I suggest you watch some of the workbenches of the week on the AmpHour podcast for a taster.
Dave, a tight-ass that he is, only gets in stuff that he can justify buying to himself (amortisation, utilisation etc). However, his tight-ass-nes is slightly overwhelmed by a weakness he has for DMMs.
About the wife thing, nobody should force you not to buy something with the money that you make. Right or wrong is a different issue. Instead, they should be grateful that your dream is not a collection of Italian sports cars. But engineers make shit loads of money and can afford the parents in law, the wife, the sports car and a $40k MSO. Right?
At Intel a made-to-order Tek logic analyser costs $800k...and they had two of those...in a primarily 'office' site. Cost is relative.
Dave, I want a piece from those millions to cover the MSO bit above.