this post was submitted on 29 Dec 2024
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What are the best, lasting quality of life improvements you could get for $500 in total? (hexbear.net)
submitted 1 week ago by blight@hexbear.net to c/askchapo@hexbear.net
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[โ€“] SpiderFarmer@hexbear.net 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Clothes. When I was basically down to three pairs of pants that were going threadbare, a friend paid generously for a show I put on with my banjo. For $200 I managed to minimize the amount of trips to the laundry room and really feel good about how I looked.

Other things are kitchen appliances on the fritz and a good stock of convenience food should your burnout kick in too early.

[โ€“] glans@hexbear.net 7 points 1 week ago

For $200 I managed to minimize the amount of trips to the laundry room and really feel good about how I looked.

I'm just going to glom on to your comment to pass on some of the best advice I ever got: if you can afford it, buy enough socks and underwear that you only need to do laundry every 3-4 weeks. For the other stuff you can get away with wearing it multiple times, spot cleaning etc. Socks and underwear are the real limiting factor.

(This is especially for people who don't have in-home laundry and therefor must waste time to travel somewhere to do laundry and pay per load. And obviously YMMV depending on job, lifestyle, body, geography etc for the other clothes.)

It might sound crazy to spend $500 on underwear alone but consider the following that lets you get away with 3 weeks between laundries:

Utility Underwear    $5-10/ea  x 20  = $100 - $200
Utility Socks        $5-10/ea  x 20  = $100 - $200
Nice Socks           $30/ea    x 2-4 =  $60 - $120
Nice Underwear       $30/ea    x 2-4 =  $60 - $120
TOTAL Range ------------------------ = $360 - $640

This doesn't even account for bras, which for some people could spend $500 on alone. But if you have spare you can always get undershirts, long johns, stockings, jocks or whatever. And on top of that there are more specialized items some people need/want due to health or gender reasons.

If you have a stable housing/storage situation, and a moreorless stable ass size, you'll never regret having extra socks/underwear, or having extra good quality of either.