Sometimes, spending a little more is totally the right call. But how do you know which indulgences are worth it? Or whether you’re actually paying for quality, rather than just hype? These are the expensive purchases that the vast majority of people have no regrets about making. (We’ve also included testimonials from genuine purchasers, sourced from Reddit.)
Shoe picture from Shutterstock
Tempurpedic mattress
“My girlfriend at the time had chronic back pain. Spent $3,000 on a mattress. I can never go back.”
LED lightbulbs
“The entry cost is high, but maintenance, efficiency, longevity, and useability make up for it.”
Shoes
“Rule of thumb: don’t skimp on anything that separates you from the ground.”
A good winter jacket
“For the record, Arc’teryx is the absolute best, but it is also the Ferrari of winter clothing.”
Tools
“Bad craftsmen blame their tools. Good craftsmen buy better tools.”
Riedel wine glasses
“Riedel is considered the ‘gold standard’ for production wine glasses, partially because the company spent years and significant resources to develop and produce high quality glasses for specific grape varieties.” (Teetotalers can also get Coke versions.)
Bread
“Can’t possibly buy a loaf of average white bread when it’s only $1 or $2 more for the WAY better stuff.”
Ballpoint pen
“Spent $5 on a kickass ballpoint pen. Ridiculously smooth and comfortable. My handwriting speed and neatness improved dramatically. Never going back to the $3 for a pack of 10 again.”
A massage chair
“Unless you’re a professional athlete with a masseuse on staff, or similar, you’re not going to pay for massage at anywhere near this frequency.”
Bed sheets
“I slept on 180 thread count for 23 years of my life. Then, a girl I was going out with had 1,000 thread count sheets on her bed. Holy crap. What a difference.”
Sushi
“Never, ever, ever, ever eat discount sushi. Ever.”
Bras
“After getting myself a properly-fitted $100 bra, I look 10 pounds slimmer, my back doesn’t hurt anymore, and my clothes fit better. There’s no going back from here.”
Jeans
“I may buy the rest of my clothes at Target, but I have never found a cheap pair of jeans that fit me just right.”
Backpack
“A good quality backpack, decently large size with comfortable straps, non-flimsy load distribution clasps, good number of pockets and utility pockets, and (most of all) high quality zippers is easily worth the money.”
What have you splurged out on that was totally worth it? Let us know in the comments.
This article originally appeared on Business Insider.
Comments
29 responses to “14 Products You Should Always Pay A Premium For”
…and batteries. Never buy cheap batteries.
Unless they’re japanese Eneloops and on sale 😉
2nd this, especially car batteries. definitely a case of ‘you get what you pay for’
Wine Glasses – Totally agree on Riedel. We got some as a gift and since then, slowly but surely, all of our wine glasses are becoming Riedel.
Bed Sheets – Learned this one when I was 16. You can look rough and act tough to get the girl into bed – but once she’s there – good quality sheets will make all of the difference.
I do recall some early exploits with girls sliding from one of the bed to the other on satin sheets. Ah the mistakes of a young bloke!
1000 thread count sheets don’t breathe as well though, so you want a lower thread count in summer.
Disagree on the wine glasses. You can get awful cheap glasses, but you can also get great cheap glasses.
We have fantastic thin walled, deep bowl wine glasses that cost us $15/6 pack. They feel no different to the mouth compared to Reidel which is what counts. Sure they’re not as smooth in the stem/base or optically perfect as the expensive brands, but we don’t blink an eye, let alone shed a tear when one occasionally breaks.
The funny thing is I agree with you if you look at other wine glasses. We have some super expensive ones we got as wedding presents. A few broke in transit and a few chipped just from being washed. These things are heavy in the hand and look amazing – but I think terrible to drink from.
But the Riedels just have a superior feel to them compared to even the best cheapies we’ve tried over the years. Even better though we’ve never had one chip or break without us being stupid. And to combat the occasional breakage – we bought a spare pair of each set when they were on serious special at Peters of Kensington.
But being stupid happens and paying $25/glass versus $15/6 glasses adds up VERY quickly, especially when the breakage rate is similar..
Both my Reidels (received as a gift) broke while being towel dried (sure I know you’re not supposed to towel dry, but it happens).. The cheapies get dishwashered! And I don’t reckon I’ve broken any more than 4 that way (total cost about $10) across my 7 years of owning a dishwasher.
It all comes back to usage, these certainly aren’t rules for everyone. If you’re screwing a picture to a wall once a year, the $30 cordless drill will work fine for you, if you’re drilling 10mm holes through steel and concrete for 8 hours a day, you’ll probably want, and appreciate, a better drill. Same with pens, who even uses pens anymore? I hardly ever, and the el-cheapo Bic pen works fine for that.
Lots of people?
Use pens daily and a good pen makes *all* the difference.
Spend up on hand tools, spend down on power tools (unless you’re a tradesman or a hobbyist that uses them a LOT more than once a month)
If you’re a tradie, you can claim it back too. As my joiner boyfriend does this year with his $800 tool box for the stupid amount of tools he bought.
like Akio Tasai chisels. http://www.fine-tools.com/tasai-chisels.html
Dat Damascus <3
Agreed, and remember that the quality of used hand tools is very often much higher than modern versions, I always look for 40s to 70s era West German and Japanese tools at garage sales. You can tell good tools after a while, they’re old, well used, but in good condition and usually have a name scratched into them! Cheap and great, and can pass them on to your kids.
I’m going to add;
Modem / Router – Something that gets used everyday, you want something that performs as good as possible.
Mobile phone – Same, everyday carry needs to do everything you need it to.
My housemate went out and bought a cheap arse Netgear router that doesn’t even have an antenna(!!!) and it’s the most frustrating thing in the world to me. It needs to be reset like once a week and the signal is shocking, especially considering it’s an old house with walls made of brick.
So yeah, a modem/router should definitely be included in the list. People just don’t appreciate the job they do 24/7 (ideally).
Similarly, I had a standard Netgear modem (DG834G) and it would crap out every week.
I bought a $300 beast, an Asus DSL-AC68U. Easily the best money I’ve ever spent.
earbuds is another one. ive had a lot over the years that ive received with phones and even $10 – $20 pairs, yet nothing has beat the $70 sennheiser pair i bought about 10 years ago, still amazing and still comfortable and sounds better than anything i have tried since.
I’m not sold on the Riedel point. We’ve done blind taste testing with friends, and even those who have a good knowledge/palate for wine couldn’t taste any difference vs equivalent shaped IKEA glasses. If you must buy crystal, there are plenty of other cheaper manufacturers. Reidel is the equivalent of Audi vs VW. You’re mostly just paying for the name.
On shoes, I’d narrow this to those for running. The cheap, no-name ones may look the part but you’ll suffer if doing more than a potter around the block. The high-end brand ones may be pricey but are cheaper than paying for podiatry and physio appointments.
Noise-cancelling headphones should be there too. Cheapo ones simply don’t cut it. I swear by Bose but there are plenty of other high-quality (read high-priced) alternatives. If you fly long-haul regularly, you’ll understand what I mean.
And lastly, don’t skimp on safety gear. Be it climbing ropes, high-viz gear, anything padded or designed to protect you from injury.
If it’s used daily, concerns your safety or gets you from point A to point B, don’t skimp.
Never buy cheap WD Green HDDs unless you dont want that data
What’s wrong with WD Greens? Sure they’re slow but they’re one of the more reliable HDD’s out there.
You’ve clearly never had them commit suicide
WD are great hard drives – just any other colour than green
What about sunnies?
Bad product can cause damage.
Forgot the most important one, never ever ever buy the cheapest toilet paper