My coworkers will walk into work with Dunkin or Starbucks lattes... we have not only free coffee at work, but access to an espresso machine with milk steamer.
this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2025
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It's not that odd that they have a preference, even if it costs them. My work provides tea bags and milk, but I bring my own because I like them more.
I think the problem is that some Starbucks fans are pretentious. There are better and cheaper coffee everywhere but some of them will just choose the more expensive one and flash their premium membership card to you.
So at my work the coffee is shit because itβs a fully automatic coffee machine and it is also not properly cleaned. I usually make my own at home and bring a thermos.
Yes, but I work at a restaurant.
If I worked at a restaurant I would take advantage of free espresso.
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I do not get people who still pay for cable tv. My dad pays like 120 dollars a month for it and the programming is horrible, the ads are insane, all the best sports shit is on streaming services now, I do not understand it at all.
Inertia?
Or is there some local channel that they like that doesn't have a youtube presence?
No. And they also have Netflix. So they understand streaming shit. It boggles my mind
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Bottled water to drink at home.
Not every country has safe tap water
Ok, so: bottled water to drink at home in countries with safe drinking water.
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This drives me insane. The 5 gal jugs are so cheap to refill and keep using. I used one of those with a hand pump and a thin 1.5 gal jugs for my fridge for constant cold water when I lived where tap water wasn't doable. It was like 10Β’ a gallon to refill the jugs and I always had delicious cold water at the ready. There is absolutely no need to create so much waste
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As an American, Turbo Tax. I've been using FreeTaxUSA for almost 20 years with no problems, without paying for filing software.
But if I weren't American, my answer would probably be: tax software.
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YouTube premium.
Just get uBlock or revanced.
YouTube + HDMI Cable from PC to TV + UBlock/Firefox = win.
Okay, to preface I really hate giving Google money, but I hate ads more, and paying for Premium also removes ads on YouTube apps across platforms. It also in some minuscule way rewards the creators I watch, but real support comes from Patreon.
YouTube charges too much. It costs more than Netflix! They need like a $6/mo plan or something.
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Yeah I'm with you. I know there's some way to block ads on any device if you are really dedicated but I don't want to get a PHD in ad blocking just to not have ads on YT on my phone
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I'm at a point in my life where I'll pay for the media I'll watch. If I'm not willing to pay for it, I won't watch it. I also don't want to watch ads.
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I have lots of ad blockers. But my father watches YouTube on the LG TV app. I don't live there anymore and hearing the ads from the other room became offensive to the family.
It was easier to just buy a premium family plan and call it a day.
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The meal subscription services strike me as premade salads on steroids. You're paying a premium for all the labor, ingredients, (excessive) packaging, shipping, their profit, etc and you still have to put it together and cook it. It really isn't that hard to look up a couple of recipes, buy the ingredients (you'd probably be going to the store anyway) and prep for 30 or so minutes a night. If you make full recipes you'll probably have leftovers so you won't even have to cook the next day.
I agree for the big ones, but we have a local one I've subscribed to a few times, for a couple months at a time.
They pull all the ingredients from local farms, do local delivery or pickup at farmer's markets, and they're minimal on packaging, and they reuse the bags and ice packs. I haven't done it in a while but it was pretty nice and it was helpful to break out of the routine of the same meals week in and out.
Did one for a while. It cut down on grocery store trips and meal planning so it gave some peace of mind, but I prefer either cooking simple meals or large meals (for leftovers) and they were neither. Most were delicious but took anywhere from 30-60 minutes. Most sea portioned for two so I ended up cooking nearly every single night and I hit a wall with it.
I can definitely see why people do it, sometimes the cost is worth the convenience.
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Operating systems
Small bits of code can be made and maintained as a hobby or a passion project, but larger things begin to require money. Although a lot of FOSS is maintained by volunteers, money still has its role in the equation.
Most big FOSS projects are done by developers who get paid for that.
They work at Red Hat, Canonical, SUSE, Google or Microsoft and write FOSS while on the clock.
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Gray market license keys for software. The money you're paying for these will never make it to the developer, so you might as well pirate.
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Books.
Most librarians are knowledgeable and love helping you find something, or getting it in from another library.
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People pay for streaming and then complaining that their shows keep disappearing. Knowing full well that they are only allowed to watch the shows as long as the streaming service allows them to watch.
I truly donβt understand it. If they wanna do it go for it Iβm not going to sit here and rip on them. I just donβt understand why. I say go by the disc so that way you own it. Then rip it to make your own digital file. Now with that digital file, you can do anything you want with it.
I get your point of view, and I personally use Jellyfin with my own library. But I have a different perspective about people complaining about shows disappearing from services.
People like complaining about things, it's cathartic, and it doesn't necessarily mean they have to do anything about it.
Imagine you have a favourite restaurant. One day you go in and that thing you really love isn't in the menu anymore. You can grumble about it to the staff, complain to your friends, but you'll just order a different item.
If next week your next favourite thing disappears from the menu, you'll complain some more, or maybe just start going to a different restaurant. Yes, there is always the option to get the ingredients and make it yourself at home, but that's a whole extra level of effort. For most people, the effort to complain a bit and choose a different thing from the menu is far less effort than making it yourself at home.
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Tax return filings in the US. There are free options provided by the paid companies... So that they can prevent real changes.
Kinda like pharmaceutical companies when the public demands cheaper prices. The pharmaceutical companies fight back with "what if instead of that we set up some programs that people can use for cheaper medicine! Win win! Then you don't have to make any real changes that might hurt us?"
Same with taxes. The accounting software companies and advisors companies said "wait hold on, you don't need to make taxes simpler and tank our business. Keep them complicated and well offer free alternatives that are just as easy as our paid services that people can pick if they don't want to pay! Win win!"
Which obviously I think is a crap solution. However if you are paying for someone to do your taxes you should stop. There are a lot of easy free services out there that make it pretty much effortless. They are just as good as the paid services now.
This year I haven't worked any traditional employment, but have done various projects for friends in exchange for money.
When I just had a typical job, taxes were almost fire-and-forget easy...but I'm a little worried about that whole process this year to be honest.
A lot of times the free one only covers that "I have a typical job" case...but anything different and they're like "OH YOU NEED BUSINESS-OWNER PREMIUM PLUS" or something.
(I haven't started a business and earned maybe 4 figures this year...) π
Tax return filings in the US. There are free options provided by the paid companies⦠So that they can prevent real changes.
https://directfile.irs.gov/ (Or Google "IRS Direct File" if you don't trust links)
Directs File goes directly to IRS, without going through a third party company.
If your state doesn't have direct file, then you'll have to find a "IRS Partner" that gives a free option:
https://apps.irs.gov/app/freeFile/browse-all-offers/ (Google "IRS Free File Trusted Partners")
Remember: Government sites always ends in .gov
(Conditionally) journals, studies and some books. And, for that matter, most television, film and music.
Particularly when paying is not supporting the creator, only the publisher.
Porn
If you want to be reasonably certain it's ethically made, you kind of have to pay for porn.
Edit: also, if you want something specific that free sites don't cater to. Like lesbian porn that isn't obviously only meant to appeal to men.
Just because you've paid for it doesn't mean it's been ethically made.
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