Oh, and let me add Walt Disney World. We just returned from the best vacation I’ve had in my life. We stayed onsite at the Wilderness Lodge, and had a fantastic time.
I was doubtful about the whole trip, but my wife talked me into making the trip for our 10-year old. Now we’re talking about going back.
It wasn’t a cheap vacation, but it was worth every penny.
I completely agree. I don’t find worth my while in sleepless nights to skimp on really good bedding. My mom bought the cheap kind for our beds when we were kids. I had some icky rashes because it was so hard on my skin.
We have the wonderful Pima cotton sheets for the summer and the jersey knit kind for winter.
Good quality down comforters are also worth it. The down keeps me so warm during the winter I can lower the thermostat at night. Plus they’re wondefully deliciously soft.
I would also say buy at least queen mattress if you’re married. Twin beds just aren’t large enough for two normal sized people.
Where are you finding your Cheer for Dark Colors? I can only find the Woolite stuff and it doesn’t last too long when you have 2 folks who wear a lot of black and dark colors.
A diaper service. If your little one can’t tolerate disposable diapers and needs good ole’ cotton cloth, this is the only way to go.
Is there anyway you could find out what they’re called? I’ve been looking for a way to keep my veggies fresh.
I’ll put in my vote for sheets. I bought expensive sheets because I kept hearing dopers brag about them every time a thread like this came along. At first I bought only one set, and then I could hardly tolerate going back to cheap sheets. I bought a few more sets after that.
Expensive knives are well worth the price. All you need is about three or four of them and then you just keep resharpening them. Cheap knives don’t resharpen well and it’s a royal PITA to cut anything with them.
Precision Nutrition. At first, I felt like a total dork for buying this. I didn’t really believe that I would last a week eating healthy food, but I bought the book because I had faith in its author, knowing him from his articles to be very knowledgeable and practical. I have eaten decent food for two months now with ease. I have ten times more energy than I used to have on my crappy diet and I have noticeably a lot more muscle. And now that my biceps have gotten much bigger, I have to admit it’s kind of hard to feel like a dork.
TMI ahoy
Viagra. 
My insurance didn’t cover it. I had considered using it for a long time. I had ‘performance anxiety’ but I think it evolved into performance anxiety anxiety’ where I was so fixated on the fact that I couldn’t get a boner when it mattered that I was mentally ‘jynxing’ myself. I had considered using Viagra but the idea kind of bothered me; I felt like there’s something REALLY wrong with me if I need pills to function normally.
Then I met my current girlfriend, who suggested i get some. She was very comfortable about it, and didn’t think any less of me that I had to consider it as an option. I got a prescription…and hoo boy. I was hoping the performance issue would go from 30% to 100%…more like from 30% to 1,000%. I felt like a sexual Tyrannosaur. The Viagra actually gave me near-infinite staying power; I could hold off an orgasm for an incredibly long time.
The Viagra was $14 a pill, but definitely worth it. Each 50mg tablet would last about 18 hours 
For any guy having erection issues, even if he thinks its purely psychological, go ahead and ask the doctor for a prescription. I didn’t even THINK my doctor would prescribe it, since I was pretty sure there wasn’t anything physical (like diabetes, heart problems) regarding the erection issues. Even if your insurance (likely) doesn’t cover it, it is a medication that is definitely worth every cent.
Salomon boots, Superfeet inserts, and SmartWool socks for hiking. I thought I was a total sucker for walking out of the store with all this, but the shoe salesman was very right! Never buy cheap boots!
Yes, like I said I like Smartwool sox. I even bought some of the *super-short *liteweight black ones for wearing with my sandals. Niiiiice.
When I was pregnant, I told everyone I would not give birth unless I had on Thor-lo socks. My daughter ended up coming a month early and I was unprepared. My mother called and asked what I needed. I said “don’t come with out a pair of thor-lo socks.” I’m not sure about the whole hiking thing, but having all your naughty bits on public display, your knees on the wall behind you and your toesies exposed to the sub-zero temperatures and the massive amount of drugs in your system…and well. warm footsies were a comfort.
TOILET PAPER! Sweet god people…48 posts and no one has talked about toilet paper? Aloe, Lotion, quilted I want it all! It’s the only thing I don’t look at the price on (much).
ETA: Things that aren’t worth it: Expensive whole chickens for making sticky chickens, ya need the cheap ones. I love powdered creamer for coffee. The generic house brand is far better, IMHO than the cremora.
The only place around here that has it on a reliable basis is K-Mart. I hate K-Mart but I’ll go there to get my Cheer. Bought some yesterday - $5.59 for 80 fl. oz.
They’re called “Green Bags”. Just google 'em. 
Health insurance. My father’s lung cancer would’ve cost us thousands of dollars a week without it. Overpriced, bordering on unnecessary when you don’t need it, but (sadly, not literally) a lifesaver when you do. I suppose that goes for any insurance, but hey.
Gas/Petrol. Yes, good old gasoline is still a bargain. Just look at how hard it is for other fuels to topple it.
I wish it weren’t such a bargain, so that there’d be viable competition, but right now the whole world votes on this one millions of times per day. Gas/Petrol is a damn bargain.
Thank you! I have been trying to find them for what seems like forever. I now feel like a dork for not trying “green bags”.
For those of you with school-aged kids…LL Bean backpacks.
I was buying the backpacks they sell at Target, and I’d be lucky if they lasted a month. I appealed to the Dopers; they recommended LL Bean. I’ll spend $80 on a backpack if I know it’s going to last. Ivyboy has taken his to college after hauling it around three years at high school.
Plus, they have a wonderful return policy…return it any time, any shape, and they’ll replace it, no questions asked. Our new puppy chewed on the strap on my son’s backpack, and they replaced it.
Forget the K-Mart Blue Light Special Hello Kitty plastic junk. Plunk down the $50-80, and you won’t have to do it again.
Some brands I happily pay extra for due to the quality:
Bounty paper towels
Tropicana orange juice
Pampers
I came in to nominate Viva paper towels, but Bounty is our backup brand.
I’ll also second:
Tivo: If you’re willing to pre-pay for three years, it’s barely $8/month.
Boots: Seventeen years ago, I decided to try forest fire fighting. My dad had worked for the Forest Service for about thirty years, and he told me that if I took care of my feet, they’d take care of me. I bought a pair of boots that were twice as expensive as any other footwear I’ve ever owned, and I still wear them when an appropriate occasion comes up (which is only a couple times a year, these days).
Plan B: I don’t know what it costs, but it’s been worth it!
Barely missed the editing window…
iPod! No more decisions about which CDs to put in the car, no more burning CDs for the car, no more carrying a man-purse everywhere to haul my CD player and CDs… Plus, I can subject a friend or coworker to any song I own, whenever one comes to mind.
Well, all of that is not necessarily iPod specific, but I’ll totally agree that my mp3 player has been worth every penny of the $25.00 I paid for it off of woot.com!
I slept for three nights recently on an inflatable air mattress from Wal*Mart - best $30 I’ve ever spent. It was remarkably comfortable, quick and easy to inflate and deflate, and folds quite small when in storage. The only problem was that it was on the floor, and that’s getting to be a long way down for me.
I’ll agree with everyone else who said pay the money for good quality sheets, mattresses, and daily footware. I pay a little more for those paper towels that are perforated into half-width sheets, and they last much longer because I only need a small paper towel quite often.