Ask Lemmy

Anything that separates you from the ground. Shoes, mattress, tires.

Food, cocktails, occasional fine dining.

Dumber tech that works without internet/network/bluetooth/account or stuff that I can connect to HA.

Paprika. The grocery store stuff may as well be red glitter for all its flavor. I go to specialty spice stores to buy a premium paprika so it actually has taste

Food. Could I survive on rice/ potatoes/ pasta with veggies? Surely. But do I want to spent 10 bucks on ingredients for my favourite homemade food? Yes.

Not personally, but my parents would pay much, much more for cooking utensils than what "it's worth". They live in China, and I don't think the locals (especially their generation) trust Chinese manufacturing that much... so for anything food- or health-related my parents would just get stuff from say Japan, the US, or the EU. Quite sure mom side still insists on buying kitchen knives from Zwilling whenever she's traveling

I guess this is becoming more relevant now that Temu is a thing

coffee. pretty much every local roaster within 50 miles of me has a better dark roast than 99% of the grocery store crap, which is also usually already stale when they stock it on the shelf

Fiber Internet. Synchronous gigabit up and down with no datacaps is a must. My ping in fps games is like 9 ms and it's amazing. My homelab uses a bunch of data each month and as someone who's chronically online it's been such an awesome luxury after growing up with crummy dialup and DSL

Contractors

1st class train tickets. More comfortable, more space and no seat neighbour is way worth it on longer journeys.

Avoiding the usual toilet paper and paper towel answers, Bluetooth speakers.

Decent sounding ones can be had dirt cheap, but I've found that ones made by power tool brands tend to last longer and be more reliable when abused. I'm more than happy to pay double price if it will last me 4 times as long before it fails on me. I haven't had my current one very long, but the last one lasted almost 6 years of genuine abuse before it died after falling into a vat of used motor oil. The usual life span for bluetooth speakers is about 6 months (general abuse) to a year or two (battery failure). I'm a bit rough on my kit.

The reverse: I pay more for a worse experience haha. Illegal weed is cheaper and more convenient, they deliver to the door 24/7. But I'd rather not contribute too much to that economy, despite the legal industry having a worse experience.

Probably power banks. I pretty much only buy Anker these days because I've had too many cheap/no-name ones just fail, turn into spicy pillows, flat-out lie about the capacity, and/or, in one case, actually catch on fire.

One of my Anker power banks was recalled, and they notified me as well as had the replacement to me within 2 days. And the replacement model was actually nicer than the one I had.

I guess anything, really, that is part of my everyday carry and has a potential to burst into flames is grounds for paying the "premium" price where there's good quality control and product support.

If you're paying for it then clearly the quality/experience is worth it to you, no?

High quality Greek yogurt. The flavor and texture is very much noticeable.

I’m starting to realize high quality organic coffee is a thing too.

I stopped going to the theater unless what I want to see is on IMAX. The screen is bigger, the seats are comfortable etc etc. Everything else I can watch at home.

screens.

i used to buy cheap monitors, tvs, phones. but now I'd rather pay way more because it's so much nicer to look at and easier on my eyes. everything i buy now is high end. i don't care about the specs, but i care about how nice and relaxing the image quality is.

a $600 monitor isn't functionally better than a $150 one, but man it's so much easier to look at.

Frozen custard over regular ice cream. I’m semi lactose intolerant and for some reason I can tolerate Andy’s Frozen Custard Concrete over a DQ Blizzard. The former just makes me gassy and have thunderous farts, but the latter gives me straight up diarrhea.

Nothing. If I'm paying for it, it's worth it. Convenience, quality, durability, whatever the reason I paid a high price for something, it's worth the price. If it isn't, I don't buy it. There are things that I buy which are more expensive than other options, sure, but that expense is justified. I paid over $1000 for a washing machine, because it will last longer than the string of cheaper machines I would buy instead, which would add up to more than what I paid; not to mention the value of my time and energy in dealing with replacing a broken one.

I choose a 500€ phone with the stats of a 100€ china phone for repairability and longlivety, also put a lineage based android on it.
Still have it after 5 years and getting security updates for a long enough time that it could hold out longer than 500€ in china phones.
Still havent had a reason to fix it, maybe open to let the water out but nothing else.
(Its fairphone but i consider a shiftphone as my next some time in the future)

I think your question is a bit contradicting. Most people would agree that when something is not worth it, you dont/shouldnt pay for it. Its the principle capitalism uses to maximise profit. What I guess you mean is what are things that we pay more for instead of using cheap alternatives? If so, then my answer is basically everything that I dont buy second hand.

Food for better quality, taste and climate footprint (Bio quality).
Fruit juice, there is an insane difference in taste.
Electronics for usability, longevity (less trash) and of course quality.
Furniture for longevity, reciclability.
Tooth paste, creams, medicine, anything that goes inside my body for obvious reasons. Important to note that some stuff (esp. medicine) is exactly the same just 10 times more expensive because of brand names. In that case I dont bother.

Recent examples:

• Fairphone (totally worth it when considering I can just replace parts instead of buying a whole new phone every 4 or so years, will easily last me the promised 8 years of promised software updates and probably longer)\
• Washing machine and dryer from miele for 1000€ each. They feel so high quality, pleasant to use and will probably last 30 years.

IEMs. Or speakers in general. I previously bought the cheapest cheapo crap and didn’t give much thought past “mmm bass go brrrr.” Then I spent a little extra on a nice set and sat for hours re-listening to albums just gobsmacked by the clarity alone. Lots of snake oil in the industry though.

Meat, stuff for sleep, cheese

It sounds to me, from the answers, that period are spending more for all the things they are listing because they are worth it to them. That they are answering no differently then if the question was "what's worth spending significantly more on"? (That's how "worth" actually works, so I'm not sure how one would answer this question accurately.)