things i still have and use regularly:

• Bedside lamp from Ikea, 2002, $5.
• Sony MDR-D33 headphones, 1998, $100.
• The Concise Oxford French Dictionary, $20, 1987. (though i still have my original copy and use it, despite the embarassingly girlish doodles in it from the fourth grade, i did worry that i was going to wear it out, so i bought a second copy ca. 1999 or so, so i suppose you could argue it’s more than $20. but this one’s still good enough to use!)
• Texas Instruments TI-32 Solar scientific calculator, $15, 1991.
• red Navy peacoat, 2003, $40, 100% awesome.
• pack of 200 lightweight plastic sheet protectors, 2000, $10, not all used up until 2009.