What’s your top BIFL purchase, that might not in itself has been all to frugal, but long term, will be?
After having 5-6 different office chairs over the last 10 years, none of which I liked. I went and bought a Herman Miller Aeron chair. It’s ridiculously expensive, but I’m so pleased with it and hope to keep it for well over 15-20 years. If that actually succeed, I will have spent less money one chairs than if I hadn’t bought it.
What similar items (cheap or expensive) do you feel the same about?
I got a backpack from LL Bean over 10 years ago, and I use it for everything. Like, walking a few blocks to the grocery store to get groceries everything. I use it so much. Aside from one zipper on one pocket going weird, nothing has worn out/through.
And although I got a new bag, I still find myself going back to the LL Bean one.
Unfortunately–and I just checked their site–they don’t seem to make the backpack I have anymore. It was about $100 when i got it, but on their site all I see is cheap-looking LL Bean-branded school backpacks, or Osprey-branded high-tier hiking backpacks. And mine was LL Bean branded, but closer to the hiking daypack sort of thing than an ordinary cheap school backpack. It was perfectly positioned in the middle.
Edit: It was the “Escape” daypack.
LL Bean is not the same company they were a couple decades ago. Most of their stuff is made over in Asia now. It is still high quality vs competition, but it’s nowhere near as awesome as it used to be. I used to be a “true fan”, right down to the rewards card. Now I’m just a fan.
I still have a day pack I got in the nineties, and it’s like new. About half that time it’s been in storage. My son will probably use it next.
LL Bean was a true BIFL company for everything they sold. Their lifetime no questions asked return policy was trashed as soon as it was no longer family owned. Their stuff was expensive, but you knew that you had that stuff forever. They grew into a huge company because of that policy along with their reputation for being the highest quality. Getting hand me down stuff that was LL Bean was a big deal. Now it’s just a run of the mill Corporate BS Bean.
Yes, an example of the enshittification of commerce. However, they do remain better than average.