I gave up booze in 1982, can't imagine how much money I've saved. My liver is probably in better shape as well.

Guess I might as well stop development of my ink fueled engine.... It probably wasn't going to get 30000 mpg anyway.

That ink stuff is irritating. I had a problem the other day where the printer refused to print not because the ink was low but because the cartridge had expired. It was still ~half full. I started using my old Panasonic laser printer a little more instead.

As for the tools I have never regretted buying an expensive quality tool. I have regretted many times buying a cheap poorly designed one.

I had a high school economics teacher who broke it down to "cost per use" for us one time in class, I've never been able to look at a pair of pants, tool, beer, or TV the same way since then. It was a good lesson.

He's just doing his bit to "keep Portland Weird"...

When I had this PC built in late 2000, I got a 19" AOC monitor to go with it. CRT, of course.

The PC has been gone through and updated once, but the monitor is still knocking it outta the park. I think it cost $150.

There's a philosophical problem here. When you buy a tool, you're purchasing a physical product. When you buy a beer at a bar, you're paying rent on the atmosphere. It's not a tangible thing: the physical evidence of your visit to the bar is wholly transient. However, some people find the social scene of a bar well worth the $6 per drink you've got to pay to spend time there.

(shrug) I went to a beer tasting last night, spent $8 on a pint of beer, hung out with friends, met some new people, discovered a great new local band, and generally had a great time. Was the beer worth $8? Well, that's debatable. Was the experience of the evening worth $8? Yeah, I'd say so.

While we're on this ... do you ever eat out? That's totally transient too. You're paying $30 for a steak dinner that you could have made at home for half that, and you s*** it out a few hours later. Aside from slightly larger love handles, the evidence of the meal is gone within 24 hours. Is eating out a complete waste of money? (Granted, it's not an efficient use, but is it heinous?)

Maybe a better example in this group: how about track time? I'm looking at spending $250 for a day at the track, before spending any money on the maintenance items, gas, or anything else. You do the day at the track and it's all gone. You've done it, now it's over. Is that a complete waste? (Again, I'll grant that it's an unnecessary luxury, but is it heinous?)

Let's go crazy: If I have to buy stuff that lasts, that really rules out food, actually. I can't buy groceries under this philosophy, because I can really only get one use out of any food item. Toilet paper will be off the list too, because that's definitely not something that lasts.

(shrug) Just trying to provide some counter-perspective. :)

Dan

On that note ... I bought a 19" CRT 10 or 12 years ago. It was all I could do to afford it back then. But it won't die now. My friends still mock me for it, but it still gives me more pixels than their expensive LCD displays, and I can't justify replacing it until it actually breaks.

Most everything I buy comes out of my trust fund. Whatever the purchase, I trust it to be a useful expenditure of my funds. If it flies, floats or fuchs, rent it.

Toilet paper is obviously not on everyone's list as evidenced by our towelhead brethern trying to kill us.

E30? Post a few pics of it? I've been looking at them for awhile.

I think there's a point of diminishing returns with most of the stuff we buy, whether we're talking cameras or cars or guitars or shotguns or Scotch or whatever. My strategy is to buy used, when possible, and to try to find the point, new or used, where additional money buys stuff I don't need - like fancy engraving and wood on a shotgun (which won't help me break more clays), fancy inlaying on a guitar (it's pretty, but it doesn't make it sound any better), 18-year-old Scotch rather than 12-year-old Scotch, and so on. I also think, that for me, anyway, it's worthwhile to buy good stuff and just keep it. Your results probably vary. But that's how I approach things.