Canadian vegetarian stuff:
Yves veggie dogs. Licks veggie burgers.
I cannot even force myself to eat any other brands of fake meat products.
Also: Real vanilla extract and real chocolate chips for baking.
Birkenstocks may be comfortable, but those things are really, really ugly.
With shoes, suits, and ties you get what you pay for. Don’t skimp on the initial investment, take good care of them (no pair of shoes two days in a row, use shoe trees, take your suit off the minute you get home and hang it on a wooden hanger outside the closet, and go easy on taking the tie off), and they’ll last a life time.
**Birks ** are pretty much the only shoe for me.
Di Guirno Pizza Best Tasting frozen pizza I’ve found. Doesn’t taste like melted grease on cardboard.
Things I Splurge On:
Green & Black’s Mayan Gold Chocolate: $4 for a bar, but a bar of this lasts me a week because it’s so potent
New Balance tennies: 8 1/2 E says it all, folks
Silicone gel CPAP mask: $30 more per mask (vs. the plastic ones) is a lot, but not when it’s something you wear for 8+ hours every night
Kalamata olives: full o’ flavor & good for snacking
Gen Mai Cha (popcorn tea): best hot & ice tea EVER
Knives that can be sharpened: and correspondingly, a good sharpening brick
Pots that heat evenly: who can argue with that?
Lazer tracking mouse (not the old ball kind): I hate cleaning the crud off the rollers of the old ones
Decent phones: too much background noise is tiresome
Lupine leashes & collars: I’ve had the dog less than a year and have already used the replacement policy for her leash
Mattresses: not too firm, not too soft, just right
Glasses: if they’re gonna be on your face all the time, you should get the best pair you can afford. For me, that’s nice frames & no-line bifocals. I’ve had bifocals since I was 22, so I was overjoyed when Verilux hit the market.
Toothpaste: when you find the flavor you like, stick with it. That stuff is in your mouth for too long to save $.08 on cheaper stuff.
Shoes: if your feet aren’t comfortable, you aren’t comfortable. This is especially difficult for me (I wear size 15, so it’s sometimes tough to find shoes that fit well).
Beer: because Natural Light is for broke college students. I was one myself not too long ago.
Beds: you spend more time in bed then you will anywhere else, why put up with an uncomfortble mattress? I bought a Select Comfort bed about 3 months ago, and while it was quite a bit more then I really wanted to spend, it’s more then paid for itself already. And it’s adjustable so you it can always be ‘just right’.
Bread: if you can find a hometown bakery, great. If not, try the bakery section in the mega-supermarket that you know is only a few miles away. Buy the name-brand bread only if you have no other option.
BMWs, Ducatis, Arais, Shoeis to name a few. Sierra Nevada Pale Ale is another. Levi’s 501s. Newcastle Brown Ale.
But mostly, I’m a cheap-ass bargain-brand shopper.
Why do the artists that bitch the loudest about free downloading get so much radio airplay?
Oh yea, Good Beer is a requirement. That’s not even a point of contention, right?
Levi’s 501’s
Sage fly rods
Longbottom Sumatran coffee
Graeters Ice Cream
Monitor Audio speakers
Carnac cycling shoes
Direct TIVO
Ketchup. I do not like store brand Ketchup.
Soda. I would rather pay 50% more for pepsi and coke instead of Big K.
Bologna. In fact, with pretty much any meat products, i would prefer a name brand.
Bread
toilet paper
Full cable over antenna channels. don’t know if that is on topic but it is worth the extra $25 a month by far.
I always buy generic medicines though. Wal-mart’s equate brand medicines & hygiene products are always 1/3 the price of name brand items.
Dunham Boots
Reebox Sneakers
Levi’s Jeans
I am a bargain shopper too, I buy stuff on sale as well.
These are just my picks not to skimp on.
Good beer. I didn’t drink beer until I went to Germany and someone got me to try Hefe Weizen. I will not drink US macrobrew swill for free.
A good steak. I always thought people were crazy for paying 25 bucks or more for a steak. Then I went to Texas Land & Cattle. Oh. My. God. A rare ribeye with a 22oz Fat Tire Amber Ale. That’s what they serve for dinner in Heaven 
I wonder how the steaks are in the more upscale restaurants like Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse??
See sig line. $15 for a six pack in New York (and generally $5 for a 12 oz. glass if you can find it in a bar).
Thanks, Rick! I was getting concerned that I’d be the only Doper who put single malt whisky on the list.
Generally, you get what you pay for*. Recently I started using Fujichrome® Velvia ISO 50 (or 100) film for my camera and despite the price, I’m not going to change. It was a pleasant surprise to see that my recent holiday in Australia has been faithfully recorded.
Has the YGWYPF acronym been used before on the boards? If not, can I patent it?
I second Levi’s and Birkenstocks generally.
Hefty or Glad trash bags. If I can’t trust the bags not to break, then I don’t want them.
Starbucks.
Wine worthy of being in a bottle with a cork. For imports, I look for the ‘Appellation Controllee’/‘Denominizione di Origine Controlatta e Guarantita’/ ‘Kabinettwein mit Praedikat’ (sp?). For domestic wine I look for the regional appellation, e.g. Sonoma. This almost always guarantees that the wine will be decent if not spectacular.
Cote D’Or (especially the dark chocolate mmmmmmmmmmmm <drools>
Also worth spending more money on foundation. Who wants to look orange and have to apply it with a trowel!?
As to other things - I’d agree with all those who said bras, also washin-up liquid and washing powder (own brand washing powder makes your clothes smell horrible).
Oh sh*t it’s home time! :eek:
I’m outta here…
Garbage bags! Those “don’t get mad, get Glad™” commercials are for real.
I’ll second the ice cream and the ballpoint pens that have been mentioned. In general I usually buy name brand merchandise over in-store brands, although there are a few exceptions.
Consumer electronics is an area I’d rather spend more for better quality. On the other hand, the $30 answering machine I got as a birthday gift seven years ago is still working (better than the $70 piece of crap I had bought two years before that) and the $50 DVD player I got for Christmas is doing well so far.
Haven’t had the Cadbury’s in Australia or NZ, but I’m inclined to agree with Kambuckta that it probably is better there than in the US. I’m a devotee of the occasional Fruit and Nut bar myself, and I found the one I had in Ireland distinctly superior to the ones I get here. Since all other dairy products were also much richer, I think it’s the milk. Damn American factory farming.
Things I’m willing to pay more for:
Good bras
Makeup that doesn’t make me break out
High speed internet access
Good liquor (conversely, I’ve found a lot of good wines for $15 or less)
fresh, water-packed mozzarella cheese
a decent restaurant meal
good ice cream, although even better is to make my own
kitchen utensils, pots and pans, etc
maybe TMI, but it has to be said - feminine hygiene products
On the other hand, I am a super-bargain-shopper and will save money wherever I can, to the point where friends will beg to shop with me so they can learn a few tricks. And I’m not above sacrificing in other ways… I worked for a year in a retail store to get a mega-discount on All-Clad pans, Calphalon bakeware, Wusthof knives, and Kitchen Aid appliances. Hated that job, but I love my kitchen, and by using the holiday sales incentives I even got a lot of it for free. I love the All-Clad so much that I’ve paid full price for a few additional pieces since I quit the job. I’d rather pay $100 for a pan that’s guaranteed for life than $20 every three or four years to replace cheap ones.
I also have a scanner that, between a sale, a rebate, and a gift card, Best Buy paid me to take it away. Stuff like that gives me extra justification for keeping the high-quality stuff that I do insist on in my limited budget.
Clinque makeup
Glenlivet Scotch
Levi jeans
Laila perfume----I won’t wear ANYTHING else. I have had so many people actually stop me and ask me what perfume I had on.
Planet Smoothies—I’ve tried making smoothies at home and they pale in comparison.
What in the wide , wide world of sports are forged cranks?