Redditor mrgreen1464 asked:
"What was the best purchase you made during the pandemic?"
Musical Aspirations
" I finally bought a cello!"
"I’d been wanting to begin learning for years, invested and loving it."
- amediocremusician
"Cello is an underrated beautiful instrument. Watching Adam Hurst on YouTube makes me feel like I’m watching Lestat from Anne Rice’s books play an instrument."
"Cellos are the best!!!! Every song sounds beautiful and haunting."
- GloomyCamel6050
GiphyUnexpected Benefit
"I bought a doorbell camera."
"I was internally debating if I had wasted money on it or not when I realized it caught a clip of my best friend—who passed away last summer—doubled over in laughter and having his pants fall down around his ankles while he was trying to catch his breath."
"Worth every penny."
- Greyskiesgreeneyes
The Big Dig
"Heard we were going into lockdown so contacted local earth moving company and said as you will not be able to work can you drop around a 20 ton digger for me to use over lockdown and pay on the hour meter."
"Worked out so good, they dropped around their nicest machine. Chipped away over the month and moved 1/2 my section to make it flat, dug a pond etc..."
"Only cost me $2000 for a month rental!"
- ultimatedbag
GiphyWorthwhile
"Squat rack."
"Took a long time to get everything set up, but it was worth the wait."
- Longjumping-Dot4301
"*worth the weight..."
- Vinegaz
Introspection *results may vary
"I tried some magic mushrooms and realized that my life was headed down a horrible path. That realization made me get trained in a new career that will hopefully be more sustainable and healthy for me."
"Granted it's been a challenge but I don't think I would have been brave enough to change without that experience..."
- CurrentMeasurement29
"Damn I wish this was my experience with shrooms. Every time I’ve just had fun for a couple hours, then slowly descended into a terrifying hell world for the next six."
"No life changing realizations or clarity. And now I am far too afraid to ever try any kind of hallucinogen again."
"The inside of my brain is not a place I want to be trapped in, it’s f'king dark in there."
- fadingstatic
Catpanionship
"Not a purchase necessarily, but taking in a little stray pandemic kitten."
"He’s brought so much joy to my life and I honestly don’t know how I would’ve made it through the difficulties that the pandemic brought on if I didn’t have him."
- CeLaVieluv
"I somehow adopted two kittens during the pandemic. One May of 2020, the other January2021."
"They are truly the best."
- blackcatsbrew
"Oh, it’s a purchase-cat food, litter, scratching post, vet bills, etc..."
"We took in a little black kitten in September & she’s brought a lot of joy."
"She has a cat tower that’s taller than I am because we wanted to give her a safe spot from our overly-affectionate Labradors. As it turns out, she pesters them more."
- dailysunshineKO
Alternate Reality
"Nintendo Switch to live on an island and pretend the world isn’t falling apart."
- maltymawma
"I impulsively bought a Switch and Animal Crossing days before everything got completely shut down."
"The game still consumes my life, it’s given me online friends, a creative outlet, it’s given me so much more than just the island."
"Truly a blessing."
- Mrs_worldwide_
"Animal Crossing really was the escapism I needed. I probably have a lot of weeds to pull now..."
- Jazzlike_Log_709
"Animal Crossing really came out at the best time. A former colleague got a Switch of her own (her kids had one or multiple) just so she could play Animal Crossing by herself!"
"How many hours I spent with it in the beginning, how many friends I made via the internet that told me it got them through hard times..."
- gezeitenspinne
GiphyBetter Credit
"Not what I bought...what I didn't buy."
"I saved SO much money, not shopping."
"My credit cards are 100% paid off for the first time in like 20 years."
- NotThisAgain21
Did you purchase anything that changed your life during the pandemic?
Share it in the comments!
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Last year I ordered a lush nightgown for a bestie. It was fluffy, sultry and floor-length. It took months... MONTHS to arrive. And when I opened it... I saw no fluff. No sultry and it was basically a crop top. I was not pleased.
On your Feet...
shoes GIFGiphy"Shoes."
- Rettirk
"Yes, I'm always in between sizes. Online shoe shopping will end in a crap load of returns."
The Fit
"Clothes. Lot easier to return if they don't fit, or better still you can try it on in the shop."
- PinGUY
"This 100%. I'm pregnant and most of the retail stores around me have stopped carrying maternity clothes in store. In my town I found about 12 racks between Walmart, Target, and Khols. I complain about it and people are like "I just order it all and then return what doesn't work."
"But I don't want to do that, I don't want to wait a week to find out it doesn't fit and then go through the hassle of taking a package to the UPS store to return items. I decided instead to just find a few sewing patterns that would work and go to JoAnns for my maternity clothes."
Fill her Up...
"A used vehicle. With services like Carvana and others pushing the full online experience, I just could not bring myself to invest that kind of money into something I cannot see or drive first, especially after being burned on a used car or two in the past. I understand many have trial/return policies but it seems like more of a headache than its worth."
DEMIN LIVES!!
"Jeans."
"Agree, except the last time I went to buy the kind I like the only store I'd been able to find them in said they no longer carried them. So I called up the jean company and the lady said we aren't making them anymore and I have 3 in stock in that size. I ordered all 3 over the phone. BRING BACK 100% DENIM! I hate stretch jeans."
Dance Bouncing GIF by E!Shoes and melons. You always need to feel those in person. Shoe and melon shopping is almost an art form. And jeans. You have to try on jeans.
The Songs
Moving The Simpsons GIFGiphy"Music and DVDs. I enjoy the browsing and stumbling on a hidden gem. But most of these stores have closed down."
- Isand0
Words in front...
"Books. I love book stores. I like to pick up the books, the smell of a bookstore, getting distracted by books that I wasn't even looking for, all of it. I'm saddened that there are fewer and fewer bookstores. If I visit a new place I always look for local bookstores."
Not My Order
"Food."
"Yeah I've done the Walmart pickup and ended up with some junky produce. I still risked it during the pandemic though just to avoid the store. Rather some moldy lemons than covid. But that exact sentiment kept me from doing it before."
The Strings
"Guitars. Even if you've aged the exact same model in a store, you never know what you're going to get in the mail. Even low end guitars, if 1000 come off the production line 995 will be just fine. 3 will be bad. 2 will just have something about them that makes them special t hat you can't really define but takes it to that next level."'
- rhett342
Looks can be Deceiving...
"Fruit and vegetables. I've used a lot of grocery pickup because of covid. The pickers don't give a crap what the produce looks like."
"When I did this years ago, I would be careful to avoid bruised apples, bags of fruit with a rotten one, avocados that were squishy or rock hard. But I'd get complaints on items that I don't eat (and therefore don't know what to look for) like mangoes, pineapples, and tomatoes."
misfitting...
Giphy"Bathing suits. A lot of online stores only sell the same size top and bottom together. I need different sizes."
Now bathing suits I can chance it with. Mostly because I'll just wear undies to the beach if I have to. I'm just never going to fully trust the online experience.
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One woman found out when she was literally trapped in her house by an Amazon box.
@ViralHog/YouTube
TikTok user @izzybrooke had her day ruined thanks to an Amazon delivery.
Prepared to have a relaxing day at the nail salon, the woman quickly found out that leaving her house wasn't an option.
In the series of videos, @izzybrooke narrated her ordeal.
"When all you want is to go get your nails done, but you can't because Amazon put a package outside your door and you can't get out."
She began trying different methods to open the door.
"Im gonna try to get myself out because Amazon locked me in."
First, she opened the door's window.
@izzybrooke/TikTok
But ultimately it was for nothing, because she couldn't remove the screen covering.
"I can't get the ****ing screen open I'm just not happy."
@izzybrooke/TikTok
"Just like seriously Amazon, what the ****!"
Finally, she thought about jamming something between the door to push the package away.
Her tool of choice: a rubber spatula.
@izzybrooke/TikTok
"This will work I guess."
@izzybrooke/TikTok
Thankfully, it worked!
@izzybrooke/TikTok
The video quickly became popular on TikTok and Youtube, and @izzybrook even made the news!
@dad__perfect/TikTok
@nikitasnash/TikTok
Apparently, other people have been trapped by delivery boxes too.
@familycircus58/TikTok
@davey_pigeon/TikTok
Thankfully, there's an easy way to avoid this issue - just leave detailed delivery instructions.
ali_cat09/TikTok
It's not the most ideal way to receive a package, but at least it actually arrived!