What can I purchase with $100 that will be the best thing I can buy to make my life better?
I've decided to budget some regular money to improving my life each month. I'd like to start with low hanging fruit for obvious reasons - but when I sat down to think of improvements, I found myself thinking of the same old things I'd already been planning to do anyway... and I'd like out of that rut.
Constraints/more info:
be concrete. I know - "spend money on experiences" is a good idea - but what experiences are the best option to purchase *first*
"better" is deliberately left vague - choose how you would define it, so that I'm not constrained just by ways of "being better" that I'd have thought of myself.
please assume that I have all my basic needs met (eg food, clothing, shelter) and that I have budgeted separately for things like investing for my financial future and for charity.
apart from the above, assume nothing - Especially don't try and tailor solutions to anything you might know and/or guess about me specifically, because I think this would be a useful resource for others who might have just begun.
don't constrain yourself to exactly $100 - I could buy 2-3 things for that, or I could save up over a couple of months and buy something more expensive... I picked $100 because it's a round number and easy to imagine.
it's ok to add "dumb" things - they can help spur great ideas, or just get rid of an elephant in the room.
try thinking of your top-ten before reading any comments, in order not to bias your initial thinking. Then come back and add ten more once you've been inspired by what everyone else came up with.
Background:
This is a question I recently posed to my local Less Wrong group and we came up with a few good ideas, so I thought I'd share the discussion with the wider community and see what we can come up with. I'll add the list we came up with later on in the comments...
It'd be great to have a repository of low-hanging fruit for things that can be solved with (relatively affordable) amounts of money. I'd personally like to go through the list - look at candidates that sound like they'd be really useful to me and then make a prioritised list of what to work on first.
Some ideas of mine: both things that I already have, or am thinking about buying:
a nice pedometer/fitbit - measuring your daily activity is the first step towards making sure you do it more regularly, and a good pedometer (with software to see your progress) is within the price range
a waterpik (to make flossing more interesting and thus more likely)
a really good-quality umbrella (for areas that are rpone to bad weather) because struggling with flimsy ones is more pain than it's worth to buy a quality one.
a good quality laptop bag/airline carry-on bag (especially if you lug your heavy laptop around a lot...)
healthy snacks for while I work (jerky and dried fruit)
an Ingress addiction (makes me walk a lot and it's free)
a shoe rack (i have a habit of tossing them all over the floor, and it's an easy way of tidying up the floor while remaining easy to dump my shoes)
sleep-tracking software and sleep-cycle alarm clock (to wake me up gently during REM cycle - these are often free)
large prints of nice pictures to stick on the wall behind my computer monitor so I have something nice to look at while working
do a defensive-driving course (driving safety is always useful for longevity)
take some meditation classes (for the ability to notice when being distracted and be better able to focus when needed)
take a toastmasters course (so as to be more confident with public speaking which is an importnat part of being a social leader)
take up a regularly scheduled low-impact exercise (eg tai chi)
I purchased a Blunt umbrella for AUD$90 mid last-year when i lost yet another umbrella due to windiness. If you don't think you'll leave it behind you anywhere I'd recommend it.
Also just purchased a Jawbone Up, I felt was a good balance between subtly motivating good behaviours without being too involved. Mainly bought it for the alarm function though.
I buy biltong from Byron Bay Jerky, only place I found that uses grass-fed beef. Prices are pretty comparable across providers for this but if you can find someone to split the 2.5kgs with then you've got a pretty good deal. Other healthy snack ideas would be nuts (pre-soaked to remove phytates), chia pudding (chia seeds + some sort of milk + flavourings. i use coconut milk but any will do), coconut chips & more involved things like frittata muffins.
Meditation classes seem a good option, I've tried a couple though and they had a lot of spiritual baggage that didn't appeal to me. If you find a secular class I'd be interested.
Cycling is a low-impact exercise, and has the benefit of being able to get you places. Replacing your commute with a bike ride - if feasible - would be a good way to integrate exercise into your life.
3pinyaka
Recommendation here: Several years ago I bought one of the Eagle Creek Tarmac series of bags because I was flying a lot. They are expensive (less than $300), but have a lifetime warranty including damage done by an airline (every other bag I saw excluded damage done by airlines). They are very tough, well designed, visually distinctive and just small enough to fit into most airlines carry-on maximum size. Last year I bought some packing cube nock-offs and that has also made packing and unpacking more enjoyable.
What can I purchase with $100 that will be the best thing I can buy to make my life better?
I've decided to budget some regular money to improving my life each month. I'd like to start with low hanging fruit for obvious reasons - but when I sat down to think of improvements, I found myself thinking of the same old things I'd already been planning to do anyway... and I'd like out of that rut.
Constraints/more info:
Background:
This is a question I recently posed to my local Less Wrong group and we came up with a few good ideas, so I thought I'd share the discussion with the wider community and see what we can come up with. I'll add the list we came up with later on in the comments...
It'd be great to have a repository of low-hanging fruit for things that can be solved with (relatively affordable) amounts of money. I'd personally like to go through the list - look at candidates that sound like they'd be really useful to me and then make a prioritised list of what to work on first.