Kind of like my tool strategy back when I was a homeowner: the first time I need something, buy the cheapo Harbor Freight version; if I need it a second time, then I can upgrade to the better tool if necessary. Not only did I save on tool costs for what often turned out to be one-off jobs, but I also had a better idea of what I was looking for in a quality tool for the (relatively few) recurring jobs. (And half the time the HF tool did just fine!)
Boy howdy - that right there! I can't tell you how many times I've seen the dubious advice, "You should buy the highest quality you can afford--that way you won't have to replace it!" There is a link between quality and longevity, but the link between price and quality is much more tenuous. More often than not, the cheap thing is perfectly good enough.
For example, I cook a lot, and it's been 18 years since I lived in my parents' home. When I left home, I took a bunch of basic cooking supplies with me that they either had duplicates of or didn't really need -- a big pot, some small pots, and, most notably, a beat-to-hell potato masher that had maybe belonged to my grandmother. They were not particularly high quality. In fact, I took the crappiest stuff from my parents house because it wasn't like they were going to let me take all their nice stuff! Well, guess what?
I still have all of them and they work fine. They're a little worse for the wear, but definitely do not need to be replaced any time soon. And the potato masher is still mashing.
Also, even after the cheapo version wears out, you don't necessarily need to upgrade. We got a cheapo salad spinner as a wedding gift 11 years ago. It spun a lot of salad. It eventually died, mostly because both my husband and I admitted to taking our frustration out it once or twice. But, do we need a higher quality salad spinner? No! I'm more than happy to get another cheapo one that will last another 10 years and probably longer if we take better care of it.
So I would tweak
@dcheesi 's very solid advice as follows: "The first time I need something, buy the cheapo Harbor Freight version;
if I need it a second time if I still need it after the cheapo version has been fully worn out, then I can upgrade to the better tool if necessary."