Cost Per Use Calculator
Enter the price and how many times you will honestly use it - wears, rides, runs, brews. The calculator gives the cost per use, tests it against the one-per-wear bar, and runs the double-edge check: what if you use it half as much?
Fashion blogs invented cost per wear for clothes. This one works for everything - tools, gadgets, equipment - and adds the two steps the blogs skip: the half-use reality check where optimism lives, and the closet audit that prices your actual history instead of your intentions.
How to use
- Enter the real price and your honest use count - the version of you from the last twelve months, not the aspirational one.
- Halve the uses and see whether the figure still clears your bar.
- Run the closet audit yearly: the average price of things barely worn is your personal bar for the next want.
Frequently asked questions
What is the cost per wear rule?
Divide price by expected wears; at one per wear or better, the item is earning its keep. The rule generalises to cost per use for anything - tools, bikes, machines - and turns shopping arguments into arithmetic.
Why do cheap items often cost more per use?
A 40 jacket worn twice costs 20 a wear; a 300 coat worn all winter costs about one. Durability and love of use are the multipliers - the cheapest price tag routinely hides the most expensive object in the wardrobe.
How do I estimate uses honestly?
Use your history, not your plans: how often did you use the last similar thing in the first year? The aspirational user exercises five times a week; the real one the calculator prices shows up on Tuesdays, sometimes.
What is a closet audit?
Count the garments worn fewer than five times last year, average what they cost, and let that figure - typically hundreds - set your bar. It is the only price index built from your own behaviour rather than a shop's.