Tools. I love tools. I love tools the way some people love shoes. Not to get off track, but what is the deal with shoes? How many pairs do you need? A black pair, a brown pair and a pair of sneakers. Slippers do not count, nor do flip-flops. And how do you spend $400 on a pair of shoes? I suppose that if you got a set of really nicely tooled boots in some fancy exotic leather you could spend a lot of money, but I cannot for the life of me understand spending huge money for some strappy Italian sandals that have a postage stamps' worth of leather.
For the At Home Mechanic, tools are a necessity. And you do not have to spend a fortune on tools, but you will need a few basics. A set of wrenches, a set of screwdrivers, a ratchet set and a hammer are a given. Your local car parts store or hardware store sell sets of tools that represent good value.
Eventually you will want to do some work to the underside of your car so that means a jack and jack stands. The jack that comes with your car is barely adequate to lift the car in an emergency; you will not want to use it on a regular basis in your garage. An inexpensive hydraulic can be bought for less than $30 at most hardware stores. And once the car is up in the air, you will want a set of jack stands for the car to rest on. Your life is too precious to gamble on a jack alone to keep the car in the air.
Perhaps the single most important tool you can own is a good quality Service Manual for the car you will be working on. There are varying degrees of Service Manual quality with the very best being the Factory Service Manual published by the car's manufacturer. But car manufacturers are not primarily in the publishing business so they stop making the Factory Service Manual available for sale a few years after that particular model has stopped being sold. So if the Factory Service Manual is not available directly from the manufacturer (and it does not turn up on eBay or Amazon) there are secondarily published Service Manual available through various publishers can be bought at most good book stores.
And finally you will want some clean up tools like rags and mechanic’s soap hand cleaner. Mechanic's soap is the generic name for a type of waterless cleanser that generally comes in a tub. A little dab of this stuff rubbed vigorously over your hands and then wiped off will get the majority of the grease off you hands.
But better than getting your hands dirty in the first place is to use gloves to protect your hands. Most car parts and hardware stores sell boxes of inexpensive latex gloves that form fit to your hands allowing flexibility and protection. And for less than $20 you can buy a set of Mechanic's Gloves that will protect your hands from cuts and scrapes.