Gasoline.
Cheaper than milk. Cheaper than bottled water. At least in the U.S.
Microwave popcorn.
I’ll second the vote on Ramen noodles, they’re like 10 cents a package here, and let me tell you, sometimes there’s nothing that hits the spot like some ramen noodles. Especially when you buy some cheap frozen veggies and an egg to throw in there with it. Absolutely wonderful. And as far as other stuff, I buy the cheaper carpenters jeans. They fit me better, and last a LOT longer than the higher priced name brand jeans. I almost always buy the cheaper jeans.
Meijer has these cheap book cases for ca $30. The model they replaced in their lineup were gloriously awful–raw fiberboard that fit together in a tic-tac-toe grid. They looked bad, were impossible to dust and aged terribly. In fact, they’d splinter after a while. Terrible.
The new cheapass $30 bookcases look almost like real furniture if you don’t give them the hairy eyeball, are huge and are surprisingly durable. I picked one up one week, then the next week picked up a couple more, because they were such a good deal. They even look reasonably nice, to boot.
Hm. What else…
I just picked up this awesome Buffalo wireless router that’s half the price of most other wireless routers, has pretty much the same functionality, is reliable, and has a pretty good signal. Between that and an el cheapo (and yet easily installed and reliable) Airbus (I think that’s the brand) wireless card, I started a wireless network at home for less than 60 bucks. That ain’t bad.
Yeah, at my local grocery store, when produce (off season) seems unusually low priced, it’s because they got a shipment that doesn’t look so hot and they want it to move off the shelves.
Got a nice lamp at Staples. Brass, fairly heavy halogen desk lamp. For something like $30.00. And a couple of standup fluorescent adjustable lamps from Home Depot. Also heavy, solidly constructed for not much more. When I opened them, my mind boggled that you could design, machine, pack and ship (8000 miles) something like that for $30.00 and still make a living at it.
And of course, flash memory cards for digital cameras. I’m old enough to remember when a megabyte was a whole bunch of memory. I once spent $600.00 upgrading a computer to a whopping 24 megabytes.
So that gigabyte memory card I picked up for $30.00 seems like one heckuva bargain.
Those Starbury sneakers? Got a pair. Ten dolla. They fit good, they feel good, and they’re double stitched where they should be, and a couple places I wasn’t expecting it. Good solid work.
My OCZ 1 gig flash drive. Cheapest of 'em, and fastest, too. Currently my single most useful work tool.
My army surplus ugly boonie hat. Folds up nicely, keeps rain off the glasses.
D’Addario guitar strings. I buy them online in boxes of 10 sets for $3.49 for electrics and $3.99 for acoustic, less than I was paying for Fender and Martin 20 years ago when I switched. They sound and feel good, and last a long time.
Woodworking purists will laugh, but I’ll add Craftsman power tools. I have a very basic circular saw that I bought new 25 years ago for $29, and a contractor grade table saw the I paid $50 for used 20 years ago. I’ve used them a lot, and they work very well after all these years.
Ditto to all who mentioned fresh local vegetables. In July in southern Ohio, I get sweet corn for under $2 a dozen! Sweet indeed.
Me.
Seriously - for those who have Jewel Food Stores around them - the President’s Choice versions (store brand) of the name brand stuff are fantastic - in some cases better than the original - and half the price.
I have one of of those newer style lawn chairs that fold up to be just a few inches around and comes with its own storage bag. I just love it! It’s so comfortable and so light and portable! I got it at Fred Meyer a few years ago for only six bucks and it’s still in excellent shape, except for the plastic ring around the cup holder, which cracked. I even take it to a friend’s house when we hang out by his pool because it’s more comfortable that his standard style fold-up chairs.
I got a pair of Rugged Exposure walking shoes about four years ago that I still wear everywhere. They fit absolutely perfectly when I first tried them on, which is unusual since I have wide feet, and they haven’t given me any trouble since. Up until recently, they were totally watertight, even while small waves washed over my feet at the beach. Now, they seem to be letting in the tiniest amount of moisture. Still, not bad, considering how long I’ve worn them! I only paid fifteen bucks for them at Big 5’s permanent shoe sale and they still sell them for that little even now. Time for another pair!
I hate to sound like a walking-advertisement, but Target is full of things both cheap and good. I’ve been getting ready for school to start again this month, and have thus spent an ungodly amount of money at Target in the past few weeks. I recently went to a more upscale department store to buy some clothes, as they were having a “buy one get one free” sale, and it occured to me how much more pleasant, clean, and customer-service oriented my local Target stores were. At this department store, the changing booths were messy, dirty, and badly in need of a new coat of paint. The employee sorting clothes there completely ignored me as she chatted with her friend. This never happens at Target. The clothes at Target were also of a higher quality, more fashionable, and made of fewer synthetic materials, even though they were quite a bit cheaper (even without sales.) Sure, you sometimes have to check the clothing thoroughly to make sure it’s been made without any defects, but this is true of other stores as well.
Another great deal in my neck of the woods is Thai food. There are a number of Thai restaurants locally that make incredibly delicious food for about $8-10 per dinner entree. The portions are huge, as well, with plenty of left-overs.
As others have mentioned, cheap fruits & veggies can also be very good. U-pick fruit places can also be incredibly cheap, and there are few things more delicious than fresh-picked strawberries, still warm from the sun. (Although, I supose, not everyone is fortunate enough to live where those kinds of places are available.)
I have to second this one. VirtualDubMod and AviSynth plug-ins are insanely useful for video manipulation, and they don’t cost me a cent. Actually, every piece of software that I’ve used for video editing, aside from the editing suite itself, is free.
A couple of grocery trips back I decided to try this cheepo self bake pizza from the deli counter at Winco. Pepperoni and Cheese 12" or 14" $3.00. I bought two figuring what the hell if the first one isn’t too great I’d jazz up the other one. It was freaking great, like Pappa Murphy’s but 1/3 the price.
Mervyn’s has been great for name brands at great prices. I think it may that may be because they hadn’t counted on most of the public schools going to uniform in Stockton and overstocked. Although I live in Stockton my kids school is a different district. Still there loss was my, and my kids gain.
Spanish red wines are generally cheap and usually good.
Woolworths own brand soldering kit. Only £9.99 (on sale) and it has provided me with hours of fun. No actual usage yet, but I am sure it will come in handy one day. And I have lots of pretty solder-sculpture and some interesting microwave experiments.
Costco pizzas. Argentinian wines. Ramen noodles. Shasta sodas. Costco hot dogs.
When my wife and I were furnishing our new apartment here in Melbourne, we were resigned to buying an overpriced Ikea couch. Then we found a furniture store having a going-out-of-business sale, and bought two gorgeous red two-seater sofas for $350 Australian.
(They were hidden under a stack of sofas at the back of the store, under a bunch of ugly brown and muddy blue and plaid sofas. At that point we began to suspect why the store was going out of business.)
Homebrewed beer. When done properly even cheap-ish ingredients can create a final product that tastes much better than you would be able to find commercially at the same price.
Preach it, LL!
I have that router too and it is great.
Other great but cheap things that I have:
A mid-70s Kimball Entertainer electric organ - two keyboards, bass pedals, Magic Memory feature, and ten different rhythm accompaniments - with a leather-padded bench - for 25 dollars at a yard sale.
Pipe Tobacco - blended in-store by the local tobacco shop, no additives - a 3 oz bag for 3.50. That’s up to a month’s worth of pipes, at the rate I smoke.
Mount Gay Eclipse rum. Beats anything else out there as a mixing rum, and makes a killer Cuba Librè. Cheap, available everywhere, and nobody’s heard of it.