Mosvalve
I am happy to say I haven't bought a plugin in quite some time now because I'm putting my cash into outboard gear. I will admit though that if I didn't already have the SSL 4000 bundle I would have sprung for it at the price it is now. Would be crazy to pass that up.
Same here.
I did buy XPand 2 for $1 a few weeks ago - that was one of the 2 or 3 plug-ins that I bought since I bought my new studio computer 2 years ago. And those few plug-ins that I did buy were ones that I'd been wanting in my toolbox for ages. In fact, even after two years, I have dozens of plug-ins I never even bothered to install on the new machine.
And even then, there are still many plug-ins which I only installed because they were part of a larger collection, like Waves and IK. I never use them. I stick to Logic's native plugs in 95% of the cases. But there are still a few 3rd party must, like Waves CLA-2A and 3A and L1. No doubt I could achieve the same thing with Logic's own, but I'm lazy and those just make my life so much easier.
The music money went on hardware, room treatment, guitars and amps, and I firmly believe that spending even just $150 on a new pick-up or a dynamic mic makes more difference than spending $1500 on plug-ins - no matter how awesome the plug-ins. The less I have to count on software to get
that sound, the better.
Staying away from this forum and only paying occasional visits helps, too. :P