Generally agreed, but buying things with intent to use in a group activity is fine.
The copies of Baldur's Gate 3 bought for my friends and I has been money well spent, as are my friends Player's Handbooks that he keeps around so we can all play D&D.
Further, if you want to do anything creative, you often have to spend at least a little money.
For example, inspired by a 3D printed Mini-TV running on a Raspberry Pi that played Simpsons episodes, a friend and I started an art project.
We found a 2007 flat screen Standard Definition television for free and stripped the original crappy plastic case.
No remote and most of the buttons didn't work so we had to spend $10 on a universal remote.
My friend, a woodworker, built a new wooden cabinet for the television.
I loaded every episode of Dr. Katz Professional Therapist and Home Movies onto an SD card with the Pi OS with a small script that plays a randomized playlist of every file in VLC when the PC starts. (Not quite as elegant as the Simpsons TV, but worked for what we were going for)
Now he has a cozy wooden television mounted in his woodshop and anytime he wants to, he can turn it on to find his favorite classic TV shows playing.
The only parts paid for were $10 for the remote and he already had the Pi sitting around, he had gotten it with intent to make an art project, but he didn't know what. Technically he spent about $80 on the Pi and case.
Anyway, that project was a whole lot of fun and I got to spend a lot of good time with my friend planning and executing it.
