[jasonkester]

I tend to lean toward spending on Experiences rather than Possessions. That said, there are certain classes of Possession that can really make your life better if you buy the best.

Always buy the best:

- Kitchen Knives

- Development tools

- Toilet Paper

All the above can be skimped on, but they'll make you unhappy. I've spent enough of my life sawing onions in half with a squirrelly 99 cent Ginsu clone, trying to get Eclipse to autocomplete anything at all and letting roommates bring home a 60 pack of Welfare Brand Flims-E-Paper. Now that I've got two dimes to rub together, all that stuff is a thing of the past.

[m3mnoch]

no. way.

seriously. i would have answered this question, with those same three things in that SAME ORDER! (LOVE my henckels!)

no really. have you been talking to my wife?

m3mnoch.

[jasonkester]

For extra SamePerson credit, my knives are also Henckels.

[akgerber]

I get the impression that there are a lot of unnecessarily expensive kitchen knives out there. Professional cooks spend all day using a knife & most of them use some knife that cost maybe $25 at the restaurant supply store.

[modoc]

My brother-in-law is a chef and he, and almost all of his chef/sous chef friends all have pretty impressive knife collections they bring with them to the job each day. Primarily Japanese knives, purchased one at a time as they save up the money.

While prep cooks will use stock kitchen knives, most chefs will use their own tools, which tend to be pretty expensive.

[stewiecat]

Our cook in college would use the most beat up cheap aluminum pots, pans, and roasters but he insisted on bringing his metal briefcase of knives with him to work every day.

[kyleslattery]

The top rated chef's knife by Cook's Illustrated is only about $30 (and it's awesome): http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-47520-Fibrox-8-Inch-Chefs/d...

[kingnothing]

You only need two knives -- a chef's knife and a paring knife. Anything beyond that may be useful occasionally, but 99% of your time should be spent with those two staples.

[vially]

What do you use now instead of Eclipse?

[jasonkester]

VS.NET + ReSharper