I get on my son about it pretty regularly, but one of the few lessons I've successfully drilled into my own head is to take care of my future self. We'll save the discussion of finances for a later date, but I have developed a very stable routine of replenishing my supplies long before they are exhausted.
Usually this is as simple as making sure I have changes of clothes at my desk for when I ride my bike to work. About once a week I take the dirties home and bring in 3 or 4 fresh shirts, underpants, socks, and whatever else the weather dictates. That way I don't have to carry all that stuff both ways on my daily commute. I do the same with snacks for exactly the same reason.
Back over the summer, I bought a set of Reynolds tubeless wheels from a big box retailer, and they just didn't work. Couldn't get them to set up on the bead for anything. They'd hold 40psi in the rim bed. I tried tubes. I tried clincher tires. I tried near-detonation levels of pressure: nothing worked. The rim bed was just barely too large. So I took 'em back. But I kept the tires I'd ordered for them, because they'd get used some day.
Maybe a week later I blew a rear tire on my existing tubeless wheels. NBD: sealant to the rescue! Except apparently not, because the cut was slightly larger than what the sealant would handle. After every ride, I'd be covered in sealant and I'd have to wash the bike.
I gave up and put on one of those fresh new tires and completely forgot about the other one.
Then 2 weeks ago I got a chance to do a fast outdoor ride. I took my trusty race bike and generally had an amazing time with no issues other than glorious speed. Put the bike back on the trainer afterward and thought nothing of it.
But on the next ride--a 50 miler--I heard a lot of tire-slippage whenever I put down power. I didn't realize it until the next day, but the tire was flat, and apparently had been for about 40 miles of the ride. Pumped it back up and rotated the cranks and found it: a 1/2 inch vertical gash on the sidewall of the same wheel that had flatted before. 1150 miles on the expensive tubeless tire. Frustrated, I tossed the TT bike on the trainer and banged out a less-than-pleasant 40 mile ride.
And then it hit me at 1 am: I had another tubeless tire! After 20 minutes of searching for it, I found it hanging right in front of my face, and without having to spend a single extra dollar or wait 2 days for shipping, I had my race bike back in top form for the next day's ride.
Taking care of future me. Thanks former me!
