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How do you (as in, what is your process to) buy nice things for yourself? Have you overcome an overly frugal mindset? How did you make the shift? Do you treat yoself when it's financially OK to do so? How do you choose to treat yourself without going overboard? Tell me your luxury-buying ways. [more inside]
posted by seemoorglass at 4:22 AM - 25 answers

A friend is staying in the Vendée near La Roche-sur-Yon. She has forgotten to take any puzzle magazines with her. Where might she be able to buy British puzzle magazines? She has tried a large supermarket.
posted by paduasoy at 3:32 PM - 2 answers

It seems to me that my 2 year old daily-use stainless steel double wall tumbler is not keeping water as cold as it once did. Is it likely the seal on this could have failed, or is my perspective being skewed by hot weather? [more inside]
posted by gennessee at 2:17 PM - 7 answers

We have a CVS coupon for 25% off any one item. I think the only condition is that the discount is capped at $500 (making the coupon good on items regularly priced up to $2000). We take no expensive medications. The most expensive thing we buy at CVS regularly is La Roche-Posay’s sunscreen, but I feel like there must be some better use of this coupon than that, particularly at the end of the season. We already have an electric toothbrush. Any ideas for a product that will maximize this unusual coupon?
posted by Admiral Haddock at 4:56 AM - 15 answers

Where can I get some nice-ish looking bogus books custom made for kind of cheap? [more inside]
posted by aubilenon at 6:40 PM - 13 answers

My boyfriend is becoming a Canadian citizen soon. Help me think of a gift! [more inside]
posted by hepta at 7:29 AM - 14 answers

Best cloth diapers? I see this as a part of larger askme questions, but not by itself. Obviously there is a lot available online but I trust askme hivemind judgement. [more inside]
posted by cacao at 8:37 PM - 20 answers

My beloved old Target wallet was lost. It was perfect but they no longer make it. Is there a duplicate out there? It was basically a glorified coin purse with a card slip, but I can’t seem to find anything like it! [more inside]
posted by stillmoving at 12:55 PM - 23 answers

I’d like to buy a DVD burner for my USB-C MacBook Pro. I could pay a premium to buy the Apple external SuperDrive, which isn’t USB-C, and seems like a waste of money. (I have plenty of adapters, it’s simply annoying.) There are tons of alternatives, some name brands, some off-brand—most with rave, and likely fake, reviews. What’s your approach to finding commodity-level tech (USB hubs, power banks, DVD drives, maybe not defibrillators), when Amazon is filled with fake reviews? And what damn DVD drive should I get for my MacBook?
posted by Admiral Haddock at 4:30 AM - 9 answers

Our 2011 Mazda 2 is falling apart. So its time to purchase a car. We want a manual transmission. The New 2020 Mazda offerings only offer a Manual Transmission in their premium package so help us narrow down what to look at? [more inside]
posted by AlexiaSky at 5:39 AM - 25 answers

I have a safe, reliable car. But SO, our toddler and I were literally seconds away from getting T-boned in an accident where a distracted and/or irresponsible tow truck driver ran a red light and slammed into the passenger side of the sedan right in front of us. Everyone was okay, but we were left shaken. My anxiety says I need a new car. Or do I? [more inside]
posted by onecircleaday at 12:45 PM - 46 answers

What's a good place in Midtown Manhattan--or pretty quickly accessible from Midtown--where I could buy a leather portfolio tomorrow morning? Ideally something nicer and longer-lasting than a $15 piece from Target, or whatever, but I'm also not a bank executive or anything. My vague standard is: nice enough for a generic professional look, but neither so cheap nor so expensive that someone really notices or remembers it. Suggestions?
posted by pdq at 7:53 PM - 5 answers

Smallest is 7 and wants to hear nothing at times. I have the 3M ear protection mufflers which she quite likes but they still allow some noise to come through. She wants absolute silence. The other thing is to have more options than over-the-head because there's a possibility she could be allowed to wear this at school sometimes (disability request). She has sharp physical hearing and a small-adult/big child head. Before I spend $300 on noise-cancelling headphones, is there something that just cancels? Earplugs is too finicky for school.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 10:34 PM - 11 answers

I love a particular kind of Chinese paper lantern, which seems to have vanished from the Earth -- or at least as much of the Earth as is reachable by English-language internet. I just found some from someone on Etsy who found them used and doesn't have any more. Yay! But they only last for three months or so, before they're completely faded. I have found many, many Chinese lanterns online -- but not these. Please help me source them!
posted by pH Indicating Socks at 8:19 PM - 8 answers

We're in the market for a hanging high chair (the kind that clamps/hooks onto a table). Two options have come out as frontrunners, but one has a 5-point harness and the other has a 3-point harness. Is one significantly better than the other? Snowflakes under the fold. [more inside]
posted by saltypup at 1:25 PM - 5 answers

I'm looking to get the hundreds of family photos on my phone and computer printed in hard copy before they one day disappear into the cloud forever, but I'm having trouble finding a photo book service that suits my needs. [more inside]
posted by lakemarie at 10:29 AM - 5 answers

I want to buy a set of bowflex 1090 dumbells. They sound great, but a disturbing number of online reviews mention scary issues of plates falling off the dumbells. I'm trying to figure out how worried I should be about this... [more inside]
posted by ManInSuit at 9:06 AM - 3 answers

A non-US vendor is asking me to pay him through Paypal using the ‘Send Money to a Friend’ option. Is this safe? [more inside]
posted by gtrwolf at 7:47 PM - 14 answers

What app was this woman using? [more inside]
posted by ditto75 at 7:57 AM - 14 answers

So I like popping bubble wrap, and I found a kind I really like. It's tiny and thin and soft / good for popping, and it doesn't require a lot of hand strength. I got it in the packaging of some smallish item I got from Amazon awhile back, and I'm looking for more. [more inside]
posted by cats are weird at 10:54 AM - 5 answers