A water filter: Go to a store and ask to try samples of water from your city through each of the types of filters. See which you like the taste of better; if any. Consider costs vs long term tastyness of water. It really depends on your city and the water quality. Some places have terrible tasting water; some don't. I have a reverse osmosis system.
Quantified self tracking devices. Basis seems coolest right now. RescueTime is valuable too...
A good showerhead.
A Musical instrument to play around on.
A sketch drawing pad; just in case - easier to have it than the want it when you don't have it.
Pets! (I think they improve happiness but I don't remember where I got that information from)
Garden plants - Lemon tree, herbs. Other fruity delicious things...
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.