Beef. A good cut of beef tastes wonderful even if you screw up the cooking a little. No supermarket beef for me!
Also, a more general category: hosting. I generally overbuy and get higher quality stuff when I’m having people over. Sometimes leads to a lot of leftover expensive food and drink, but that’s much better than the alternative.
[QUOTE=WhyNot
Nail polish. Kiss makes $1.99 nail polish, but you get what you pay for. Far more chips and wear than the $9 Maybelline stuff. Og help me if Target ever starts stocking OPI!
[/QUOTE]
Target stocks OPI in the Twin Cities - not the entire line - probably seven or eight colors. $7 a bottle. Or they were last I looked at Target’s nail polish (Target changes stock more often than I change underwear - which is where I don’t skimp - bras: Wacoal please).
For me, it’d be;
Computers - only Apple Macintosh
cooking - cast iron cookware
pens - Parker Latitude Fountain pen, Parker Jotter Stainless finish ballpoint with Fisher pressurized refill, Waterman Phileas fountain pen, Fisher Bullet Space Pen (matte black, and black Titanium Nitride finishes)
camera equipment - Nikon and Canon digicams, Nikon F4S 35MM, Mamiya RB67 Medium Format
Ice Cream - Ben and Jerry’s
Coffee - local microroaster coffee, barring that, fresh Green Mountain is acceptable, brewed in a french press only
Flashlights - SureFire and Inova
Knives - Spyderco
Multitools - Leatherman and Victorinox
***Food for my birds, bunnies, cats and horses. Good food costs a bit but pays off in healthier “kids” in the long run. Our indoor cat has to eat a special cat food (Wellness), my gelding has to eat low-starch feed due to his age, possibility of Cushing’s Disease (equine diabetes) and from foundering last year.
***Tack. Better to buy a saddle now that costs a bit than have to buy new ones every few years because the tree breaks, the leather goes wonky, etc.
***Shoes. They wear longer and make my feet happy.
Food that my kids eat every day- like milk, eggs, bread, PB, J etc- I look for no HF corn syrup, omega-3 eggs, natural peanut butter etc.
I figure anything going into my kids on a regular basis will not be the cheapest I can find. I stock up on the brand of jam without HF corn syrup when its on sale etc etc.
TP too. 
I grew up with the cheapest stuff and I won’t do that to my family.
Fish, chicken and fresh vegetables.
If it goes in my mouth I make sure it’s tasty.
(dirty!)
This is news to me and I am intrigued (and would like to subscribe to your newsletter). I will try good pasta next time instead of store brand.
I do not scrimp on razor blades (must be Gillette Sensor or Sensor Excel) and eye wear. I have a heavy prescription. I go to an optometrist with his own office (no Cost Co glasses) who sets me up with ultralight frames and high index anti-reflective coated specially ground lenses. I hate wearing glasses but must for work. If you’re going to wear something on your face almost every day to see, it had better be good.
Makeup – I wear it rarely, so when I wear it I want to be able to barely feel like it’s on. Bare Escentuals is pretty much all I ever wear.
Pet food and people food – I’m careful about what I fuel my body with. I tend to buy organic and local whenever possible for me, and high-end brands for the pets (oddly enough, most organic pet foods suck rocks). Plus, better food = less poop to clean up.
Toilet paper – No sandpaper on my genitals, thanks. I also buy flushable wipes. Sometimes paper just isn’t enough, if you know what I mean.
Shoes – My job keeps me on my feet a lot. Ever since I started buying $125 Danskos instead of $35 Airsoles, my feet haven’t hurt at all. Plus, the Danksos are over a year old and as long as I keep them shined, they look as good as when I first got them.
Beer – About the cheapest I drink is the Trader Joe’s brand or Blue Moon. Nothing that comes in a can, please.
Knives – Shun, please. Life’s too short to spend more than thirty seconds dicing an onion, and it’s only that long because I’m a klutz.
Damn, seems like I’m a snob. Really, it’s not all that bad–I don’t wear name-brand clothing (in part because I’m tall) and the only jewelry I wear is my wedding ring and maybe the occasional rune necklace that I got for $7 on the internet. I just like the things I like, you know?
The two things that I basically buy the most expensive brand I possibly can (well, the most expensive that Safeway stocks at least) are Toilet Paper and Orange Juice. Not-from-concentrate OJ is just so ridiculously much tastier than from-concentrate.
My eyes, when it came time for Laser Surgery, I went to the best. I wanted to take the minimal chance on this.
I guess I am the same way on Beer & Anisette. I don’t drink a lot, but I really like Bass and I don’t buy much else at this point. It is a little pricey compared to Bud, but I really prefer it. Same with my Anisette, I like a little bit in my weekend morning coffee. I really enjoy it. I stopped buying cheap Anisette once I was turned on to Marie Brizard.
Jim
You know that premium gas doesn’t always mean better, right? The engine is designed to use a specific octane, and anything other than that octane will reduce performance.
Toilet paper, as others have mentioned. Cottonelle. Life’s too short for cheap TP.
Hair color and cut. A mistake here could ruin my hair, so I don’t screw around with discounts or low-budget shops.
I never buy generic soda.
I always buy the same pair of black Adidas sneakers for work (I bartend) because the cheaper brands fall apart overnight and if I make my living on my feet, I think they deserve decent support.
Other than that I’m open…I’ll “splurge” on expensive stuff sometimes (makeup, shoes, artwork, a party dress I have to have, etc.) but it’s not every time I buy these items. I shop exclusively at used bookstores because I read too much to buy them new; I love sales at the Gap, and I’m not above going to Payless for shoes I’m not going to wear very often. I’m fine with the store brand for most groceries, and Oil of Olay has been my cleanser and moisturizer since I was a teenager.
For some reason this thread makes me feel more thrifty than I know I am. 
Oh, Audrey’s post made me think of one thing that I never, ever scrimp on: Coca-Cola. My husband prefers Coke, but would buy Pepsi if it’s on sale. I put a stop to that. Now, when Coke is on sale, we stock up. (But if need be, I will spend more than I’d like to on it.)
Same here. Why go to the cut rate eye surgeon for so important a task? I want the doctor with the most experience!
Other things I splurge on:
Vodka - cheap liqour is never a bargain…
Pet Food/Horse Feed - Our critters eat darned well. They certainly take more supplements than I do.
My genetically engineered dinosaur-filled theme park.
Oh, that’s a good one. A bad haircut leaves you irritated for months. When I finally figured out Great Clips sucked, I started shelling out for a good salon even when I was a starving student.
Up here it results in worse fuel economy too, because the higher octane stuff is just a blend with more ethanol, which has a lower energy density than dino-juice, and ethanol might also corrode rubber fuel lines and do other bad things. Unfortunately, the car is designed for 100 RON Japanese fuel. Closest we can get here is 94 AKI, which works out to around 99 RON IIRC. I’ve gone through a few tanks and the engine hasn’t blown up yet, so fingers crossed. I should probably invest in some octane boosters just to be safe. 
Just remember to pay your security computer guy really well…
Sheets and towels! We shop around for the best prices we can find on what we want, but ever since we tried Egyptian cotton towels and Egyptian cotton high-thread-count sheets, we cannot go back to the cheap stuff!
Beer. Again, I shop around for the best prices. Found a super price on a case of Saranac Winter Beers at Costco in VA, and snapped up on it. But if my choices are Bud and Coors, I’ll just take an unsweetened iced tea, thank you!
Hair care products – has to be Nexxus shampoo and conditioner.
Shoes – has to be Dansko or Birkenstock
Frozen dinners – has to be Stouffer’s
Olive Oil – has to be Fillppo Berrio
Ice cream – yeah, has to be Ben & Jerry’s