Mine… My Xbox 360 slim only costed 129 euro back in 2012 and to this day still work like brand new, you would think that the disc drive would stop working but no. Never had the need of open it or clean it’s insides. Still great, I just don’t use it anymore since I feel it’s outdated and loading speeds are better nowadays.
A shoehorn. It makes putting shoes on so much easier, and for just a couple of dollars. I’m perfectly capable of putting my shoes on without it, but I enjoy not having to.
My nintendo DS lite. Played countless hours in it and it‘s still very good. Battery life is also still a couple of hours which is very impressive considering it‘s 15 years old.
Hair clippers. I bought a set at Target for about $30 about 16-17 years ago after several bad haircuts in a row from the various chain barbers. I just have a simple men’s cut and figured I probably wouldn’t do worse than them and could always shave it off and call it a learning experience if I messed things up too badly.
It definitely took time to get decent at trimming the back and I had to have my wife help me sometimes while I got the hang of it, but at $20+ per haircut every 4-5 weeks, I figure I’ve saved almost $4k so far and it still works. I saved even more if my alternative was to pay up for a better salon to do the work.
Leatherman with matching bitset. Bought it on a whim 10 years ago and I use it constantly for lots of things. It wasn’t my cheapest purchase, but damn has it gotten me out of a lot of difficult project situations where no proper toolbox was available. I’ve literally filled and repaired entire server racks with this thing.
portable clothes washer and dryer: they’re both 20 years old now and i bought them used on craigslist five years ago and they’ve already paid for themselves multiple times over. regular home sized portable washers and driers are normally 2x the price of traditional washers and driers, but they’re 1/2 the price used; i got lucky and mine were 1/4 the price.
mobile clothes washers and driers are great because they don’t require any special electrical, water or drain hookups that traditional washers and dryers require so you can use them anywhere where there’s electricity and running water. i hook mine up to the kitchen sink for the washer and use an exhaust hose w a window for the dryer whenever i need to do laundry; then i use their built in wheels to put them in the closet when i’m done.
their regular sized capacity means that i can wash the same things that that a traditional home washer and dryer can do, but since they use regular 120 volt electric plugs instead of the special 240 volt washer/dryer plugs, they take longer to finish; but still worth it, especially in a rental situation where you can’t install traditional washer & dryer electrical and plumbing hookups.
Simple reusable tie wraps. I haven’t bought any in years because I can just undo and reuse.
steamdeck is proving worthwhile and I don’t usually splurge for things like that.
I have some Shoes for Crews boots I bought back in roughly 2001-2. They’re a little less waterproof higher up now due to some cracking (probably because they sat in a hot storage unit for a while), but I still frequently wear them today when working outside.
Handheld car battery jump starter. $20 off Amazon, worked through two winters.
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shoes
they lasted 3 years, which is about 12x longer than i would have guessed.
I bought a RoboGrip, self adjusting wrench, maybe 35 years ago a a Sears iirc. One of the best tools I ever brought and still going strong.
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I bought a straw hat for a dollar at a yard sale as I walked past during my job delivering packages
Coming in second is a goofy novelty cane I got from a dollar store and used for a while for a leg injury
Third is a box fan for 20.
