What item did you "buy for life?"

Easy. Leatherman Wave. Spent 80 bucks on it at least 10 years ago. I've used it to build furniture, repair glasses and electronics, breakdown boxes, open bottles, light duty wood processing/work on campsites and fix crappy cars. It all still works like new. You can have 1 tool in your car, and it can do about 90% of what a box full of tools can do.