25 people share the most interesting ways in which they have used $10 leaving everyone amused

For some, $10 might seem like a small amount, but it can change lives. A person on Reddit, u/GeekGuruji asked, "What's the best $10 you've spent, and what did it get you?" People shared the most interesting answers, ranging from winning the lottery to helping those in need. The answers reveal that people used their $10 in incredibly efficient ways, including going on dates that led to marriage. Some even shared cherished memories from childhood where they used the money to buy what they desired.

That’s not all. Some people even went on vacations with $10, which turned out to be the best trips of their lives. Many also used it to donate to others, significantly impacting their lives. However, one of the best uses of $10 has to be by a person who used $10 to buy food for a dying friend. Each story that people shared on this post is delightful and nostalgic. So check out the 25 responses that people gave when asked what's the best $10 ever spent. It would leave you smiling and wanting to have similar experiences.

1. Tickets to Hawaii

"Bought a window seat on my way to Hawaii for $10. At the time there were two active volcanoes erupting and my flight was during the middle of the night. I got to see both from the sky with an awesome view for about 15 minutes." "Just replied to it, unfortunately, I only took this pic. The other volcano was toward the bottom and that was as close as I got to the Caldera from the one at the top." -u/itookyourjob.

2. Won a lottery 

"$10 lotto scratcher on Christmas Eve and won 200 bucks. I wanna say they took like $6k in taxes lol it was like 15 years ago I don’t remember specifically" - u/jmdayoh. "I once won $20k on a $2 scratcher." - u/givebusterahand. "$10K on a $5 scratcher. Paid for my wedding." - u/lorgskyegon." $10 admission to the nightclub club I met my wife at." - u/TheArts. "Bought a random lottery ticket on a whim, didn't win millions, but it was enough to pay off my student loan. Best $10 investment in my life." - u/Middle_Quit_8765.

3. A life-changing trip

"I went to Portugal and bought pasteis de nata; they’re a traditional Portuguese tart. They’re hard to make. They were the most magical thing my palette has ever eaten. Before, I was a passive baker. The experience made me deeply passionate about baking and the hobby and passion for sharing food completely turned my life around. I am no longer suicidal, I ended a decade long run of shit relationships, sought therapy, met the love of my life. And I bake those tarts once a month still and they still bring me the same level of joy. It’s a little abstract but i consider it my best investment I’ve ever made." - u/alyseac30.

4. Adopted a pet

"10$ adoption fee, got a beautiful dog" - u/Exotic-Tell3539. "£10 got me my rabbit; 10 years later, she’s still my sweet baby." - u/SilverGirlSails. I got my kitty for $10. Well, technically kitty was free since I rescued him. But the local clinic did his shots, microchip, and neuter for $10. Been 5 years and he’s still my good boy." -u/Moldy_slug. "The best $10 I ever spent was on cat food for a stray." - u/Jell69. "The few minutes you spend seeing strays cats and dogs eating the food that you bought them ranks first in my list of things to live for." - u/plutostick.

5. Got food for a dying friend

"I bought food for my dying friend, he was grateful to me for the rest of his life (he died of cancer a year ago)." - u/tomatotoen. "I was thinking similar honestly. My mom had cancer, and she was hospitalized. She couldn't stand hospital food, and I knew she specifically loved Campbell's soup. I went and bought like $20 worth of Campbell's soup to take to her. She passed like three days later, and I'd like to imagine in my heart that the last meal she ate was one of those cans of Campbell's soup." - u/matrix_man.

6. Long-term investment

"3 month membership to match.com. Met my husband within a week. Been married almost 20 years." - u/hellibel36. "Ooh yes! My husband and I met on match.com. We both had free accounts, which allows you to send one free message. We messaged each other, but then realized we couldn't continue to speak unless one of us bought a membership. While I contemplated it, he jumped on and paid the $10 so he could message and ask for my number. We met up and had a 9 hour first date, moved in together after 3 weeks and were pregnant with our first child 3 months later. We have been together 14 years and have 4 sons. $10 well spent!" -u/yer-mummy.

7. Bought a small TV

"$10 small TV with a built in VCR at a garage sale. Yes a VCR. I still have all of my VHS tapes (a little over 100). I got that tv in 2010 and it still works. As dumb as it sounds, it saved me in high school. Shit got bad at home so often so I would put in a nostalgic Disney movie, play the Sims 2, and it was like I created a sanctuary for myself. As an adult I still use it to calm my nerves while I play the Sims 4." - u/thats-rough-buddy. "Yeah, Scooby-Doo is my happy place. Happy endings were a must when my parents were fighting every night." - u/AccountantLeast1588.

8. Donation for a good cause

"I was in 8th grade in 2014, and a schoolmate's house was burned down. There was a donation drive that goes around per classroom, and I donated an amount equivalent to $10 (in our currency) in secret. Back from where I was, it was considered a big deal since $10 was huge especially for an 8th grader." - u/DBKhryzl. "I gave a boy $10 , he promised to pay it back. Two years later we are happily married." - u/Idelia_friddle.  I tipped a young man who did some work on my house, and his smile was worth every penny. (Actually I may have tipped him twenty bucks, it’s been a while.)" - u/mcdulph.

9. Bought a book

"The best $10 I ever spent was on a used book from a little thrift store. It was this old, beat-up copy of 'To Kill A Mocking Bird.' I ended up getting so lost in it, reading it in one sitting. It was like finding a hidden treasure. Plus, now whenever i see it on my shelf, it reminds me of that cozy afternoon." - u/oenofedinc. "Actually recently on December 22, 2023 at Home Depot I bought my wife a $9.99 cactus on clearance sale. Thing is huge, 24"tall. Spikes and a tuft of green grass coming out. She is so happy, and still assumes it is $200." - u/mechmind.

10. Lottery ticket

"Needed change to tip the valet at a wedding reception. Ran to the corner store bought a $5 lotto ticket just to get change and tip the valet $5 bucks. Checked the numbers a day or two later and hit for $600 bucks. Learned at that minute that $600 is the limit that you can get straight cash from the vendor." - u/Piotr-Rasputin. "I've spent it on a lottery ticket and it was the best $10 purchased I had, I won $100 bucks from that ticket." - u/myriamasiatinaa. 

11. Sweet luck

"I worked in a Sears warehouse for a while in college. A co-worker and I found 6 old ellipticals that were on clearance for $3 apiece. We asked a manager if that was real and if we could buy them. He told us that he didn't care and would be happy to have the extra space. We both bought 3 and I sold mine for a little over $1,000 all together. I still think about that sweet luck all the time." - u/rsl_sitid. 

12. A dog for life

"My dog! 2019 weekend before Christmas the local shelter had a empty the shelter weekend. I adopted a four y/o 50lb mutt for $10. She has been every thing you would want in a dog and more. Splits time between my kids, playful when it’s time, chills when you are sick. Everyone who has ever met my dog has said they watch her if you needed someone to watch her." - u/iLeefull. 

13. Kind deed

"There was a homeless guy who was always asking for money outside the train I took to work. I asked him what he really needed, and he said he just wanted dry socks. I went to a store near by and grabbed tube socks, got a boat load for $10 somehow ike 16 pairs. I gave them to him and he was really happy. This was about 15 years ago and I saw him on the street a couple months back, still homeless and begging, and he pointed at me and smiled." - u/DeLaRey.

14. Good buy

"Went to a garage sale down the street from me with my kid, I see a Herman Miller Aeron in mint condition. I start figuring numbers, around $200 is a number I'm comfortable paying for it... "10 bucks!" I did everything my power not to look like a deer in headlights. I rolled that chair away so fast. Now we refer to my kid's sitting on the cloud perfection as the $10 chair.  Get yourselves a Herman Miller Aeron, we have three in this house, My oldest being from 1998 I bought for $800, and still rocking, insane value." - u/JerseyRepresentin.

15. Donation to a youth center

"I donated $10 to a youth center party to be able to sit and watch the superbowl at an otherwise full bar. Was automatically entered into a raffle, ended up winning a free flight to Scotland." - u/Enorme_formica. It wasn’t $10 but I lost my job at the same time CompUsa went out of business, and I bought cartloads worth of crap for pennies on the dollar dollar, most 90% off and it helped me gap till my next job, probably cleared $8000 as I went to all four in my area. Tampa and Orlando, first one in on last day. It was stressful, but fun, like a pirate treasure." - u/Justanobserver.

16. Farm auction

"Spent $10 at a farm auction on two random foreign coins. Other bidders were running up the prices on most of the older American coins so I could really only afford five bucks a pop. Took those coins home and was pretty happy with my purchase, but I got even happier when my wife at the time pointed out one of them was an ounce of platinum. I used that money from the Platinum to buy her a beautiful ring she had been wanting for quite a while. Pretty good score for 10 bucks." - u/Zwestern.

17. A thoughtful gift 

"I sent an Amazon gift card to that person who helped me online anonymously via username in forum when I was trying to learn something. He genuinely helped me over and over again." - u/The-Liv.  "Homeless VET on a corner selling braided rope keychain, taking donations. Had a tenner. Went back the next day and got two more for my other vehicles (I separate vehicle keys)." - u/ok_Chocolate3253.

18. Website domain

"I bought a website domain and host for 1 year before I was working and was still in HS. It was $9.24 and I wanted my dad to buy it for me for Christmas with the few bucks in cash I had saved. He wouldn’t because of buying things online at the time was 50/50 chance to be a scam, so I bought a visa prepaid gift card with cash and did it myself. It was back in about 2003-2004. It helped me get my feet wet in programming and web design, and also business. I created a free upload site for content for MySpace back when you could only have 8 photos in your profile and gave people generated HTML code to put the content on their profile. At one point I had over 1 million unique hits for content in a month. After the first year, to keep paying for it I referred people to the web host and the reward was account credits, so I was able to maintain a 'free' account for years this way.
Fast forward and I made a career out of this. It was a very fun time in my life." - u/Macnamera.

19. Thrift shopping

"Bought a denim jacket that had a quilted lining from a local discount store for a 10 spot.  I wore that for 15 years until my senior cat with bladder issues unloaded on it and I could never get the urine smell out.  Can't complain,  I got more than my money's worth out of that baby.  RIP,  jacket!" - u/marvelette2172. "I wanted a vintage looking picture frame, so I bought one at a car boot sale with a painting in it. I thought it looked fancy, so I had it appraised - got €3'000 for it." - u/SadlyNotDannyDeVito. 

20. Hot Cheetos for everyone

"When I was a kid having $10 to spend for snacks/lunch at the 'red cart' made you so cool. My dad gave me a $10 bill as that's all he had on him and lunch was only $1.75 so I was like Oprah 'and you get hot Cheetos, and you get hot Cheetos, everyone get hot cheetos!'.
Thankfully he didn't bother to ask for his change that evening." - u/cristabelita.

21. Google home-mini

"I bought a pre-owned but perfect condition Google home mini for $10. I keep it in the kitchen so I can listen to music/podcasts while I cook/do dishes without needing to blast my Bluetooth speaker in the living room or my record player. It helps to yell at it to skip songs or adjust volume or set a timer too especially if that would otherwise require me stopping my task to do so. Love that little thing." - u/sparkly_reader. "A thermos. I'm still using it 15 years later. I carry it with me everyday to work." - u/The-Entire_USSR.

22. Good old days

"An amazing breakfast in Costa Rica with my best friends. The restaurant was on a massive cliff edge overlooking the ocean on a perfect morning. That was 11 years ago and I still think about that morning quite often. I had enough left over to buy a Heineken on the beach that afternoon! It was a spectacular day with the best company." - u/jampapi. "Movie ticket and Georgie Pie small combo ($3 for a steak mince and cheese pie, fries and a drink). As a teenager, it was a great way to spend your Saturday afternoon after playing a morning Rugby game." - u/Amkha.

23. Record collection

"I bought someone’s entire record collection in 2001 for $10. I picked out a few at a market, and the guy said I could have them all for $10. This was a time where everyone was offloading their vinyl, and there was zero market for it. I just loved music, and vinyl especially, even though they were before my time. As his collection was in pristine condition, the collection round be worth around $3,000 today. That’s a conservative estimate." - u/crossfitvision. 

24. Movie date

"It got me married! I took her to a movie on our first date 45 years ago this week. We got married 2 years later, We'll have our 43 anniversary in two weeks. Best use of $10.00 I've ever made, (may have been 12 or 13 dollars with snacks)." - u/LW-M. "I matched with a guy on bumble, but I didn't send the first message, so 24 hours later the chat automatically disconnected. A couple hours later we match on Grindr, and he says, 'I guess we're matching on everything huh?' He was cute and I wanted to make a good impression, so I paid a couple bucks for bumble premium, so I could reopen the chat and send him a message. May 2nd was the 2 year anniversary of when we started dating." - u/Mods_sugg.

25. Programming course

"My first programming course, quite a few years ago. Set me on a path to a better career, better money, a healthier lifestyle, and mental health. I could not have spent any money any better than that." - u/muffinnosehair. "Connects on Upwork. First gig I applied to with them was a hit, and it paid more than double that per hour - converted to my local currency, it was damn good money at the end of the month. I know people with normal jobs making way less while working more. I'm not going to say Upwork is a place to make a career, but it's super handy if you know how to find good clients there while also working on whatever your main thing is." -u/Leonalfr.