I cosign on splurging so you can live alone. IMHO, there’s nothing better than being able to do whatever you want within your domicile without having to consider someone else. I know I’d be willing to pay a lot more than 30% of my salary on rent just to live alone.
Another thing that’s worth splurging on: good pizza. There’s nothing wrong with grabbing a cheap slice to stave off hunger. But there really is a difference between a low-effort cardboard pizza that makes for inedible leftovers and really good stuff. I only eat really good stuff now.
Name brand soda. Coke is far better than store brands.
Theater tickets. 5 - 20 rows back, center. Closer is not better. We saw Hamilton in row 2, center, and the sound was bad and we were not close. (Not splurging, we won the lottery for that show.) Seeing in in row 15 was a better experience.
I support house. We got a 5 bedroom house, more than we could have spent but well worth it. Neighborhood also - the other option, cheaper, was in the middle of nowhere - being 10 minutes from my doctor and supermarkets has paid off again and again.
Everything between you and the ground: shoes, tires, mattress. Anything you spend a significant amount of your day on, computer chair, monitor, phone, kitchen, TV, whatever you use the most.
Pens. I normally use fountain pens - and am happy to use an inexpensive pen like a Jinhao or a Pilot Metropolitan - but even with ballpoints, the writing experience is much easier and satisfying with a more expensive, better quality pen. About $75 is the most I’ve ever spent for a pen, but a Pilot Falcon or a Lamy 2000 is on the “When Rich Uncle Thurston Dies” list.
I don’t have any direct experience with them, being an ovary-deficient American, but based on the experience of the woman I live with, the difference between a well-fitted, well-made bra and a cheap Walmart bra is the difference between a comfortable day and “Oh-my-effing-god-I-can’t-wait-to-get-out-of-this-thing” day. Spend the money for a good bra, and, as important, for a good bra fitting.
Similarly, an item I do know about: running shoes. Going to a running store and getting a fitting is almost not even “splurging”, if you’re planning to run more than once a week. Spending the money on a good pair of shoes that fits you and your stride can save you pain, fatigue, and orthopedic bills. I spend about $160 every six months or so on a pair of Hoka Cliftons or Brooks Ghosts, and count it money well spent.
I missed an item re splurging: housekeeper. I have a housekeeper in every two weeks. That is a total splurge and I would miss this quite a lot if I didn’t have it. Every two weeks my kitchen and bathrooms are spotless, my floors are mopped, everything is bright and shiny. I live alone so I really don’t make many messes, but I doubt I’d keep up as well with things without my wonderful housekeeper Loretta - she’s been doing this for me for 19 years and she’s awesome. When she started there were 3 of us, including a small kid, now it’s just me and you can pry her out of my cold dead hands. Thanks, Loretta.
Cleaning service. I’m a slob. If I didn’t have a housecleaner, I would not keep the place habitable.
Lawn service: ditto. Plus as I get older, I have less and less energy to deal with outdoor stuff.
Underwear: I buy somewhat spendy things - but they last me years.
Headphones: Errrrrr maybe for a real audiophile. They’re too breakable / lose-able to spend a lot on. Though I admit I did splurge, a LOT, on a pair of Bose noise-cancelling phones, the over-the-ear sort (I cannot STAND the in-canal sort), because I travel a fair bit on the subway and they let me listen to an audiobook or whatever without blasting out my eardrums.
Car upgrades for comfort and/or safety. Our “new” car is 13 years old. I’ve since driven a number of rental cars that have things like backup cameras, land-change alerts, adaptive cruise control, automatic headlights, power adjustable seats, memory for those same seats (so I don’t have to fiddle with it after someone else drives it), good connection for my phone / audio, etc. All of these are must-haves for my next car. Heated seats and remote start would be nice but are not must-haves.
A condo all on one floor. We’re in a typical 2 floor colonial house, and as we get up in years it’ll be harder to manage. Yes, there are lots of downsides to a condo - and around here they’re not necessarily that much cheaper than a house - but the luxury of not having to worry about shovelling snow / raking leaves / outside maintenance is very, very tempting.
Housing that is transit-accessible. In the suburbs, you’re lucky if you have bus service at all. That hypothetical condo will be within 2 blocks of a bus that runs all day long and well into the evening.
If you have a kid–season passes to the zoo, museums, neighborhood pools, etc. It’s wonderful to be able to go to places like that and not having to worry about trying to cram every experience into one day. We have a membership at the local natural history and we have Wore It Out. They don’t seem to care exactly which kids are on the family pass, so we take friends on playdates there. We go when it’s hot. We go when it’s rainy. We go an hour before close. He has grown out of and into different exhibits over the years, and so often when I am explaining things, I can refer back to things in the museum he didn’t really understand at the time but now the memory illuminates him.
And that’s not even going into the benefits of reciprocal memberships. Anytime we are in a strange city, there’s somewhere we can go for a few hours–often a place that would have been $25-30/head.
I’ll add strawberry preserves to this list. Store-brand strawberry preserves are shit. Smucker’s are only a little bit better. But Crofters is where it’s at.
I think someone already mentioned dish soap. I was reminded, when I ran out of Dawn and had to use the leftover store brand dish soap I had under the sink, how much better the good stuff is. I replenished my Dawn stash at 9+ dollars for the biggest size Kroger had but was so happy to be using the good stuff again.
Art. If there’s only one, and it moves you, splurge on it before someone else does and you don’t get it.
Our hard lesson: We loved a sweet historic painting (past sunset at the Golden Gate, painted 40 years before the bridge existed) that seemed just beyond our budget. We finally decided yes, we need it. Right then, fire torched a rich-folks’ district, and their art collections. Yikes. Every worthwhile painting offered in the greater SF Bay Area shipped from galleries almost immediately to replace the losses. We were a day late and a hundred bucks short and so missed that sweet one.
Also, splurge on better musical instruments, locks, and plumbing.
I have to gives big up to bedding. All of it. Your mattresss, box spring, sheets, pillows.
You spend more time on your bed than any other object, more time there than doing anything else in your life. A comfortable night’s sleep is an enormous part of a healthy life. It is money well spent.
You’re right in that all helmets meet the same safety standards; however, the more expensive ones have better air channeling & can actually keep you cooler than no helmet at all while the cheap ones make you hot & uncomfortable & that may shorten your ride.
As for me, beer & camera lenses. I do enough edge stuff that I want the big exposure/low light lens which cost much more than the mediocre ones. Yes they pay off in picture quality.