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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1572 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 11, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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What are some products that are a really good deal or overly expensive?

Good deal:

Fairlife Nutrition Plan, 30g Protein Shake. This is mostly just milk that's been filtered. It has 150 calories and 30 grams of protein. It costs like $2 a pop at costco. Tastes like milk. No crazy amount of additives. I'm just not gonna mess with protein powder so this is an easy way to get closer to my macro goals.

Good product, way too expensive:

Those 3M command strips for hanging pictures. They're somehow like $1 a piece when it feels like they should be 10 cents. It's just velcro and tape.

Good Deals:

Whitin shoes. They're plain enough that I wear them with everything, my sneakerhead puerto rican tenant thought they looked good enough that he asked if they were Yeezys. While I bought several pairs when I realized they happen to perfectly fit my foot, figuring that they'd wear down quick, and they hold up well enough to regular use lifting/walking/running/golfing/biking that I haven't actually had to retire a pair yet. And they're cheap. So much cheaper than anything else I've found out there.

Bad deals:

Everything to do with babies purchased new. 90+% of our baby stuff is second hand, and we have yet to have a single problem with quality. There's a sea of infinite baby stuff available on FB marketplace/poshmark, and tons of friends essentially just say please take this stuff we want to feel good giving it to you instead of feeling bad selling it on FB for no money.

If you're trying to save weight for backpacking, supplement emergency supplies, or need relatively small quantities of milk infrequently on an irregular basis, I discovered it is actually pretty easy to procure powdered whole milk, under the name Nestle Nido Fortificada, and which they sell at Walmart in the international foods area for some reason. Grocery stores around me seem only to ever have powdered nonfat milk in the baking department, which is disgusting, but the Nido Fortificada reconstitutes into a very convincing glass (or bowl) of milk. I believe this is similar to what the Navy uses on long cruises.

Cutting board oil for maintaining your wooden cutting board is ludicrously expensive at the home improvement store. It is just unscented food grade mineral oil, which you can buy much cheaper in the Walmart human laxative department or even cheaper per unit volume in the ag store horse laxative department.

Also, you can use it as a laxative.

Or a horse laxative. Apparently.

It is mix of purified beeswax and mineral oil 1:3 by weight. Still pretty cheap to do at home and a batch lasts forever. But the wax is mucho important.

I'm not questioning the effectiveness of this at all, but there's something inherently funny about "clean your cutting board with a laxative", in the sense that I'd expect it to be a key prank in a movie about rowdy college students sabotaging the dean's party.

Dean Nofun, after watching his guests have to rush to the bathroom after every course, perplexed, begins sniffing the cutting boards with increasing concern... "FUNLOVING HOUSE!!!!!"

They do it to themselves, actually - being given a drink mixed with mineral oil is a common hazing thing. If your pledge father's cool he'll tell you, so you can go puke it up before it hits your intestine.

Good deal: mint mobile unlimited service bought a year at a time. Your cellular service winds up being $15-20/mo

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