r/GoodValue

I’m looking for those things where you eventually realize you’ve been paying the “normal retail” price when there’s a much cheaper way to buy essentially the same thing.
For example, did you know Mr. Clean Magic Erasers are basically melamine foam, and you can buy generic melamine foam cleaning sponges in bulk for a fraction of the price?
What are your best “did you know you can buy this like THAT?” discoveries?
Could be:
Something you can buy in bulk
A generic/private label version of a branded product
The raw material/form of a product instead of the consumer branded version
Something sold for another purpose that works just as well
Something you can buy directly from a manufacturer or wholesale supplier

The cheap utility knife I open boxes with gave up on Sunday. Blade slid halfway back into the handle mid cut and I caught my thumb pushing it out. Four dollar knife, so I got what I paid for.

Did some reading after that. The Fastback kept coming up. Good, decision made, I'll go buy one.

Then I went to actually buy one. Milwaukee's own parts list has a 1501, a 1502, a 1505 and a 1520, all called Fastback. Wirecutter picks the 1502. In one thread a guy said get the one that stores spare blades in the handle and locks at 120 and 180 degrees, and two people asked him which model that was, one in September and one the following April. Neither got an answer. Blade storage is right in the 1502's name so maybe that's it, but nothing I can find lists those two angles, on any of them.

I open maybe a dozen boxes a week and break the cardboard down. That's the whole job. Around twenty bucks, and mostly I want the blade to stay where I put it.

I'm stuck at the brand. If you've owned two of these, tell me what the extra ten bucks bought.

So im moving for college and have to pack basically everything with me lol. Clothes, shoes, some books, toiletries, random room stuff etc..

im looking for a good suitcase/luggage set that can actually handle a lot of stuff without being a pain to carry around..Preferably something durable with good wheels and enough space..

What suitcases/brands have worked well for you guys:? Also, would you recommend getting one big suitcase + a cabin bag, or going for a 2/3-piece set?

Would really appreciate some recommendations..

i’m a parent of a 6-month-old and trying to be a little smarter about buying everyday clothes as the sizes keep changing. i’m mostly looking at basics like bodysuits, pajamas, and multipacks, so i care more about getting decent use out of them than having a ton of outfits.

when you’re buying baby clothes on a budget, what do you usually look at to decide if something is actually good value? price per piece matters, but i’m also wondering how much attention you pay to how the clothes hold up after regular washing.

I always figured my next cutting board would be walnut. Buy one good board, oil it now and then, done. Rubber was a word for tires. The boards I actually owned were an Ikea plastic one with grooves deep enough to hold garlic through two washes, and a bamboo one that split along a glue line. The morning an apple slice came off the plastic tasting like last night's garlic, I went shopping for the walnut. Instead I kept tripping over the same story: restaurant people online saying kitchens in Japan cut on rubber, something about health rules and thin knives. Can't verify that. But it made the tire theory look shaky.

So the walnut stayed unbought. What pushed me over was a writeup from a guy three months into his, mostly because of the parts he didn't like: https://www.reddit.com/r/ProductProbe/comments/1vn5wxe/rubber_cutting_board_took_a_week_to_stop_feeling/

Garlic got tested first, since garlic was the whole reason. Cut a few cloves that weekend, washed the board, smelled it the next morning. Still there, faint. Gone by dinner. Onions a few days later left nothing at all. People say these hold no odor. Not quite true, but a day beats grooves that held it through two washes. The quiet was never on the list: the knife lands soft and most of the chop noise is just gone. For marks, my rule is only count what a fingernail catches. Three weeks in, that's exactly one, from the serrated bread knife. That knife is banned now.

The rest of the tally is boring in a good way. It's heavier than it looks, just under three pounds, so it doesn't wander around the counter. It washes in the sink like anything else, and after seeing a photo of what a hot pan does to one of these, pans wait on the trivet. It's $83. I'm still not over that.

The walnut board is still open in a tab I haven't closed. I keep waiting for this slab to give me a reason to order it. The score says not yet.

Working from home slowly filled the bedroom. The desk took its corner a while ago, the treadmill is newer and took most of what was left. The bed was the last big thing in the room and the only one that could go up instead of out.

Most of what comes up when you search is built for kids. On the cheap metal ones the reviews come down to two words, wobble and creak. I wanted stairs instead of a ladder because I'm not carrying a laundry basket up a ladder one handed. Ceiling was never the question here, the floor was.

So I bought the thing the reviews kept warning me about: a $290 metal queen, OYUMOENTS, the version with storage built into the stairs. Assembly took most of a Saturday, and for a good part of it I figured I'd be repacking the box.

It's been up a week and change. No wobble yet. Changing the sheets up there is the part nobody warned me about, I've done it once and I'm already dreading the next round. The treadmill parks under it now when I'm not on it.

Anyone a few years into a metal loft bed: do you retighten the bolts on a schedule, or only once it starts making noise?

Hello, I will appreciate any help with your recommendations to buy my first ever robot vacuum cleaner in the Serbia and I've look in some of this model's of robot vacuum cleaner, because it's important to me to clean and brush my floor equally, my room is a gaming room with a lot of obstacles, but I will twice at week remove all obstacles (lazy bag, gaming chair, all cables from the floor and small table's), just wanna know which brend and mark will be good for me, to clean my room, my hallway and kitchen and another room, which is mostly clean, a total of about 120m2, because the hallway is quite large. Does any of this model's will be good for me:

1.) iROBOT Roomba 115 Combo + AutoEmpty Y454040

2.) Roborock Q7BF+

3.) MIDEA I5C Robot vacuum cleaner

4.) ROBOROCK Q10 VF

5.) ROBOROCK Q10 VF PLUS

6.) ROBOROCK Q7 BF+

7.) DREAME D9 Max Gen 2 Black

8.) Deerma Robot vacuum dem-S30 Pro Plus

9.) ANKER Eufy Robot Vacuum Omni C20 Black

10.) iRobot Roomba Plus Combo 405+AutoWash

11.) Beko VRR 70214 VB

12.) ROWENTA RR8595

13.) TESLA Electronics RoboStar - Smart Robot Vacuum Cleaner 3in1 3200 mAh Wi-Fi

14.) Smart robot vacuum cleaner with mop SmartLife 5200 mAh Wi-Fi Tuya black

15.) Midea Robot Vacuum Cleaner 2in1 S8+

16.) Dreame D9 Max Robot Vacuum Cleaner

I will appreciate any help, this medium budget vacuum cleaner are aviable for the purchase in my country, but also there are other model's like XIAOMI, HISENSE, MIELE, BOSCH, PHILIPS, EUFY, SENCOR, MAMIBOT, BEKO, SHARK, EZVIZ, DYSON...

Every faucet I've ever bought came off a box store shelf, and until last month I never thought twice about it.

Then the kitchen faucet that came with this house cracked at the base of the spout. No brand on it anywhere. I only caught it because the particle board under the sink went soft, and there's a towel wrapped around the base right now while I sort out the replacement.

That's how I fell into the old argument. The plumbing subs keep saying the box store runs of the big brands carry more plastic inside than what a supply house sells, and the manufacturers say there's no difference. The one specific thing I found is on Moen's own page, same grade of brass everywhere, different model numbers depending on the store.

The one I've been eyeing is $169 at Home Depot. I know I could walk into a supply house Monday and ask, but the counter guy's answer is always going to be whatever's on his shelf.

So I'd rather ask people who've lived with one. How old is the faucet on your sink? Where did it come from? Has it ever needed a part? And if the store thing is a myth, better I hear it now than after I've spent the money.

There's a spinlock set under my bed with the collars still half done up. Swapping plates between exercises took long enough that I kept skipping whatever came next, and eventually I stopped getting it out at all.

Then I tried one of those dial-adjustable sets. The plastic selector cracked. I looked at used ones after that, but a Marketplace photo doesn't show you what's cracked inside, so I walked away twice.

By the end I'd stopped comparing prices and was reading warranties instead, and the ten years is what settled it. Whether a warranty like that means anything when you actually try to use it, no idea. I picked up the PowerBlock Elite EXP pair this month.

They look like metal bricks and they cost $400. Mine are the 5 to 50 pair, I passed on the expansion kit. The weight change takes a couple seconds. I haven't skipped an exercise since, but it's been weeks, not years, so that proves nothing.

Whether they hold up, I'll find out. If anyone has had a set go past five years, I'd like to hear what broke first.

I am looking for a vibrating wrist alarm that I can set for every half hour. Chronically late and have very poor sense of time awareness, 5 minutes and 30 minutes feel the same to me.

Any suggestions?

Am open to cheaper smartwatch, but do not have an apple device.

We had several home upgrades from Costco on our list, so this is what I ended up ordering:

Hisense 65” U65 Pro — $599.99

Mini LED TV with Fire TV built in and 5 years of warranty coverage through Costco.

Tresanti Juliette 75” Console with Electric Fireplace — $799.99

Gives us extra storage, a place for the TV, and a fireplace feature for colder evenings.

NewAge Products Bold Series 6-Piece Cabinet Set — $799.99

Includes a 30” locker, base cabinet, and wall cabinets to finally organize the garage.

Traeger Texas Elite Pellet Grill 34 — $599.99

Large enough for family cookouts and easier to manage than my old charcoal grill.

Novaform 14” ComfortGrande Advanced Gel Memory Foam Mattress, King — $579.99

We needed a larger mattress, and the gel memory foam sounded like a comfortable option without spending over $1,000.

The total before the Costco Direct discount was $3,379.95. After the $400 instant savings, it came down to $2,979.95.

What do you think about them?