🤔 Is This Worth It?
Is this big purchase worth it?
A €1,200 purchase used twenty times a year for eight years costs €6.25 a use. The same €1,200 used twice a year costs €62.50. The price is the same; the decision is not. This works out which one you are actually making.
Figures reviewed September 2026. Free, no signup, nothing stored on our servers.
What this means
Cost per use is the honest unit for anything expensive and occasional. It is also uncomfortable, which is why people avoid calculating it — the answer for a lot of purchases is that hiring the thing four times a year would cost a fraction of owning it.
The break-even figure is the most actionable output. If owning only beats hiring after forty uses and you will realistically manage twelve, the decision is made. If it breaks even at six, buy it and stop thinking about it.
Resale value is worth entering where it exists. Tools, bikes, instruments and well-regarded equipment hold value; consumer electronics and anything fashion-adjacent largely do not.
What affects the result
- How honestly you estimate uses per year. Optimism here is what makes attics full.
- Whether a genuine alternative exists. Hiring only counts if you would actually do it.
- Resale value, which turns a purchase into a rental at the difference.
- Running costs — storage, servicing, insurance, consumables — which are invisible at the point of purchase.
- Whether the thing will still work, and still be wanted, for the full period.
Is this big purchase worth it?
Where this does not settle the question
Cost per use ignores convenience, and convenience is worth real money. Something in the shed at eleven o’clock on a Sunday is worth more than something available on Monday from a hire shop twenty minutes away. The arithmetic is the floor of the decision, not the whole of it — it tells you what the convenience is costing you, and you decide whether that is a fair price.
Related decisions
If the question is whether to fix the one you already have, the repair or replace calculator is the right tool. If it is a large quoted job rather than a product, the quote checker compares it with normal Irish prices. And if the purchase would be funded on credit, check what it really costs with the debt payoff calculator first.
Important assumptions
Every figure on this page rests on these. Where one does not match your situation, the answer moves — sometimes a great deal.
- The item lasts the period you entered and is used the number of times you entered.
- Resale value is realised at the end of the period, in today's money.
- No inflation adjustment on either side, since both are affected similarly.
- The alternative is available when you need it, at the price entered.
Common questions
What is a reasonable cost per use?
There is no universal figure, because it depends entirely on what the alternative costs. The useful test is the comparison: does owning it cost less per use than hiring it, paying someone, or doing without? A pressure washer at €4 a use is excellent; a wedding suit at €900 for one wearing is a different conversation.
Does this work for a car?
Partly, but a car has running costs large enough to dominate the arithmetic. The car true cost calculator handles depreciation, fuel, insurance, tax and servicing properly and gives you a cost per kilometre, which is the right unit there.
Should I include the interest if I am financing it?
Yes — add the total finance cost to the price. Something bought on credit costs what it costs plus the interest, and that often changes a marginal decision.
What to check next
Should I repair it or replace it?
Appliances, electronics, boilers, cars and tools — costed per remaining year of life.
Repair or ReplaceNewIs this quote reasonable?
Break a trade quote into labour, materials and VAT and compare it to benchmark ranges.
Quote CheckerNewWhat is my car actually costing me?
Depreciation, fuel, insurance, tax, servicing and tyres as one annual figure and a cost per kilometre.
Car True Cost CalculatorNewWhere is my money actually going?
Add up every recurring household cost and see which categories are worth attacking first.
Money Leak CheckerNext steps across CheckIreland
Picked for what you just worked out — not a list of everything we make.
CheckIreland is independent and is not affiliated with the Irish Government or any public body. This tool is general information built on published rules and typical costs — it is not financial, tax or legal advice, and it does not account for your individual circumstances. Confirm anything that matters with the relevant body or a qualified adviser before acting on it.