I’m not a hobbbyist (but do some things outside of work), and day to day use software and equipment costing, well a lot.
Now and again I make the odd stripboard and some years back came across VeeCAD, sure it takes a little while to make a schematic (TinyCAD) and then create the board, but in a stroke my stripboards shrank by half in size.  To me the most satisfying thing was doing “proper” design on stripboard – really compact – and error free – designs became possible.
It cost me $26.26 and is without a doubt given me more fun per $ than any other purchase in my career.
I am not related to VeeCAD in any way, but when people get things right (e.g. good support, are you listening Altium?) it deserves to be mentioned!
I often use VeeCAD to show work experience people etc how a proper design flow works.
Any thoughts / other users on here?