Stuff Regret Calculator

Was that purchase worth it? And how do you prevent the next regret?

Finance
Lifestyle

Your Purchase Details

About This Tool

Most people vastly underestimate their cost-per-use on purchases. This tool makes it concrete and gives you a personal value threshold tied to your actual hourly rate — helping you avoid future regrets before opening your wallet.

To track how much you lose on unused groceries, try the Food Waste Cost Calculator. For a full picture of your effective income, use the Hourly Rate Lie Detector.

All calculations happen in your browser — no data is sent to any server.

How It Works

Total Uses = Times Used + Expected Future Uses
Cost per Use = Purchase Price ÷ Total Uses
Personal Threshold = Hourly Rate × 0.5
Worth It = Cost per Use ≤ Personal Threshold
Warning Score = min(100, (Cost per Use ÷ Personal Threshold) × 50)

The personal threshold is half your hourly rate — the intuition being that an item should cost no more per use than what you earn in 30 minutes. The warning score normalises cost-per-use onto a 0–100 regret scale, hitting 100 when cost-per-use is double your threshold.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is cost-per-use?
Cost-per-use is the purchase price divided by the total number of times you have used (or will use) the item. A $200 item used 200 times costs $1 per use — likely worth it. Used 2 times, it costs $100 per use — probably not.
How is the personal threshold calculated?
Your threshold is based on your hourly rate — we use 30 minutes of your time as the acceptable value per use. If you earn $30/hour, a $15 cost-per-use is your threshold.
What is the pre-purchase warning score for?
It is a signal for future purchases of similar items. A high score means this type of item tends to become shelf-dust for you. Use it as a gut-check before buying.
What items have the worst cost-per-use?
Exercise equipment, specialty kitchen gadgets, hobby starter kits, and impulse clothing purchases are the most common high-regret categories. Track a few and your patterns will become clear.