General information only. This guide offers a budgeting estimate, not financial advice or a recommendation to buy or keep an item.
The formula
Cost per use is (purchase price + care + repairs − resale value) ÷ number of uses. A $300 item with $60 of care, $40 of resale value, and 80 uses costs about $4 per use.
The difficult input
The number of future uses is usually an estimate. It helps to run a low, middle, and high-use case instead of relying on one optimistic guess. Resale value is uncertain too.
What the number cannot decide
A low cost per use does not make a purchase affordable or necessary. Comfort, quality, waste, storage, and the value of keeping cash are separate questions. The cheapest item per use is not automatically the best choice.
Try your numbers
The Cost Per Use calculator shows how the estimate changes with use, care costs, and resale value.