What is something really stupid you purchased that turned out far better than expected?

RanchOnPancakes@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 1032 points –

I bought a piece of 1.5 inch stiff foam to try to fix a sag in a bed. It didn't work but having that thick piece of solid foam around has been a life saver.

Need something flat to put a laptop on? Throw it on the foam. Going to be doing something that requires you to be on your knees for a while? Get the foam!

It went from stupid purchase to something I'd gladly replace if it broke.

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Not entirely stupid, but a butterknife. I've never used it to spread butter. I've used it to fasten and unfasten screws tens of times.

maybe you'd like a mini multitools instead

Or, you know... a screwdriver.

Hmm you know what, better just get the impact driver and hammer drill set. You know, in case that screw on the light switch plate is sticking and then I need to drill a hole through concrete after removing the light switch plate just for the fuck of it and then breaking it when replacing it because the torque of the impact driver was set too high.

And then when buying a new switch plate, I should get a bandsaw because they probably won't be 25% off if I find myself in a situation where I need to make a precision cut on a piece of wood, so I'm really saving a bunch of money by getting it now. And I'll need a shop vac for the sawdust.

Oh, and a screw driver is probably a good idea so that I don't break this new plate. Now should I get the set of 50 or will the set of 20 be good enough?

Oh shit, I wonder if my landlord will let me pay next month's rent in drilled holes or wood cuts. I have an extra broken light switch plate if he needs one, but somehow my money has gone missing.

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A compact bit and driver case would be better still if the goal is screwing things. Multitools are fine as a JIC backup.

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I've ruined so many butter knives because I got used to opening packages with them. Like with butter, they slice right through packing tape.

If you get good butter knives instead of cheap ones, you can open lots of things without ruining them. I use a butter knife to separate frozen hot dogs and can't tell which ones were used for that after they get washed and mixed back in with the others.

Unless you're talking about the tape residue. Yeah, I use a pocket knife for that. Mine has a curved blade so I can imagine I'm a velociraptor while opening boxes.

Yup tape residue is the issue. I guess ruined is a bad word for that.

Maybe a screwdriver would also be a good purchase 🪛

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