I use that strategy for almost everything. I'll buy a $20 tool that's good enough to do one or two jobs rather than buying a $100 tool that I may not need or may not be quite what I need. If I wind up using it enough that I wear it out, by then I should have a much better idea what to look for when shopping for a better replacement.
So in the end I've spent $120 and when I spend that last $100 I get what I really want and I know that I'll use it enough to justify the expense. Otherwise I might buy a lot of $100 things and only get $10 use out of many of them, and even the thing I want I may wind up buying a second $100 thing because the first wasn't really what I wanted.
I think it's a good strategy.
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Work: the 8 hours that separates bike rides.