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Technology - phone, iPad. Bed, desk chair, food.
On the flip side, I've also been getting rid of everything I don't need or haven't used in the last 6 months (100 Things Challenge). My motto: own less and only things you need, but for those, buy the best quality.
Always buy the best:
- Kitchen Knives
- Development tools
- Toilet Paper
All the above can be skimped on, but they'll make you unhappy. I've spent enough of my life sawing onions in half with a squirrelly 99 cent Ginsu clone, trying to get Eclipse to autocomplete anything at all and letting roommates bring home a 60 pack of Welfare Brand Flims-E-Paper. Now that I've got two dimes to rub together, all that stuff is a thing of the past.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I totally agree with the experiences thing. Assuming you're not saving up for a house or something, what better thing to spend your money on than a new experience? A lot of people suddenly become frugal when confronted with the price tag of an amazing holiday, but are perfectly happy blowing £50 on a night of drinking. It always seems like a false economy to me.
A night of drinking is an experience as well. It may not be a 'new' experience, but it still is. Blowing a fifty on a pair of socks is another story.
These things are priced all over the map. At the very low end, you get crap that ends up limiting your creativity. At the very high end, you're paying for a name or features that might be nice to have, but not having them isn't going to prevent you from going from amateur to pro if you want.
I buy the things in the middle of that spectrum. The sweet spot for musical instruments seems to be about $1000, although you can arguably get by with $500 instruments and be happy.
For computers, I buy the lowest priced one that has the features I want, usually wireless, decent graphics card, etc. Every computer produced since 2002 has had the power to do everything I need to do, minus high-definition video editing (nothing will ever be fast enough) and playing Starcraft 2. I have an $800 desktop for those two things, cheap laptops running Linux for everything else.
The best money I've spent recently was on singing lessons. Not a "thing," but finding the right instruction for something you want to do can be extremely valuable. For the rest of my life I'll be a better singer, which is great.
I tend to lean toward spending on Experiences rather than Possessions. That said, there are certain classes of Possession that can really make your life better if you buy the best. Always buy the best: - Kitchen Knives - Development tools - Toilet Paper All the above can be skimped on, but they'll make you unhappy. I've spent enough of my life sawing onions in half with a squirrelly 99 cent Ginsu clone, trying to get…
I tend to lean toward spending on Experiences rather than Possessions. That said, there are certain classes of Possession that can really make your life better if you buy the best. Always buy the best: - Kitchen Knives - Development tools - Toilet Paper All the above can be skimped on, but they'll make you unhappy. I've spent enough of my life sawing onions in half with a squirrelly 99 cent Ginsu clone, trying to get…
I get the impression that there are a lot of unnecessarily expensive kitchen knives out there. Professional cooks spend all day using a knife & most of them use some knife that cost maybe $25 at the restaurant supply store.
While prep cooks will use stock kitchen knives, most chefs will use their own tools, which tend to be pretty expensive.
I tend to lean toward spending on Experiences rather than Possessions. That said, there are certain classes of Possession that can really make your life better if you buy the best. Always buy the best: - Kitchen Knives - Development tools - Toilet Paper All the above can be skimped on, but they'll make you unhappy. I've spent enough of my life sawing onions in half with a squirrelly 99 cent Ginsu clone, trying to get…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I totally agree with the experiences thing. Assuming you're not saving up for a house or something, what better thing to spend your money on than a new experience? A lot of people suddenly become frugal when confronted with the price tag of an amazing holiday, but are perfectly happy blowing £50 on a night of drinking. It always seems like a false economy to me.
A night of drinking is an experience as well. It may not be a 'new' experience, but it still is. Blowing a fifty on a pair of socks is another story.