Ask Lemmy

Not Amazon but MercadoLivre, I bought a water bottle that keeps water cold for a very long time (my old one stopped working somehow and the handle was broken). A bit over R$100 which is just under $20.

Ultrasonic cleaner! Really awesome for glasses, jewelry, all kinds of small stuff. I fill it with isopropanol solution and clean my phone case in it.

Apple dongle for 3.5mm headphones

Cheap bluetooth obd2 scanner. But yeah, I've been trying to keep my Amazon spending to a minimum. I'll try to buy from anywhere else first

A really fucking long ethernet cable.

USB extension cable

My purse. The kind you would believe is bigger on the inside.

Nothing, amazon is a leech. Don't use amazon.

I'm just going to leave this here.

... and for non-warehouse items.

Basically every usb cable i have bought. If you try it locally, there are like two bigger chains in every city who sell those at ridiculous costs. To get them at a reasonable price you’d have to drive to a specialised vendor available only in the biggest cities (conrad, elv) or at very remote places (e.g. pollin).

I try to use Amazon less and less these days, but there are still some things worth getting for cheap.

A whole category for me is small kitchen items. Mixing bowls, bench scraper, oil bottles, squeeze bottles, etc. You can get good brands too, you just have to look a little harder these days.

48 pack of Amazon basic AA batteries for my trail cams. For years I was feeding my kids saw dust thickened stew to afford the 8 lithium batteries per camera for all 7-12 cameras we have between the property my father and I share. (His 150 acres and my 150 are connected) for comparison 48 Amazon basic batteries are $14. 48 energizer lithiums is a cunt hair under $100. It wasn't until I looked into the reason for the cameras calling out lithium only batteries was because alkaline batteries have a lower output of charge when they are running low but lithium batteries don't. The company said the lower power creates issues with the camera if it loses power mid cellular transfer of images. They made it sound like what happens if you lose power updating firmware on something. So I even question they're reasoning cuz I feel like wort case scenario is you lose the image it was transferring but other than that, why would losing power on something ruin it? Either way the change happened when I realized the app showed how much batter is remaining for each camera and just started changing them out between half empty and 3/4 empty. Haven't had a single problem in the 2 and half years since the change.

We don't have Amazon.

Shipping

I love my Glocusent book light.

https://www.amazon.com/Glocusent-Rechargeable-Portable-Brightness-Dimmable/dp/B09PR1BTM7

Stuff

A cheap Casio watch. Lasts ages and always helpful.

I had some Amazon Basics blackout curtains that were well worth the $18 it cost. Compared to similar priced "blackout" curtains from Walmart and other physical retailers, they actually worked for their intended purpose and blocked all light.

A good sleep mask

Some chinesium computer mouse. I had low expectations but it worked perfectly for a good 7 years before the mouse wheel died. It even had RGB, removable weights, and variable DPI/pointer speeds!

A basic stainless steel mate kit. I wasn't a mate drinker before, now I occasionally do.