I feel silly about this one but...buy a water bottle you actually like and you will stay more hydrated and thus more productive. It felt weird to me to spend >$20 on a water bottle but it has totally been worth it.
Throw out all your socks and buy 15+ pairs of one style.
Buy clothes that fit (especially shoes).
Get a full spectrum light bulb for your workspace.
The Standesk: a standing desk for $22 http://iamnotaprogrammer.com/Ikea-Standing-desk-for-22-dollars.html
This is the top reviewed anti-fatigue mat on the wirecutter, they had multiple people test many different mats: http://www.amazon.com/CumulusPRO-Professional-Anti-Fatigue-Comfort-20-inch/dp/B007PQXJUA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1420615284&sr=8-1&keywords=cumuluspro
Kitchen knives were brought up several times. This knife won a blind competition against much more expensive competition: Victorinox chef's knife. I have one. http://www.amazon.com/Victorinox-Fibrox-8-Inch-47520-5-2063-20/dp/B000638D32/ref=sr_1_2?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1420615402&sr=1-2&keywords=chef+knife
What can I purchase with $100 that will be the best thing I can buy to make my life better?
I've decided to budget some regular money to improving my life each month. I'd like to start with low hanging fruit for obvious reasons - but when I sat down to think of improvements, I found myself thinking of the same old things I'd already been planning to do anyway... and I'd like out of that rut.
Constraints/more info:
Background:
This is a question I recently posed to my local Less Wrong group and we came up with a few good ideas, so I thought I'd share the discussion with the wider community and see what we can come up with. I'll add the list we came up with later on in the comments...
It'd be great to have a repository of low-hanging fruit for things that can be solved with (relatively affordable) amounts of money. I'd personally like to go through the list - look at candidates that sound like they'd be really useful to me and then make a prioritised list of what to work on first.