People have been sharing the things they own that have ‘paid for themselves’ – 23 exceedingly excellent purchases

‘My dog. Best thing I ever ‘owned’. Friend, feet warmer, confidant, clown, protector.

(I had to put him down a month ago and I am realizing that it will take a very long long time to grieve his loss).’
–Harridan_Trainee

‘My family and I travel to see my wife’s parents and my parents in Denver several times a year. We ran the numbers and figured out it was less expensive to buy a used minivan and leave it there than renting cars. Paid itself off in like two years.’
–alanbly

‘I spent $125 on a small chest freezer in 2002. I did this because my studio apartment’s fridge sucked. If I got it cold enough to freeze stuff in the freezer, it froze stuff in the fridge part too. Anyway, $125 was a lot of money to me then, not to mention the space it took up in my bitty apartment, but so was losing all the food I was losing.

It’s now 2026 and my spouse and I own a house and that same freezer is in the garage now. I can get the bigger packs of meat and portion them out, stuff like that. That little 5 cubic foot freezer has paid for itself so many times over in the last 24 years.’
–deagh

‘Solar power. This summer, people were complaining about electric bills $500-$800, while we are in the $25 range (gas + electric).’
–zojjaz

‘Library card. I read for free.’
–herewegoagain2864

‘I was just laying on my bed doomscrolling because it was a fucker of a week and my big doofus of a cat hopped up, plopped down, rolled onto his back and gave me a googly eyed stare. I think his adoption fee was only like $45 but we did pay $5500 on a surgery to remove 22 hair ties from his big dumb belly. I still think I’ve come out ahead, he’s a pretty great cat.’
–gl21133

‘My Kindle. I can get books for free and send them to my Kindle. I’ve saved hundreds of dollars so far.’
–FDias25

‘Hair trimmer. Got one for like 50 bucks, after skipping two trips to the barber its paying for itself!’
–Veritas3333

‘Paid about $50 total for some car ramps and oil filter wrench. Maybe $120 total for a full set of jack stands and bottle jack.

I’ve saved hundreds, if not a thousand in oil changes and tire rotations over the years, especially with how insane prices for oil changes have gotten. Plus, I never have to worry about some joker forgetting to install the oil plug, overtorquing the plug, wrong oil, not enough oil, etc.’
–Icy-Structure5244

‘My sewing machine! I’m short and I used to pay to alter each item of clothing that was too long . Now I don’t have to.’
–Old-Pride-8575

‘Coffee machine for sure! And espresso maker, that one took a little longer but I’ve gotten so much use out of them I can’t imagine the equivalent coffee shop prices.’
–mikealope1

‘My hiking boots. They’re like 14 years old, still waterproof, still sturdy, padding still feels good. I am not a huge hiker, but I did it extremely frequently (day hikes) for several years, wore them camping, wear them out for fun cuz they’re comfy. I have gotten more than my $65 on sale out of them.’
–Shittingmytrewes