With tools, I firmly believe that you can buy the good tool and feel the pain once or buy the cheap tool and feel the pain every time you use it. But if you only use it once, then this adage does not really matter–Harbor Freight all the way.
I’m currently kitting out my home machine shop, and I have no problem paying a shockingly high price for a Starrett combination square, something I will use daily and rely on, but I also have no problem buying the cheapest set of clamps and step blocks for the mill, since they all do pretty much the same thing.
Tools. I have the pleasure(?) of completely outfitting a new garage workshop. Since we went with all-new furniture for the house, I decided to dump the piecemeal, cheap crap I’d accumulated over the years and buy new, quality tools. The difference in ergonomics alone makes it worth the cost.
Mattresses. You are going to be spending a third of your life on it. Make it the best you can’t afford.
Like kayaker, I’ve decided that cheap beer just isn’t in my wheelhouse except under extremely limited circumstances. I’ll pay the freight to drink the good stuff. Especially since they opened a new pub within walking distance of the house.
*“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money.
Take boots, for example. He earned thirty-eight dollars a month plus allowances. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars. But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. Those were the kind of boots Vimes always bought, and wore until the soles were so thin that he could tell where he was in Ankh-Morpork on a foggy night by the feel of the cobbles.
But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years. A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that’d still be keeping his feet dry in ten years’ time, while the poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.
This was the Captain Samuel Vimes ‘Boots’ theory of socioeconomic unfairness.”*
I pay extra for Honeycrisp Apples. I love apples but in the last decade Red Delicious (which I used to love) became blander so I pay extra for apples that I really like.
That’s really funny, because I did the exact same thing for the exact same reason. But… I had no idea they were more expensive. I guess you could say I “splurge” on food items. In the overall picture, food is so cheap, I never look at prices. If I want it, I buy it.
Peanut Butter. I’ll settle for generic versions of most food items, but my peanut butter has to be Extra Crunchy Jif, and I don’t care what it costs. Guess I’m a choosy mother.
Same thing happened with Fujis. They used to taste great but now they don’t seem to have the flavor they used to. I suspect that they became popular and growers started pushing their production.
Underwear. Many brands of women’s underwear are cut weirdly, made poorly, and fall apart quickly. Ex Officio is intended for travel (it’s a wash-wring-dry overnight style), but they are comfortable and last forever in reasonably good shape. Expensive at $18-22, but they have outlasted everything else, so why buy anything else?
I’m not sure if this really counts, but I am a sucker for nice work shirts. Most people I know are happy to buy simple professional shirts that are ‘good enough’ in that they have a collar and buttons. I, however, like to go to town a little. I spend ~£40 (~US$50) on a plain white work shirt, and feel no buyer’s remorse…
Likewise with socks - ones with reinforced toes and heels make so much sense.
I always go for the most expensive dishwasher tablet there is.
I always pay extra for the thicker bin-bag (trash-bag)
Brand name canned tomatoes and beans, Best Foods mayo, Skippy peanut butter, and Kerrygold butter (when I see it at Costco). The generic stuff is just not as good.
I don’t go cheap on tools, but I also don’t get stoopid by buying top end items I can’t justify (like Festool products).
Shoes. I grew up wearing cheap K-Mart shoes that didn’t fit, didn’t last, and just looked cheap. I understand why my folks insisted on them - my feet grew fast (I needed adult sizes early) and it’s easy to save money by not spending a lot on sites that are going to be outgrown or abused. But I hated wearing those shoes, because they looked bad, and they made me look poor, and dammit, we weren’t poor. I’m still careful about purchasing shoes, but I’ve finally learned that it’s OK to spend a little more money on something that feels good, lasts, and doesn’t scream “I am cheap!”
Candy and alcohol. If I’m gonna consume empty calories, I’m going to enjoy it as much as I can.
For a while, I lived near a small cheese shop that sold locally made cream cheese that contained nothing but milk, cream, and cultures. It was to Philadelphia as Philly is to store brand. For those few years, this cream cheese was one of those inexpensive luxuries I insisted on, especially when cwSpouse was going to make my annual special cheesecake.
What I’d give to eat that cream cheese again. The store changed owners, and the new owners don’t know where the cheese came from.
I like to indulge on the fresh organic peaches from the farmers’ market. They might cost four or five dollars a pound but the peak season is so brief that I will buy several pounds each week.
I used to pay a lot for coffee until I bought a coffee roaster; now the stuff I roast is better than the locally-roasted stuff because I get to pick what I want, rather than the generic “Sumatran” at the local high-end place.
Currently splurging on beer, but I’m going to be getting my homebrewing gear out of storage next month so I’ll be able to make my own for about $5 a six-pack, and again, I get to decide what I have, rather than putting up with somebody else’s grand ideas (grapefruit sculpin? what the hell?).