Asked about a purchase that made them happier, people pick experiences over things roughly two to one, and the gap held in the smaller lab studies too. Evidence: decent
Why: you get used to a thing; it just sits there. An experience is over before you can get used to it, it gets better in the retelling, and it usually came with people. That last part does most of the work.
Most of the evidence is what people say, not what they lived. Still the safest bet with a spare few hundred.
Same theme: Money, spent right
Money, spent right
Buy back an hour
Pay someone to do the one weekly job you dread. Cleaning, ironing, the lawn, the tax return. Use the hour on a person.
no timeEvidence: decent
Money, spent right
Count the commute in the salary
Comparing two jobs, or two houses: price the commute. An extra hour a day is five hours a week, most of a working day gone.
no timeEvidence: decent
Money, spent right
Spend a little on someone else
Once a month, a small amount you'd have spent on yourself goes on someone else. Lunch, a gift, a cause you'd back.
no timeEvidence: worth trying