a long line trench coat for $4."
"Either it was going to be sh*tty, or it was going to be a great $4 well spent."
"2 years later I still wear it during the fall and I still get compliments on it! "
"I love Wish sometimes!"- nasty-otter
Matchbox car
"I bought a 1970s matchbox car for my father's birthday from ebay."
"It was a very old car and description said it was used."
"The pictures of car were quite blurry."
"It was 15 dollars and 4.33 for shipping."
"I bought it."
"The box came and I opened it to find the car in mint condition."
"The box it was in hadn't even been opened or scratched even."
"Apparently the guy inherited a complete matchbox car collection with cars in their original boxes and was selling them off for cheap prices like 15 dollars."
"I checked online people were selling this car for $250."
"The lowest I found was $95."- km1180
Good deal.
"I had been searching for a sofa bed for less than $100 for months to put in my music/multi-purpose room when I finally found an old, kind of worn-in looking one for $50."
"I was psyched, it fit the aesthetic of the room perfectly, so I brought my buddy with who offered the kind lady $30 for the thing."
"She said, 'how about you give me $50 and take anything else you want in this garage!'"
"We ended up making out of there with the comfiest rocking-style chair, throw pillows, and a coffee table."
"We only stopped there because the bed of the truck was full."
"She also let us take pictures of the Toyota Camry she is selling, so I've been in contact with her about picking that up on the cheapy cheap, too."
"I've met some awesome people by trying to buy sh*t cheap on Craigslist."- MercilessMiser
Quality blanket.
"When my Dad was stationed in Mexico in 85-86, he bought a Mexican blanket for a couple of bucks."
"To this day we still use it as a beach blanket and the colors haven't faded at all."
"He's had that blanket longer than he's known my Mom."
"Considering the quality of that blanket I'm surprised it wasn't worth more."- KentuckyWallChicken
Friends in high places
"My bf and his roommate knew this guy that would get us a lot of food in exchange for a gift card that wasn’t even a third of the price."
"We would always get pizza, panda express, wings, or whatever we wanted at the time."
"$50+ worth of food for a $15 amazon gift card."
"Son’t know how the dude did it, but we definitely used his services a LOT."
"Good times."- maloraen
hungry spirited away GIFGiphyJust have a little faith
"I’m a Canadian hockey fan that likes an American team, so both cities in my province only carry the jerseys of primarily their respective home team, and small stock from other Canadian teams."
"I wanted a jersey from the goalie on my team and checked the NHL store and it was $250 for a customizable jersey so I didn’t buy it."
"About 3 months later I see an Instagram ad for a company selling knockoff jerseys, so being the dumba** I am, decided to check it out."
"I made a version of the jersey that I was looking for 3 months prior, and went to checkout."
"I saw they used actual real PayPal so I figured why the hell not, went and made a quick PayPal account, and put some money in and bought the jersey."
"A month goes by and nothing had shown up so I chalked it up as a $50 loss and went about my business."
"The next week, I come home from work to a package from China, I open it up and lo and behold it’s the jersey I bought."
"I think that they must have been jerseys made for professional leagues by adidas and didn’t meet some standard so they were sold for cheap to the company I bought the jersey from, because on the jerseys there are tie downs on it, which aren’t put on jerseys purchased from stores or NHL.com."
"But the jersey is correct on everything, even down to the shoulder logos, and the font for the numbers, and because they’re (pretty sure) jerseys made for actual game use, they don’t have the ugly, not-removable patch on the bottom of the jersey that shows the size on it."
"Only downside was the website did not have goalie size jerseys, and I am a goalie."- therealpylon
Don't always believe the reviews
"I bought an extremely cheap GS7 off Amazon, bad reviews."
"Best phone I ever had, all the reviews were false."- BlueCannonBall
Who needs new technology?
"My phone."
"Only 6.500 rubles (~100 dollars) I bought it about 1.5 year ago."
"But I still use it!"- MrLaviceMan
Add Hasan Minhaj GIF by MOODMANGiphyA streaming alternative
"The website FlixTor.com every single movie and tv show for the price of Netflix."
"I thought I lost my money at first but it is really good."- Colin1023
A serendipitous purchase!
"I went to WHSmith this one time to hide/escape from being social, and I bought a whole mini desktop shelf as my excuse as to why I was in there, it’s amazing."
"It goes with my room, it fits perfectly, it’s just the right size and everything."- merrivale-tearooms
Go away, I'm busy!
"LA Noire on the 360."
"Quickly became my favorite game, although sadly I never finished it on the 360 cause disc 3 was busted."
"I did buy it on Switch and finish it on there, though."- Ericbazinga
Video Games Game GIF by For Better or for WorseGiphyThe currency of the future
"$20 bitcoin."- DrNukeDukem
A noble steed
"I got an ex harness horse / pacer for free."
"He’s only seven years old and in full health."
"People gate the breed and say they’re ugly and have bad movement or whatever but I just wanted a companion for my other horse, and if it turned out to be ridable that would be a bonus."
"Eight months later and he is legitimately the best horse I’ve ever owned, he’s so funny and full of personality and is the most reliable and safe boy I could imagine."
"My husband, who can’t ride much, can get on him and fool around and come out with me and my horse and I know Max will always look after my husband."
"He’s a credit to his breed and the loveliest horse I’ve had in 25 years of working and living with horses."- shine-notburn
Man's best friend
"My family got our beautiful, pure bred chocolate lab as a puppy from a random couple they met at Lowes."
"We just bought the house, and we're talking about what kind of dog they wanted to adopt."
"Couple overheard and said 'well our AKC registered labs had a litter a while back, we only have the runt of the litter left' and my parents agreed to buy him."
"Met in a parking lot at like 8 at night during a small snowstorm and paid them cash."
"Our amazing dog is turning 10 in November, and is the greatest pup we could have asked for."
"When my brother was a toddler, the dog was so patient and would let the kid climb on him and pull his ears/face."- elodieme1
Chocolate Lab Puppy GIFGiphySometimes the cheapest items can be the most useful... or at least the most fun.
Do you have similar stories? Share them in the comment section below!
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Never miss another big, odd, funny, or heartbreaking moment again.
It can be a pleasant and exciting surprise to see a friend or family member show up on the evening news.
Particularly if it is a story showcasing their accomplishments or allowing them to let their voice be heard on an important issue.
Of course, showing up on the news isn't always a joyous occasion.
Indeed, some people tune in to find their friends and family on the news for reasons they might hope people will eventually forget down the line.
Redditor Miguenzo was eager to hear stories of a loved one making the evening news for less than brag-worthy stories, leading them to ask:
"What’s the dumbest reason somebody you know landed on the 6 o’clock news?"
15 Minutes, Or Four Seconds, Of Fame...
"Years back, there was a college scholarship scam going on here."
"These companies would go to high schools and do a presentation, and grift parents into paying a large sum for the company to help get a scholarship."
"My mom took one look at this and was like, 'this is a scam'."
"My uncle bought it hook, line and sinker and paid up."
"And received absolutely nothing."
"So he calls our news program and they do a feature with this company in their 'hall of shame.'"
"My uncle was absolutely THRILLED."
"'They interviewed me for 4 hours!'"
"'It's going to be huge!'"
"We all sit around the TV."
"It's February 2000."
"Boom, there's my uncle!"
"They do the lead-in..and then, there's my uncle saying..."
"'They said, uh, sue 'em'."
"My uncle is screaming."
"'What the Hell?! They were at my house for 4 hours!'"
"We still have it on VHS somewhere."
"My uncle's star moment over in seconds."- JKW1988
Episode 19 News GIF by The SimpsonsGiphyPreserved For Posterity...
"My college roommate got stuck in an infant swing at a public park and firefighters had to use some type of Jaws of Life contraption to cut the swing down and cut her out of it."- Nocomt
Oops!
"I know a guy who was interviewed on camera up in the mountains where there was a forest fire."
"He had been up there fishing with his girlfriend."
"He was married."- Fezig
Close Call
"Dude was swimming laps in a lake after dinner (i.e., around sunset)."
"Predictably, he got bit by an alligator."
"I saw him on the news, shirtless in true Floridaman fashion, with a little bandage over each tooth mark."
"The bandages made a dotted line around his shoulder and chest in the shape of an alligator's mouth, like he was in a cartoon or something."- BigRedRobotNinja
Tiere Bis Unters Dach Swimming GIF by SWR KindernetzGiphyUnpaid Extra
"There was a park nearby that had no drainage and was bowl shaped."
"So if it rained hard, this baseball park/ football field turned into a mini lake."
"It rained a lot one day and the news did a story just showing how much it rained, and in the background behind the news-woman, from out of frame you see my friend rowing past her in a kayak."- hook_killed_pan
Right Place At The Right Time?
"A fight broke out at a HS football game."
"Turned into a huge brouhaha.'
"They intervened this dumba** friend of mine on the local news, the only bit that made it into the broadcast was him saying 'For the first time in my life I was happy to see cops!'"- KneeDragr
Awww...
"Marrying their pet goldfish in an underwater ceremony, complete with a wedding gown and guests in scuba gear."- Candies-For-You
Illustration Swimming GIF by Ordinary NadeeGiphyStrike!
'A childhood friend’s dad embezzled money from the local Little League team."- Key-Zebra-4125
How Did He Even Make It To The Freezer?
"An ex boyfriend of my best friend’s sister ended up on the news for breaking into a Checkers through the drive through window and locking himself in the freezer until the cops arrived and arrested him."- pineapple3712·
Ice Cream Snack GIF by My/Mochi Ice CreamGiphySetting An Example...
"I got filmed and aired sticking a swab up my nose at drive thru covid testing."
"I had just declined to be interviewed at my car because I was afraid of getting someone sick."
"Test was negative, and my sister got a new pic for my contact profile on her phone."- idiotsavant419
Criminals Don't Ususally Wait In The Check Out Line...
"My friend was going to target with his mom to buy a tv."
"They stopped at Starbucks in the store."
"When the worker asked what the wanted he said “'he money in the register see' like an old timey gangster, then laughed ordered and payed for their coffee and went into target."
"While they were pushing their cart with a tv in it to the check out line the swat team surrounded them and arrested him for armed robbery.. was on the news."
"Got charged and everything."
"The first hearing the barista could not point him out and the judge threw out the case."- MACHOmanJITSU
Returning To The Scene Of The Crime...
"A guy from my high school stole Michael Jackson's glove from the Motown Museum in Detroit MI in early 90s."
"He returned it."
"I knew it had to be him, and yep, it was."
"I remembered him because he dressed like Michael Jackson every single day of school for years."
"He did it really well, too."
"He also didn't talk much."
"So, I was surprised to see him talking to a TV reporter about it."
"I hope he's doing well."- ATK80k
Animated GIFGiphySome people crave their 15 minutes of fame and embrace it however it may come.
Others only hope that no one they knew happened to be watching their local news that night...
Even though they know deep down that all their friends have it on their DVR and are never planning to erase it...
People say the darndest things after -- and sometimes during -- lovemaking.
Maybe it's the euphoria.
Maybe it's the adrenaline.
Maybe it's the tequila.
It's always good to have a kind-hearted joke on hand or a generic compliment.
Or maybe just grab your belongings and skedaddle.
Redditor ella-es-julia wanted to hear about the craziest pillow talk stories, so they asked:
"Men of Reddit: What's the weirdest thing a girl said to you after sex?"
The weirdest I ever got was... "What city am I in again?"
Geography matters.
Morbid Much?
In Bed Home GIFGiphy"Met girl, went on date, brought girl home, had the sex, finished the sex, laying there she says 'What would you do if I died right now?' and demanded an actual answer."
Vixxay
Meow
"Not to me, but as she walked over to the bathroom after the deed, she said 'I just did your owner' to my cat. Sexiest thing that ever happened to me."
shlanky369
"My Fiancé and I were about to start going at it when the cat appeared from under the bed and stared at me. I went, 'Babe the cat is here. I don't like how he's staring at my boobs."
"Fiancé grabbed the cat and yeeted him into the hallway with the phrase, 'Get out you weird pervert.'"
"The cat proceeded to (without his claws) smack the door over and over again while screaming for a few minutes straight. Pervert."
Trumpet6789
POP!
"'I need you to take me to the hospital. Something is now bleeding and hurts.'"
"Turns out her ovarian cyst popped. We're still together with the running joke of sex so good it put her in the ER."
DasBatt
"Ah ah ah, 2 hemorrhagic cysts ruptured, I was bleeding internally, but only a little bit. I'm still impressed by how quickly you went from a naked sex stupor to being ready and carrying me to the car. Good times."
"In the ER when they asked me what happened all I could do was shout 'we were f**kin!' through my tears. That memory still makes me laugh."
Straystar-626
Damn it's Good
"We were going at it for some time then her face went instantly from 'damn it's good' to full-on crying. I stop, ask her what's wrong and she tells me 'I can't cheat on my boyfriend, it is wrong.'"
"So this is when I learned that the girl that I met on a dating website and that I started seeing 3 weeks before and that she told me she was single had a boyfriend for over 5 years. Got her to talk more, and she told me she was on the dating website to see if there were guys better than her boyfriend so she could end up with someone better."
"This was like 20 years ago, a coworker I have right now knows her (his girlfriend is like a distant relative of hers) and I learned she had 5 different boyfriends since then, cheated on all of them except the last one (for now). She was also a cam model in secret, one of the boyfriends was a high-paying customer."
draftstone
A Binding Contract
"'Pleasure doing sex business with ya.' We then shook hands."
"Still together 5 years later!"
Tatarstan
It's nice when people who have great sex make great partners.
And it all starts with a handshake.
Sleep on It
“'I don’t usually say this but, yeah, you can stay.'"
lennyukdeejay
"Did you high-five after that? Seems like that statement called for it."
EvilNinjaX24
"This is the best one."
TomKhatacourtmayfind
Tiny Dancer
"Not really weird but I slept with this girl while backpacking Asia, she was also a backpacker. After a bit of chillin'/talking, I got up to get dressed, she looked at my flaccid manhood and said 'You're quite shy when you're not excited.' I thought it was hilarious."
fleetwoodsackk
"That's a much better way to put it. My wife, when we were just dating and had moved in together and eventually saw it flaccid just said 'Aww, it's so little.' Thanks, hun, exactly what every guy wants to hear."
striker180
Fine!
"She said 'If I get pregnant I'm keeping it.' I was dumbfounded and when I didn't respond quickly enough she got really agitated like I had hurt her feelings and yelled 'Fine! You don't have to be involved if you don't want to!'"
"We had just met that night. My condom use skyrocketed after that night."
Fullyme
"When I was a poverty-stricken college student I was banging a girl who said, 'If you get me pregnant I’ll take you for everything you own.' I said, 'All I own is my bicycle. You want that?'”
OrwellWasRight101
Amen
"Best weird compliment I ever got was 'Damn boy, you f**k like the Devil!'"
"I married her, we still goin' at it."
BeBearAwareOK
Well, these certainly created some lasting relationships... or hilarious tales to tell their friends.
Do you have any stories to share? Let us know in the comments below.
Reddit user callmejari asked:
"What's the weirdest compliment you have received?"
Zzzzz...
"Someone once told me that my voice was so soothing, it could put a crying baby sloth to sleep."
~ Marena-Cris-18
GiphyWhat About My Sneeze?
"'Your cough sounds nice' Was just a random girl on the train."
"Still throws me off 2 years later."
~ ThatGothDinosaur
GiphyHope It’s Not SpongeBob
"A 5-year-old kid told me he liked me because I looked like a cartoon."
~ Sea_Ganache620
Giphy
Unfulfilled Potential
"I have nice wide birthing hips."
"I'm a guy."
~ kudzufarmer
"You got the foundation for it, you're just missing the plumbing."
~ ARoundForEveryone
Giphy
Wrong Hemisphere, But Thanks
"When I was 16 working the drive thru—'You’re the prettiest Arabic girl I’ve ever seen'."
"I’m Mexican. But thank you ma’am."
~ 3sp00py5me
GiphyWas His Name Vlad?
"'You've got beautiful veins'."
"By the guy that injected my contrast before an MRI."
~ Reblax837
Werner Herzog Halloween GIF by Arrow VideoGiphyIt Keeps My Teeth In Place
"Some random NYC man told me I had a nice chin once. I still think about him."
~ pssht07070707
GiphyNever Skip Leg Day
"I was told by a woman walking behind me on stairs that I had great calves."
"It was kind of weird at the time."
~ Sider-Pride
Not The BBQ Ones
"'I like your ribs'."
"From random girl at a pool party during a music festival."
~ Particular-Natural12
GiphyCleaning Up On Aisle 5
"I delivered bread to grocery stores in the 90’s and when I decided to change routes, the young lady who had always checked me in told me she’d really miss the sound of my voice."
~ OGGBTFRND
GiphyBloody Offal
"One time I was at the doctor for some lower back pain getting an ultra sound and the tech looked me dead in the eye and said 'You have really nice kidneys. They're very plump.'"
"Best strange compliment I ever received."
~ FlashRage
A compliment is a compliment, right?
What's the weirdest compliment you've received?