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

....a home gym. As much as it has destroyed my budget for the remainder of the year and more than likely next year, it is absolutely worth it.

A used Wii-U in immaculate condition. Windwaker is one of my favorite games, and it's even better in HD. $48.

Hollow Knight. I had a twenty dollar gift card to game stop and told them to recommend something.

Got a little bonus and splurged on another unit of Eliminators and a Phobos Librarian for my Angelic Inheritors army, “The Baal Hammers.“ No regrets.

Digital copies of the entire run of the Girl Genius webcomic. Very worth it.

Is that finished or still ongoing?

Registered for a fan run Nancy Drew -esque 3 day event in WA for 2026. Went to the one this year and it was a blast, registered right before it filled up.

A case of raspberry iced tea, and local pickled onions for the Smokies I went to the store to get for dinner

Baulders Gate 3. No, I can't stay awake more than like 10 mins if I play

I would pay for BG3 ten times over if it worked that well

A Skil Electric screwdriver.
I thought it was gimmicky but it was $20 about 8 years ago and I thought it might be useful sometimes, I use the every living shit out of that thing to this day, and it's still going

I went to a café and sat down with the book I'm currently reading and bought a coffee and a crêpe. It was very much worth it! I'll do that again.

ITT: a lot of folk buying tech. Including me.

Don't forget about the textbook collection too.

Retro gaming thing the size of a game boy from Temu. Probably not great for the planet, but it was £23...

4 packs of spicy ramen from the 7-11.

And yes. They were delicious.

A video game that I'll get around to playing in like a decade after I get through the other games in my back log but hey it was on sale lmao

Today bought "bathrꝏm" tray to try organising objects scattered all over desk . Black with white marbling

Last impulse buy was literally just delivered today. An entry-level gaming monitor (around $200) and a desk-mount for a laptop + monitor combo (around $30-40). I recently moved so I didn't have a monitor yet

Had a quick gaming session with the monitor and it was worth every penny! The games I play do require low display lag so 1 vs 3 frames of delay actually does matter...

The desk-mount however was only a good idea on paper, the desk my landlord provided doesn't have a place to mount it

I collect old tech. I recently bought three things all from Apple: and 7th gen iPod Nano, a 1st gen iPod Nano, and an iPhone 3GS.

These things were honestly stupid rare in my country, since I never recall seeing an iPod in the wild at all, and an iPhone before the 4, so seeing these in my thrift store immediately made me buy them.

Even though neither of the iPods work, and the 3GS turns on, but with a dead battery and boots to an iOS 4 style recovery screen, I have to say it's definitely worth it just to have these as display items.

GeForce 5090. Had been saving up for last few years, it came in stock and I bought without thinking much about it.

It’s worth it because it’s fast. Not worth it because it was expensive and warms up the room too much. I really underestimated how hot it would make my room.

I do regret buying it. Since now I’m short on cash.

I want to build a separate exhaust for my PC for this reason but I know it wouldn't look good.

The recently re-released Taco Bell 7 layer burrito.

It was not.

A Pico 4 (without the Ultra) used from eBay for 125€.

I absolutely do not need one. But it is fun (I know, not many people actually use theirs really and I thought the same for a long time.

A Ninja Luxe Café Pro. I've wanted a machine like this at home since forever! And yes, the purchase was definitely worth it.

Beautiful ‼️ Almost makes wnna drink coﬀee again ☕ Sadly my home lacks counter space for such bulky appliance
Pro tip; learn to foam milk and people wil orgasm over your hot chocolates.

30 packs of gaming cards. Hell yeah it was. Not a single good pull but it’s always fun to crack packs

I bought an IMAX film cell of Interstellar. It was a little pricey but I love the movie and I also shoot film.

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

My first 3D printer. It’s been fun so far!

Tbh: I hate your printer to the guts. Everything about it.
Why?
After years of tinkering with various more or less self build ones, I finally caved in last autumn and bought a P1S, having enough of tinkering. I needed a machine that works but couldn't justify the X1C, even though most things I do are more technical than deco/toys.
Shortly after Bambu started that firmware crap. While the customer protection legal threads which I took part in have very likely stopped the worst of it and brought the "developer mode", it's still crap and well, it was a stupid idea to buy BL,yes. (Even though my machine does work very well so far...besides the shitty AMS)
Then, when I just managed to get less salty about that, the Centauri Carbon came out. Which would have been the perfect machine for me if only...I had known about it back then (none did). It does what the P1S does not do well, it is basically everything what I would have needed out of a X1C. God damn it.
To get over that I needed to back the Snapmaker U1 as a possible replacement for the P1S. Even though I know it will require extended tinkering to get it to print what I want it to do. Argh! (Or maybe I get a Centauri afterwards and risk divorce over it?)
So I hate your printer and my only solace is that you will spend much more money on filament than you will on your printer. Oh fuck,I did that,too. Damn.
(Seriously, though: Welcome to the club. It's one of the most marvelous hobbies I ever took up. Especially if you learn how to construct yourself in CAD - which is easier than one would think. And btw: Google Spoolman and MPCNC :D)

Onewheel pint off FB marketplace for $300.

Showed up, turned it on and the light came on without any issues and the tire was deflated (neglected for a few years bc the guy bought a new one. Also the guy was a dad who died, so his son was selling it.) I assumed it worked. Got home, tried to start it, and I bonked the pavement with the front. Apparently the sensor was broken and it costed $150 to replace.

is it worth it? for 300, yes 100%. for 500.. ehhhhh.

edit: also thinking of starting a sub about onewheels

Was the cat included?

Oblivion Remastered. It turns out I don't really have the patience for inventory/weight management anymore.

Silksong. Definitely worth it.

Same, but i haven't even played the first one. I gotta stop doing that....
Same here, but I must say the platforming is a lot harder than I was expecting. Diagonal pogo is really messing me up. I can’t consistently get past those pogo bouncy fruit ball things and I’m stuck now. Hopefully it clicks soon.
- In case you're playing with controller, use the d-pad. Just hold left/right and down and you will always perform the pogo bounce instead of hitting air.
Same, but I'm not sure yet. Added it to the backlog of shame.

Bought trackball mouse

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

2x64GB DDR5 6000, 1.25V:

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

Wow what do you do with 128GB or RAM?
- Run a giant LLM in RAM, heh:
  https://huggingface.co/zai-org/GLM-4.5
  Seriously though, I had 32GB, and was having problems with all sorts of media work, complilation, stuff that would grind my system to a crawl constantly from the paging. So I wanted to replace them with 64GB sticks, but the 128GB modules were low voltage, low latency and not that expensive in terms if $/GB... and I realized it was enough space to basically host a reasonable quantization of Deepseek at home, at (as it turns out) close to reading speeds.
  I like having a RAM drive to put certain games on, too. Not that I game a ton these days... Hence dangrous's meme.
- Open two Chrome tabs at the same time.

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.
- Totally agree. The amount of hp this bike has blows my mind. But the thing like I said is just how smooth it is in the delivery and execution. The shifts are smooth and effortless, and the throttle is just smooth. You can dial in the power you want with different settings, so you can tone it down for things like riding in the rain. It's so much different than my 01, which was just raw power and no electronic goodies other than fuel injection. I love having both, and have a ton of miles on the 01 which I am looking forward to matching with the new bike.
This one? Looks great. https://www.cycleworld.com/bikes/honda-cbr1000rr-r-sp-first-look/
- That's it. I got a 25 model, but it looks basically the same. They tweaked some internals from 24 to 25, but that's the bike. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me, and I jumped on it. Definitely my largest impulse buy ever. I figure my friends all think I am having a mid life crisis, but it's just a dream bike of mine that I never would have fathomed I would have a snowballs chance in hell of owning.

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.

KDE gestures?
I know they reworked it completely a couple of years ago, but I'm an insane person who uses XFCE in touch mode so I wouldn't know lol.
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.

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...

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 :)

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.

Veggie burrito 5:30 in the morning worth it

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

Chicken buillon powder at the Asian Market.

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

5 dollar jar of pickles. Damn good

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."

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.

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

Yes.

How do you introduce these things to a more shy and very vanilla partner?

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

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

“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 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.

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.

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 hammock chair! Totally 100% 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.

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!

Metallic mini backpack.

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

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.

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.

ender3 v3 ke

Totally worth it

New battery for mum's thinkpad for her birthday.

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

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.

An rog ally. Definately worth it