This is a decent strategy and well-trotted in every buy-once thread but I'll offer my advice as someone who has been on this tool purchasing train for a few dec

This is a decent strategy and well-trotted in every buy-once thread but I'll offer my advice as someone who has been on this tool purchasing train for a few decades now. If you know the precision you require you can buy the tool you actually need. As an example if you are doing some leveling work over a 20ft by 20ft area you can figure out how well it can be done with an 8ft water level including disaster scenarios where you fuck it up and then you can consider a self-leveling laser and weight up your choices properly. Following the advice to get the cheapest tool will likely lead you into disaster scenarios because you end up with the entirely wrong class of tool.