Only The Best for Me

When I was building a garage for my $7,000 house in Oregon, I had a friend help me. 

Click f/ Oregon House 

We both went to the lumber yard and I was being very concerned about the quality of the stuff that was going to be used for my garage.

He asked, "Do you want to use 50 year wood for a project that is likely to last less than 10 years?"

We settled on only what was necessary to get the structure up - mostly the cheapest materials. I realized that there was no rationale in using the best/most expensive components for a $7,000 investment?"

We moved 2 months later, rented it for 3 months, sold the whole shebang 6 months later, and entire lot was leveled in less than a year by the next-door utility company.

I know we anyways want the best - but how often is it really necessary (especially for this 70 year old)?