Whats the best use for 75 dollars?
So i went to a focus group purely to provide feedback, now i have a 75 dollar giftcard which i have to select and withdraw but im not sure what to put the money towards? my older brother also got one. Yes i live with parents so most of my living needs are already covered.
What would be the smart thing to do here? what would you suggest and why so?
97 replies
Buy as many stick on googly eyes as you can and put them on everything you see
We have a winner!
Waymond?
I have been contemplating similarly for a few months. Except with magnets. Then put them all over my fridge.
Buy where? I want some christopher walken snl sized googly eyes
Safe bet is corn
Who is that in the image? whats the story behind this image?
That’s a man that used to have $75. Now he has corn.
I’d be rolling in that shit like I was Scrooge McDuck.
If you're from the Midwest, that's how you get cornbred.
Corn bed
And then corn bred again ;)
In the corn bed!?!
ITS NOT LIQUID!
It's probably a hunter leaving bait for deer or something. Hence the orange getup.
Whatever you spend it on, may I make a suggestion, if you have a little extra money yourself? Spend the gift card money, yes: buy something you'll enjoy, share that joy with the people who got it for you, let them see how happy they've made you.
Then take the card that the giftcard came in, put in $75 cash, and put it in a special place. Do that every time someone gives you money or a giftcard. As I've gotten older, a lot of the people in my life have died, gotten ill, or moved away. Sometimes, when I'm feeling sad or depressed, I'll go to my little drawer of cards and pull one out at random. I'll re-read the message, and think about the person and the love that we shared at that time, and I'll take the money and do something special for myself, to cheer myself up a bit.
Then sometime in the next few days, I'll get the same amount of cash from the bank, put it in the envelope, and replace it in my stash: the caring we felt for each other at that time was true (regardless of how things eventually turned out), so the cards give me a little emotional boost and the cash lets me do something for myself that I'd normally not spend money on. It helps me feel better, even if only for a little time.
[I'll also be honest and say that sometimes I've run out of money, and something will twinge and I'll remember I have this little stash of cash, and having that has helped me get through some slightly tough times. But I always put the money back in the cards when I can afford it.]
That's really beautiful.
That is lovely and amazing life advice, but OP also stated that they received this money for participating in a focus group. I keep giggling at the thought of them going back and interrupting another focus group to show off what they bought with their $75. Then, a couple years later, trying to squeeze out an emotional response by looking at a gift card sleeve that said, "thank you for your participation."
If you (or your parents) like to cook, you could get some choice steaks (or other high-end ingredients) and make a nice meal that the whole family can enjoy.
Could also get a nice game controller if you're into video games. Most first-party controllers seem to cost about $70-$80 these days.
I dunno what the "smart" thing to do with $75 would be; $75 isn't a whole lot of money in the grand scheme of things so investing it wouldn't exactly pay dividends any time soon. Maybe buy 1GB of DDR5 RAM and in a year it might be worth $75,000 if the market continues its current trend.
Classic Lemmy answer. RAM and steaks.
That's hilarious because this saver was gonna say, "Chickpeas. Lots of chickpeas."
In the humble words of Bender B Rodriguez, you could buy one 75.00 hookerbot or seventy-five 1.00 hookerbots.
How to wisely use $75.
Step 1) Send it to me.
There is no step 2.
send bank details
A nice butt plug ☺️
To be fair, good silicone stuff basically lasts forever. BIFL butt plug time?
Oxballs and Squarepeg Toys make some high quality silicone toys. Njoy does stainless steel, pricey but worth it. I just bought a couple of glass ones from Luscious playthings; well made with high quality glass.
This person butt plugs.
Have ok dinner somewhere? $75 won't get you to a good place. But it may get you into an ok one.
Where the hell do you live where $75 doesn't get you a great meal for 1 person?
A civilised country.
I don't think that word means what you think it means
???
Use it for whatever will bring you the most pleasure.
Buy a blinding stew
A stew that makes you blind for one day.
If nothing comes to mind right away, then perhaps set the money aside for when you do need it.
Depends on your priorities and needs, but 75 dollars should cover most of the bill if visiting a nice-ish restaurant
This makes me sad. About 15 years ago we could go out as a family of 4 to a nice-ish restaurant for just entrees for just under $50 before tip.
Inflation is 88 percent since y2k. Excited for a 50k a year job out of college in the year 2000? That's 90k now. 7.25 minimum wage from 2000? Should be at least 13 now. It isn't, should be.
People are alway "oh, money doesn't go as far as it used to", but they don't get how dramatic it is.
Jesus, where? That sounds like a dream from the 90s.
We would go to Folk's or TGIF or O'charlys or a local tavern, as long as you weren't ordering beer or steaks, it was do able.
I did focus groups and surveys for money. I often would just stock up on toiletries from Amazon when I had gift cards. That shit is expensive so it lets my grocery budget breathe.
Give it to your parents for taking good care of you.
Save it, preferably in something interest bearing. Pretend you never got that money.
Having $75 when you really need it is worth a lot more than spending $75 just because you have it.
It's entirely dependent on what you want or need. If you're good right now throw it in savings until you want or need something.
2rocks and a handy
Go to a mom & pop nonprofit thrift store. You'll have a fun time and the money often goes to supporting non profits
Not long ago that would feed you McDonald dinner for a month.
What you should do its find a good gift card buying site, there are a few. Choose the card that gives the highest cash payout. Save the money.
in the 00s, that 75 dollars would have bought SEVENTY-ONE double cheeseburgers (including a typical sales tax rate of 5.5 percent). today, it would only get you seventeen of them.
Sell it, or buy and return items to make cash, invest it.
Can i have a example of some of the investments you said? are you saying i start something like a ebay?
For investment, something like fxaix (Fidelity 500 index) or vti (Vanguard Total). You need a brokerage account. $75 might be too little to seed an account, depending on the company. Schwab, Vanguard, Fidelity, Robin Hood.
Don't buy a single company, don't by meme stocks, don't buy a mutual fund with high expense ratio, don't buy "money market fund" or similar.
Food bank?
Buy stuff on ebay and start trading to bigger and better things. If you work at it hard enough, you'll end up with trading items worth thousands without having spent more than $75.
https://www.tomsguide.com/us/steven-ortiz-porsche-trade-craigslist,news-7544.html
This is what I do. I recently bought 3x rx480 graphics cards for $90 total and 3x office PCs for $150 total and sold for $450 total. You just have to watch for deals.
I also made ![email protected] for this kind of stuff, but it's basically dead as lemmy is mostly anti capitalism and sees flipping as dirty.
Trading in existing items is not exactly capitalism ... that's just plain old bartering.
Capitalism, especially the modern form, is when you use your existing or inherited wealth to buy or develop companies who generate wealth from the work of other people to create brand new products or services. It's exploitative because capitalists take the hard work of many people who create brand new products and then claim full or majority ownership over those products without having done anything except claim ownership.
What you are doing is taking old discarded things that either have no more value or lesser value and taking your own effort and time to recreate value and barter it to someone else. The only person you've exploited in the transaction is yourself ... but you reap all the benefit. And no one can go back and say that the product that you just traded is stolen profit from the previous owner ... the previous owner had thrown it away and didn't value it any more or even considered it trash to be thrown away.
Flipping isn't capitalism ... it's just good economic sense for the individual.
Unless you turn it all into a multimillion dollar business with employees, real estate and a corporation ... it isn't capitalism.
Why is having employees and especially why is exploiting employees necessary to define something as capitalism?
Wow, I thought that had become basically impossible to profit off of ages ago.
An HOKC Finka-C is almost exactly $75 on Amazon right now.
Apropos of nothing, really.
I have a couple of these. It is a good stabber for the money.
You're advising a young man to buy a combat grade knife? For what? If it would be utility there are so many other good options such as decent multi-tools in that price range. So that leaves defense. But a knife for defense needs serious training or otherwise any situation is quickly dangerously escalated by drawing a knife like that. There are more productive ways of spending 75.
Cripes, this argument again. Give it a rest already, people.
I don't know about you but I've never used mine for combat and I'm unlikely to be in a position to try. Despite the inherent ridiculousness I do occasionally EDC mine, but mostly I use it as a folding camp knife.
There are oodles of other perfectly cromulent knives to recommend, of course (just ask me how I know!) but I zeroed in on this one for the sheer perversity of its selling price being near enough to precisely OP's available figure.
If you're going to be that way about it, might I recommend a Leatherman Skeletool which is also currently about $75.
Appreciate it brother, happy holidays. Of course I'll bite, how do you know?
![email protected]
I had no idea what I was getting into when I clicked that link, but it was a fun read and a really pretty knife.
Thermapen is on sale for $75 right now. https://www.thermoworks.com/thermapen-one/
Best food temperature probe out there. Might not sound like a big deal, but you'll get so much use out of it if you cook meat (including fish).
$75 might get you a power washer or a lawn mower, maybe a snowblower depending on your area. Could make that money back real quick if you have a little charisma.
The absolute best use is opening a Vanguard account, putting $75 in VOO, and forgetting you did it for about 20 or 30 years. Even better, put a $10 in there every month as well.
For a gift for myself when I'm not strapped for cash, I use gift cards and cash for something I would never buy myself. It just feels like it makes a bigger impact that way. I remember it.
If going the charity route, go to your nearest unhoused shelter and ask what they need. I volunteer at one that is hanging on by a thread (no real funding other than a small grant from the county, it's just volunteers). Sometimes donations aren't hitting everything we need and something has run out. Hot chocolate packets and cup of noodles are so valuable (easily transportable, usable, stable, and withstand outdoor weather) that we were giving out handfuls yesterday instead of our typical limit of 1 per person per day. It's wild how important those little things are.
To do the math;
$75 x 25 years at (a conservative) 5% = ~$253
@7% it’s over $400.
Probably not worth your time to wait 25 years for that.
However,
$10/mo at 7% is much more interesting: $8,200
And $10/week: $34,500
Over 25 years this isn’t huge, but it’s *something.”
I used a very conservative % because past gains do not guarantee future performance, and one should not put all their eggs on one basket…But VOO over 30 years averaged 10%, so $10/week with $75 start @ 10% for 25 years is just under $55,000. Double it to $20/wk and you've got $108,000.
IDK what’s in store for the world, but for now, people should invest early and regularly. If it all goes to shit even money under the mattress won’t help, so go for the % IMO.
Yea, it would be more about starting a habit that would result in future security. In a perfect world, it starts here with $75 and a tenner every month, then they start putting in $20, then they ramp it up as they're able.
Invest it.
What are your hobbies?
gaming, building computers, rpgs such as dnd, mild card collecting.
Do you have a 3D printer? $75 won't buy one in full, but it can help get a decent entry-level one like an Ender 3 V3 SE. If you already have one, maybe some filament.
Also, a Raspberry Pi can be used for some nice things. I love my Home Assistant setup, for example!
I do have a 3d printer but i may want a second one someday?
Also what model or single board computer do you suggest, i ask because pi's have gone up in price i believe to to the ram inflation? atleast from what i saw on amazon. What projects are good to do with single board computers?
I've got 4 Pis in my house right now:
I'm also looking at making one of these (put a few parts on the Christmas list 😀 ) https://github.com/fatihak/InkyPi
And a person with THOSE hobbies is on Lemmy??? Well I for one am shocked. SHOCKED I SAY!!!!
........not that shocked actually. Next you'll tell us your linux distro, and a fight will ensue over which distro you should switch to.
I'd suggest taking a look at what roll20 has to offer if you want to play virtually with your friends.
If the rasp Pi is too much (per your other comment), you might have fun with a few esp32s and some basic sensors if you want to get into the embedded electronic space. The entry price is lower then the rasp.
One gallon of gas.
1.25 in may area
Take an online course.
Many of those should be free through public libraries!
75 isn’t a whole lot. If you don’t have a financial management tool yet, you should put it towards that.
Look for something with no fees. I believe Sofi has no fees and might not have a minimum amount. Their app is also really easy to use.
A local credit union is also a good choice since you can physically talk to a person when you have questions.
it's a giftcard
Do you have to spend it right now? You could just wait until you need the money and spend it then.
Can you use that gift card anywhere? If yes, then first convert it to cash. Your parents may be covering all your expenses, but they still need to buy groceries. The next time they do, ask them to use your gift card and give you the equivalent amount in cash. Now you have more flexibility to do whatever you want with that cash. Buy something nice, save/invest, etc. You have plenty of advice from others on this already.
if your into coffee, a cheap carafe or french press is really good. depends what you want to use it on?
A box of nails
They got 8 inch windows tablets with full sized USB ports. Very VERY light gaming. But definitely new Vegas and original borderlands capable.
Drugs.
Buy Bitcoin.
Better to wait a year or two for the current cycle to hit it's low. Or just DCA.
I'd always recommend DCA.
What's DCA?
Dollar Cost Averaging, where you invest a fixed amount on a regular basis, regardless of the value for something.
Get some meth and a cheap hooker and have a party.