What was your last “impulse buy” and was it worth it?

Veggie burrito 5:30 in the morning worth it

DJI Mic Mini that arrives today to pair with action camera and cycling.

I probably won't get a ton of use out of it, but any time I try to capture my rides just for family to see what I'm up to, it's all just wind noise.

Ninja DCT401 12-in-1 Double Oven on Boxing Day. Worth every penny. Rarely using the full sized oven now. Uses a lot less power due to not having to heat as much air volume.

Chicken buillon powder at the Asian Market.

It's nice! I like it better than the store brand I normally get.

New battery for mum's thinkpad for her birthday.

Bought trackball mouse

My workflow is not as fast as before but it is so much more comfortable, definitely worth it.

I had to reconsider. My thumb joint was grouchy after a few months.
I've been using trackballs for 25 years. What do you think of the M575? I've got a fleet of old and tired M570s that will need replacement soon.

Bought some frozen burgers, the TGI Fridays sliders. They're alright. Problem with them is I can eat the entire box of four in a sitting.

2x64GB DDR5 6000, 1.25V:

10/10, would bust wallet again. Once I get wallet again.

I bought a pint for an acquaintance at my philosophy discussion group because he was moving away and this was his last session. I'm pretty poor at the moment, so even a small purchase like this was a lot. It was definitely worth it though, because it convinced him to stay for a while longer than he would have (the group session is held upstairs in a pub, but afterwards there's usually informal discussions that continue downstairs in the main pub).

It felt very much like I was performing human socialisation in a deliberate, but nice way. I already told the dude that I would miss his presence at the group, but buying a farewell drink for him was a way of reiterating that sentiment.

Wholesome

CD player and I went on a spree buying a bunch of CDs on ebay while waiting for the player to arrive. Music I had when I was younger.

Lenovo ThinkPad Yoga 260. Stuck Linux mint on it (because I'm a Linux noob). £170, cheap.

It's pretty great. I just wish I could get a consistent touchscreen experience because I like to fold the keyboard back and use it like a tablet in bed. It works like a charm on Firefox, but outside of that, the touchscreen is hit or miss. I just want it to work like an iPad or Android tablet in terms of navigation (swipes, long presses, etc.)

Overall though I'm pretty happy with it. Excellent for torrenting and file management and mostly lightweight shit.

Try running GNOME on it. It has pretty good touch support.
- I've actually already tried Gnome, which definitely works the best with touch. It seems to lack the amount of system settings that the standard cinnamon DE has though.

I bought a cajon. It's supposed to arrive today, but I think it'll be worth it. I'm gonna be so annoying

I bought one of those inflatable raft things that you can fill with water and lounge in (it has an inflatable pillow and cup holders!) and it's still in the box. I bought it in early June and then got very, very sick and by the time I felt better, I just...forgot about it.

Pickles, is that you?
- What is that from? She's pugly.

A small 8 inch laptop that can fit in my everyday bag. It hasn't arrived yet, so I'm not sure if it'll be worth it.
It's my usual birthday purchase impulse, the one time I allow myself to splurge for something for no other reason than "I want" :)

I hope to use it to wean myself off of phone apps and have something that is more under my control while I'm outside.

may i ask which model it is? im looking for something similar lol
- Sure! It's this one:
  
  https://x-plus.store/products/n150-netbook
  Of course windows is going to be replaced the moment it arrives :)

I've been rewatching my favorite anime, "Super Dimension Fortress Macross", and I impulse bought the PS2 game on Mercari. Cost about ¥2,000, but I've been enjoying the hell out of it.

A main board for a NAS I was planning to build "at some point" because I saw it was pretty cheap. This "cheap" main board now cost me a lot of money in things like hard drives, PSU, case, ... So many regrets. :D

A New! Nintendo 3DS XL because I did not like the form factor of my Nintendo 2DS (also an impulse buy). I bought a bunch of cheap games and I’ve been playing Pokemon Sun a bit.

Also bought an e-bike. I haven’t had a bike in a while and I used to walk around the neighborhood or to the store all the time. I moved to an area that the grocery store is pretty far to walk to and it’s very hilly. The e-bike is great for going up those hills. It’s a pedal assist (no throttle acceleration) and I try to minimize how much I use the actual assist so I can get a workout too. It’s been great and I’ve taken it to the grocery store and library a few times. I bought it when I did because I knew tariffs were going to affect the pricing. The company recently said they are raising prices due to tariffs, so I think it was a wise decision.

I was going to wait to purchase Silksong until I actually had time to play it... and then I ended up buying it on release day. I've only played a few hours but damn did I enjoy it.

Made a lateral upgrade from GTX 1080 to 6600XT. The performance is more or less the same but compatibility with Linux is much better for gaming. Games finally "just work" and was totally worth it for me

I've still got a GTX-1080 in service on my "HTPC." Which...is starting to be a problem, honestly. It's getting to where that card is too old to support things, like Bazzite's HTPC system apparently involves things the GTX-1080 can't do. It's a kickass graphics card but it's also a decade old and software has moved on. And I hate that shit, computer hardware outlives itself too damn often. I've got a literal pile of perfectly working ten year old computers.
My current computer is the one that I helped my late best friend build, and I'm so glad that we ended up going for an AMD GPU. I wasn't using Linux back then (and neither was he), so it was just a lucky fluke. My switch to running Linux as my main operating system would've been far more stressful with a Nvidia GPU, it seems.
Mildly interesting, as I just did nearly the same, going from a GTX970 to a Radeon 8570. Did not have the same "it just works" experience however. But I blame that more on my lack of Linux knowledge than the video card.
- I have a GTX970 but upgrading it would mean I have to upgrade the motherboard, the rams, etc etc etc

5 dollar jar of pickles. Damn good

My last impulse buy was chocolate cover caramel popcorn, very tasty. Food is the only thing I impulse buy.

A pair of GMRS walkie-talkies (_{$70) an associated license (}$35) a better whip antenna for the first (_{$12) and a magnetic mount antenna (}$35) that I threw on a high shelf in a closet or could move to a vehicle if desired.

They can hit a publicly open but privately owned repeater about 20 miles away, which has been interesting. Means that I can radio contact over about a 50 mile radius which covers my city pretty well.

There’s a lot of chatter on the repeater, mostly from “prepper” types who want to be prepared if the cell system crashes. They’re kind of politically right leaning, which sucks but hey, it’s their repeater so I don’t participate a lot.

The radios I got have GPS sharing so they’re nice for any backwoods hikes as you can pinpoint each other and that’s a nice safety feature.

Are they worth it? I guess so. $150 to get fairly deep into a new hobby isnt budget breaking for me, but the actual usefulness is kinda limited when cell towers are most everywhere, even in places like campgrounds of most major cities

Oh buddy, let me tell you about amateur radio... If you're having a good time on gmrs, consider exploring the ham hobby. So much fun. There's a lot more landscape to explore than just gmrs gives you. And welcome to the world of RF!
I've gotten really into radio over the past year or so. The most practical usage I've gotten is a few FRS radios (licence free walkie talkies, like what we used as kids basically) at a renn fest that has no cell service and at a pride event when someone didn't wanna take their phone to a porta potty (better to risk accidentally drop a $10 radio into the toilet than an expensive smart phone with all your pictures).

Full version of FL Studio.

I already have a DAW and didn't need it whatsoever, but considering it's a lifetime license (and can be used within other programs) I'm 100% sure I'll get my money's worth eventually.

I instantly and impulsively pre-ordered a special superduper collector's edition of Lake Mungo for ~£80. I probably shouldn't have done that. I love the film and will no doubt love the goodies and bonus features, but 80 fucking quid...

https://shop.umbrellaent.com.au/products/lake-mungo-2008-4k-blu-ray-collectors-edition

Mini Cheetos in a tube and god fucking yes it was worth it, first time I've ever eaten Cheetos and had clean hands.

May I introduce you to the concept of chopsticks?

I bought a whistle that claims to be the loudest whistle on the market.

It is loud as shit and looks cool on my life vest.

My son works at a motorcycle dealer. He sends me a pic of a bike they just got in. A CBR1000RR-RSP. Well after putting on my boots and asking him if it's for sale, they said they would sell it to me. The person who ordered it had to back out so if I could make it down there it was mine. I hopped on my 2001 CBR and headed to the store where I bought the bike. And to answer the question, YES it was definitely worth it. That motorcycle is the absolute hands down smoothest machine I have ever been on. It's like riding a stick of butter down a teflon pan. I still can't believe I own one as I honestly never even thought I would ever even see one in the wild.

Awesome.
215 horsepower out of a street legal, featherweight 1 liter NA engine is 'normal' now I guess, but it still boggles my mind. And its low inertia! If you sent that thing back in time, engine designers' heads would explode.
This one? Looks great. https://www.cycleworld.com/bikes/honda-cbr1000rr-r-sp-first-look/

Stuff for my homelab. Not worth it, it's just toys for adults

I did that for almost 15 years, now I'm running a company developing embedded electronics using them daily.
- Hey so cool! If you would like to drop the name of your company please do :)
Same, just bought two rack mount SilverStone cases for my PCs to consolidate everything. Next up is a 48U Rack mount, saw one on Facebook marketplace for around $200AUD ($150USD) - what did you get?
- So cool! I love Silverstone cases, they're really made for homelabbers. I have a ML05 that contains 6 hard disks (2,5") in the size of a PlayStation. Spent just 30€ (35$) for one on Facebook marketplace, new.
  I recently bought some more Zigbee devices to pair to my Home Assistant: door sensors and a Methane detector
I need to set up my NAS...

Silksong. Definitely worth it.

Same, but I'm not sure yet. Added it to the backlog of shame.

Got some hot dogs at the store, was totally worth it. Hopefully I'll have enough food for the month. (I live in the 4th world country Amerikkka, don't judge me please)

I guess it was a new camera bag. I didn't need it, but I wanted it. Turns out, having a bag with a long enough strap to go cross body makes it a lot easier to lug around my camera, a handful of lenses, and my tripod for a few hours while I walk around. Totally worth it.

How many bags do you have now? I'll confess I'm a serial manybagger. The damned GAS FOMO gets me almost every time.
- This is the only bag I've bought. The first one came with my old camera, a basic Nikon bag. It was never meant for the gear I have, I've just been making it work.

Telepathic Orchid. Jury is still out but the cons should be fixable via firmware updates.

Chips...lots of chips...and no

A slice of cake and a coffee for desert. Yes it was worth it

I guess only tangentially related but, if you like cheesecake and wine (especially fortified wines), a cheesecake with sherry is positively divine.

Loosening the definition to "something I bought that I didn't need, despite having thought about it for a while and waited for the price to come down", probably the recent remaster of the original Quake. And I only wanted it because it was the only way to get the Dimension of the Machine level pack that it came with.

As it turns out, I'm not really much of a Quake-head any more, but at least I'm no longer wondering about those levels.

“Game Music Disk Guide 2”(ISBN:978-4-909483-69-0). It is supervised by Tanaka “Hally” Haruhisa, whom I impulsively bought at a bookstore this past May. This book is written in Japanese, and no English translation exists.

Compared to the first volume, which strictly focused on works released on physical media as a “disk guide,” this second volume also covers works that have never been released on physical media. Consequently, it features music from Amiga and C64 games, which are relatively unknown in Japan. This is precisely why I made the impulse purchase.

Having finished reading it, I was deeply moved to read the review in my native language of Tim Follin's work. In conclusion, this impulse buy turned out to be a huge success for me. I'd like to express my gratitude here to the bookseller who stocked this title.

I got a slushie.

It was worth it.

Bunch of sexy sex clothes and Ben Wa balls for the wife. Worth it?

Yes.

I rearranged my PC gaming area. Got a new table (one that goes up and down) got a another Kallax to stuff all the things I had in my old table, as well as a displate and some gundams to make it look comfier. All I need is a new mousepad and I'm done.

Too well thought out to be an impulse buy!
- If I didn't do it as an impulse, I would not have done it. I hated my set up for quite some time and I always was like: "some day but not today." For 2 years I was like next time... Until a night a few weeks ago I went to my room with a measuring tape and ordered everything I felt needed change. I started at 10pm and was done by 2 am. I had forgotten to order a new mousepad and now I'm once again in the mode: "next time I'll order it for sure."

Hairband. It's fine

So did you choose Motley Crüe, Poison, maybe Cinderella?
What are their care and feeding habits?

Haha. All my purchases are impulse buys!

A hammock chair! Totally 100% worth it

ender3 v3 ke

Totally worth it

The game "The Root trees are dead". Great game for nerds who like puzzles

A thunderbolt dock for my home office. Saves me a lot of time fiddling with cables every time I work from home.

Metallic mini backpack.

Worth it. I love the color, it was on sale, and I hate carrying purses.

An rog ally. Definately worth it