How do I calculate cost per wear?

The honest version: purchase price grown at your market return over its life, minus resale, plus upkeep — divided by total realistic uses. A $2,800 coat worn 60 times a year for 8 years lands near $11 per wear honestly counted; the boutique's price-divided-by-wears version says $6 and forgets the rest — and at a fifth of those wears, the honest figure is $54.

What's a good cost per use?

Compare it to the alternative, not to a universal number: the rental price, the taxi fare, the café coffee. An espresso machine at $0.90 per cup beats the café; a $200-per-wear gown loses to rental unless the occasions are priceless — which is allowed, once it's admitted.

Does cost per wear justify expensive purchases?

Only when the denominator is honest. The formula rewards things genuinely used often and long — good boots, the everyday bag — and exposes aspirational purchases the moment realistic use is entered. It's a fine tool and a famous excuse; the difference is the honesty of one input.

Cost Per Use Calculator — Per Wear, Honestly

Your details

Currency symbol display only

The piece

Coat, bag, bike, camera, espresso machine — anything bought to be used.

Honest uses

/ yr

The realistic figure, not the aspirational one. Most wardrobes run on a fifth of the planned wears.

Years it will serve

years

Upkeep

Σ/ yr

Cleaning, service, storage, repairs.

Resale at the end optional

% of price

Return if invested instead assumption

% / yr

Everything is calculated in your browser as you type. Nothing you enter is sent or stored, and no account is needed.

Your result

Earning its keep.

$11 / use

the honest figure, capital cost included

The per-use ledger

Total uses over its life	—
Naive cost per use — the boutique's figure	—
With upkeep and resale	—
The honest figure, capital cost included	—
Uses per year needed to beat the rental / cheap alternative	—

Three honesty levels about use

If it's really used	Cost per use	vs the naive figure
—	—	—
—	—	—
—	—	—

What moves this result

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Worth checking

The formula's classic lie is the denominator. Track a season before believing 100 wears; the closet is full of thirty-dollar-per-wear items bought at three.

Quality changes the equation through years, not price alone — the buy-it-for-life case is real exactly when the life is real. A doubled price with tripled years is a bargain.

Cost per use prices utility; it cannot price joy. The dress worn twice to two weddings that mattered may be the best money on this whole page — just don't call it thrift.

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Common questions

How do I calculate cost per wear?: The honest version: purchase price grown at your market return over its life, minus resale, plus upkeep — divided by total realistic uses. A $2,800 coat worn 60 times a year for 8 years lands near $11 per wear honestly counted; the boutique's price-divided-by-wears version says $6 and forgets the rest — and at a fifth of those wears, the honest figure is $54.
What's a good cost per use?: Compare it to the alternative, not to a universal number: the rental price, the taxi fare, the café coffee. An espresso machine at $0.90 per cup beats the café; a $200-per-wear gown loses to rental unless the occasions are priceless — which is allowed, once it's admitted.
Does cost per wear justify expensive purchases?: Only when the denominator is honest. The formula rewards things genuinely used often and long — good boots, the everyday bag — and exposes aspirational purchases the moment realistic use is entered. It's a fine tool and a famous excuse; the difference is the honesty of one input.

How this is calculated

Everything below is calculated from your inputs. The market return is an assumption you control.

uses    = uses_per_year × years
honest  = (price × (1+r)^y − resale + upkeep_fv) / uses
naive   = price / uses

The gauge reads your realistic annual uses against the uses the price needs to justify a sensible per-use figure. The honest column future-values the price and each year's upkeep, because money in a coat also missed the market — that term is what the boutique's version of this formula always leaves out.

Limitations. Per-use arithmetic suits things bought to be used; heirlooms, gifts and pure pleasure purchases answer to a different desk. Rental comparisons vary by category and are yours to bring.