This is really the way to go. Most "cheap" tools will offer the same or similar performance to the name brand ones or like you mentioned you'll splurge on a nice one and realize you only need it for one or three jobs and the generic brand would have sufficed. I've been buying harbor freight tools for years I can think on one hand the amount of tools that have broken and it's usually not because they weren't up to par for the right job but because I did a hackjob and macgyvered them for something they were never meant for.