I think it was the Vita which I picked up late 2012, it could have been the PS3 Super Slim but I don't think I got that till around the time the PS4 came out or even after the PS4 was out.

I think the 3DS might have been bought for me... I can't really recall exactly when I got it or even remember using it for the first time. I think I got it either late 2011 or early 2012.

I have owned every console from PS/XB/Nin that has come out while I've been alive, so the Vita being the first one I spent my own money on was just down to timing of when I was becoming an adult lol.

The first console I ever acquired on my own was a used SNES plus several games. This rich kid offered it to me in exchange for some skateboard components. I told him he was crazy but he said his parents would buy him another one if he wanted it. I was kind of over videogames, though--I played it but I didn't love it like I had the NES. That kind of changed when I stumbled over a used copy of FF6. I'd played the original Final Fantasy on NES so I bought it. It was incredible and changed gaming for me.

That resulted in me buying the original PlayStation when it was released, solely because of FF7. Prior to that I had been a Nintendo fan but the FF7 TV ad blew me away. I'll never forget seeing the "big guns" ad in a magazine, either.

A PS1, mainly because I really, really wanted to play Final Fantasy 7, and my best friend already had an N64 so I wasn't in a rush to get one of my own. I did get that N64 several months later, though. If it wasn't for Final Fantasy, I would likely have completely ignored PlayStation back in the day.

SNES, back in 1991. Yeah, I'm old, and was 15 at the time, working at a video rental. I had a NES Brazilian 'rip off' called Phantom System, first video game I ever had that my mom gave me, had been impressed by Genesis at a point, but once I saw F-Zero running, I had to have THAT. Like, not even arcades (the benchmark for great graphics during that age) had anything that looked like F-Zero back in the day, and I simply had to have the console. And I played the heck out of it lol.

I had a similar arrangement with my best friend at the time as well! But I was to one who got the 64, since I was older and working, so I could afford a few games in carts.

NES

because it was basically the best/only real option out there at the time.

Yeah me too, my best friend had a PS1 and I had an N64, so we each got to play both; I'd visit him to play Croc, Crash, and Spyro, he'd visit me to play Banjo Kazooie and Lylat Wars.

Two of my friends and me also bought a PS1 and a N64 and switched them around. Eventually both consoles stayed with me... so it was a good deal.

Also my friends insisted to mod the PS1 so it could play copied discs... we never bought a PS1 game, just rented them from the video store. But we bought N64 modules instead. 

First, I bought with money for graduating high school (purposes of this thread of money that wasn't just given for a generic birthday or the console gifted to me) was Wii U. It was on a good discount at the store, plus the promo that Nintendo ran to get a free digital game after registering Mario Kart 8. I chose the console for Mario Kart 8, Super Mario 3D World, and the upcoming Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. I knew other games were coming too, but I couldn't have known how badly Wii U would flop. I thought the whammy of Mario Kart and Smash plus future titles would bring it to GameCube unit totals, at the very least. Remember The Legend of Zelda was still years out, but I don't think most people thought it would be a repeat of Twilight Princess in the sense that it is a crossgen game.
The first I bought with money from a job was Switch. I was a Nintendo guy in terms of platforms at this point, so that's why I didn't get a PlayStation or Xbox between when I got Wii U in Summer 2014 and Switch in Summer 2017. I got Switch for upcoming games like Super Mario Odyssey and to play Breath of the Wild with a bit of better performance.
Both purchases I do not regret at all. Super Smash Bros. for Wii U is the most social Smash game experience I ever had. I played it with a lot of people at home, at college, and at a convention. By time Ultimate came out, those circumstances changed. I also am glad I got Wii U a long time before the 2023 eShop shutdown and even before Switch launched. If you don't mod, a Wii U is virtually worthless to buy at its price nowadays outside of collecting. 100 plus dollars for the console is steep to pay just to play Nintendo Land, the Zelda HD versions, and the other few games trapped on there.
And Switch? A legendary library. Well, it's full of garbage but I'm obviously talking about the good to amazing games.

SNES, I bought it when Streetfighter2 came out.

My parents bought me and my brother earlier consoles, but at the time of the SNES I had a little job next to school and saved up. I got to know Streetfighter2 in the arcades before and was hooked. The game coming to a home console was a dream come true. I simply had to spend all my savings on it.