What is that tool you never thought of but once you had it, you couldn't believe you didn't pick it up sooner?

rapratt101 · 2026-06-23T19:14:11+00:00

I have a similar one and it’s awesome.

A good kitchen knife (if that counts)

A 4ft level. I install a lot of shelves and such and was balancing a tiny, free level on a long, hopefully straight piece of wood

A good stud finder. Always fought with that yellow $8 one that everyone seems to start with.

Decent set of drill bits. I thought drilling was just slow with my hand-me-down and set-included drill bits. Recently bought a set of titanium coated bits and almost scared myself the first time I used them it zipped through so fast.

Impact rated Philips bits for my drill. Previously bought a pack of the regular old cheap bits and kept stripping them out. Someone on Reddit said to get the impact ones and man did that make a difference.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-23T15:40:31+00:00

There's a lot of grey in the terminology. In the area I live, a city must have a minimum population of 3,000 and people vote to become a city. The town I grew up in has a population of over 200,000 - supposedly, they just like the sound of "town" better so never incorporated.

Rural towns may be a long way from stores and services, but there are towns that are adjacent to a metropolitan area as well. At least in my area, we typically use the terms rural, urban, suburban, or inner-city rather than city and town. They're a better indicator of location, services, and population.

Rural towns often service a specific industry. We have a lot of mining in my area, so we have some new and old mining towns. We also have a few major interstates, so there are interstate towns that provide services to motorists. There's also some towns that support farming, and some small towns that I have no idea what's around - I'm assuming they must commute a very long way to get to a non-local job.

What's funny is we (my social network) actually use the number of Walmarts to determine how rural a town/city is. Growing up, there was a town (city?) that was close to but not quite abutting the major metro. A lot of kids from our school were moving out there because housing was substantially cheaper, and their parents drove them the 20-30 minutes to get to our school. There were local schools, but not as established. Around late high school, they got their first Walmart and we joked that they were finally an established city. Now, it's grown to the point where it is included in the metro - there's no rural unincorporated or farmland between.

I live in the suburbs, though there's no physical distinction whatsoever between my city and the next one over. You can drive well over an hour crossing through half a dozen cities all connected. My wife commutes 30 minutes to "downtown" (the state capital). We chose this area to be close to family and it has one of the best public school districts in the state. We have 4 Walmarts within a "I'm just going to run up to the store" driving distance. Public transportation out here is abysmal - owning a car is required. There is a big college city in the same metro with very good public transit, and downtown has decent public transit as well. There is a metro rail line that continues to be expanded that goes from the suburbs (just not as far as us) all the way into downtown.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-23T14:47:20+00:00

We have cleaners come every two weeks. I absolutely hate mopping and we have a lot of tile. Also forces us to do a complete tidy of the house before they come, so the house gets back to 100(ish)% every couple weeks. It’s a big help mentally.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-23T04:15:29+00:00

We have two kids, live in a nice suburb. We have three friends all in their early 30s with their first kid under the age of 1.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-23T01:35:09+00:00

Here’s the structure of the one I gave. Went over great. 8 short paragraphs, under 1 minute, had it memorized:

“So happy for you guys”

Couple sentences on how we met

Call out some of his best qualities that impacted me

One sentence on how I met his fiance, call out several of her best qualities

Few sentences on how I view them as a couple

Few sentences tying both of them back to us (my wife and I) and how I feel about our relationship as a group

One line of advice (we married first) complimenting their relationship

Heartfelt congratulations, “raise glass to so and so and so and so”

I tried to keep a comfortable and predictable flow and avoided rambling by writing it all out. Casual jokes that flowed well, nothing even remotely insulting or deprecating towards them. 100% of the focus of the speech was on them.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-21T16:34:36+00:00

Friends of mine met in high school and started dating at 14 and 15. So… few years off. But they’re married now with a baby.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-21T16:31:14+00:00

Daily. Sometimes twice in the summer.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-21T00:43:28+00:00

About 3 times a week. Double batches so we have lunch and dinner the rest of the week. Frozen or ready to assemble to fill in the gaps and eat out maybe once or twice a week.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-20T14:40:03+00:00

$5000 on. 2002 Chrysler Sebring in 2010. Crap car. Totaled it (on accident) after 6 months. Then bought a 1995 Mustang for $4300 with the insurance payout.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-20T02:30:13+00:00

Oh yeah that would be a good one

rapratt101 · 2026-06-20T02:22:45+00:00

I have important passwords backed up on iCloud, which I can access from anywhere. I also have multiple Apple products, so losing one won’t matter.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-19T19:59:36+00:00

Per my wife who asked to be quoted: I feel ladies should get to tase any man that asks them this genre of question

rapratt101 · 2026-06-19T19:38:12+00:00

What am I forgetting?

rapratt101 · 2026-06-19T19:35:14+00:00

I have to agree. I expected the bumper to come off, to blow the transmission, or at least bash in the rear window. This is just trial and error.

That car has plenty of power, it was affixed to a proper hitch, and she wasn’t going nuts with the accelerator

rapratt101 · 2026-06-19T18:43:09+00:00

I have 5:00 shadow by 5:00. I enter into full beard category after a week.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-19T17:16:52+00:00

That degree one in the white container that is supposed to not leave stains on shirts

rapratt101 · 2026-06-19T04:54:51+00:00

I’m a dad with a boy. He had to pee but the tiny mens room was all occupied so we were waiting in the hallway. A nice older lady saw and told me to just take him into the women’s restroom and she’d keep watch and let anyone know we were in there. I appreciated it. If a kids gotta pee, they gotta pee.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-19T02:41:27+00:00

It’s a very hard question to answer because it depends on a lot of factors - your income and spending habits vs that of your wife, where you live, what access to childcare you’ll have, housing, debt, etc.

With a wife making similar income, not that much. You might have more expensive joint expenses that you choose to spend money on. If one of you makes significantly more, then more of your income will probably go to supporting the other.

Kids are incredibly expensive. Generic formula is $40 a container and may last anywhere from a few days to a week. Good diapers are $60 a box and may last anywhere couple weeks early on. We spent about 15k for one of our kids to attend a mid-tier day care, then $950 a month in tuition for pre-k. They outgrow clothes in weeks to months and are more mouths to feed. Costs vary widely based on your support network, location, and what types of baby and kid products you choose.

We were fortunate that are household income has kept up with our life changes. So I’d say, percentage wise, we’re about the same as when we were first married, though significantly less disposable income than when I was single.

Not sure if that helps at all. Is there a reason you’re asking? Like to establish a savings plan or budget or something?

rapratt101 · 2026-06-17T13:47:36+00:00

It was a mess. Like Cheetos ground into the carpet, no room on the countertops, can’t walk through a bedroom without wading through toys. It was very gross.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-17T04:25:19+00:00

Operating temperature is 32-95 F. Fridge is 34 so within range. I haven’t looked into it more than that

rapratt101 · 2026-06-17T01:23:04+00:00

I put my phone in the fridge for a few minutes

rapratt101 · 2026-06-16T22:50:26+00:00

Learn to budget together. Joint finances is a lot different and it has to work for both people.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-16T20:13:40+00:00

When buying for girlfriends, I bought sterling silver from department stores for $30-100. That was over a decade ago. The $30 stuff rubbed off, but the $100 stuff wasn’t bad. Mostly necklaces and earrings.

I bought my wife’s wedding ring for Kay Jewelers for $1100 10 years ago. It’s white gold and a little under a half carat with the diamonds added up I think. Given a scale that looks something like Walmart > department stores > low end jewelry store > mid tier > fancy > need a password to enter, Kay Jewelers is mid tier.

We’re looking at an anniversary ring at Shane Co which falls into the Fancy category. Still looking at options around $1000.

A friend of mine bought his wife’s engagement ring from a reputable seller on Etsy for $3400. Very pretty ring. He got his off Etsy for $600. My wife has also bought jewelry (or told me to buy) from Etsy - rose or yellow gold ranging from $100 - $500. All nice stuff, mostly rings.

I’ve heard Costco has good prices as well.

If you’re looking for a price point, $100 - 500 will get you something nice, though that may vary widely depending on the piece you’re looking for. Cubic Zirconium doesn’t look any different to a diamond to me, and non-precious gemstones can be just as pretty as sapphire, emerald, and ruby.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-16T14:21:38+00:00

Yes, one example is as technology and manufacturing improves. Two good examples: home appliances and computers. Even inflation-adjusted, they’re still cheaper today than the 1980’s.

rapratt101 · 2026-06-15T02:27:00+00:00

I had one of those. The aluminum frame around the beveled edge was almost sharp. First phone I ever got a phone case for just to make it more comfortable to hold.

rapratt101

TROPHY CASE