My #1. Learn to fix things, not just buy new. My 25yr old CD Changer died, looked up price for comparable...$1500. Took old one apart and found the drive "belt", which was a glorified rubber band was broken. Looked it up online and found the part was $1.00. Bought 4. Replaced the broken one. Machine worked 5 minutes. Took it apart again and found another rubber band drive belt off it's pulley. Replaced it with one of the new ones. That was 2 years ago. Total savings for a total of 30 minutes work...$1500.
