I'm guilty of buying some stuff that I don't "need" because I can afford it now and couldn't before.

I hadn't hunted in years and didn't even have my own rifle. All the guns I used as a kid actually belonged to my dad. This year I bought a Nikon Monarch 1200yd Rangefinder, Nikon Monarch 10x42 Binoculars, Browning A-Bolt Stainless Stalker in 7mm Rem Mag with a Nikon Monarch 4-12x scope, and several other goodies. I'm sure I could have bought a Remington 710 or whatever that $300 throwaway rifle is labeled now and I already had some $50 Bushnell binoculars and that would have probably done the job, but I sure enjoyed the nicer equipment.

Of course I spent less than $4,000 for all of that even including my non-resident hunting licenses for Montana and the gas for the trip up there and back.

Most of the equipment I bought this year is good enough quality that I will be using it 20 years from now and I think sometimes it is actually cheaper in the long run to buy quality equipment up front than it is to buy cheap and have to replace it several times.

That's my 2 cents. Nathan