{"type":"project","slug":"purchase-assistant","title":"Purchase Assistant","status":"building","tagline":"Compare purchases, question assumptions and track ownership costs and outcomes.","summary":"A decision workspace for comparing considered purchases, testing assumptions and keeping track of costs and outcomes. Guest mode works without an account; cloud storage and AI features are optional.","canonicalUrl":"https://www.jonathantipper.com/projects/purchase-assistant","markdownUrl":"https://www.jonathantipper.com/projects/purchase-assistant.md","jsonUrl":"https://www.jonathantipper.com/projects/purchase-assistant.json","launchUrl":"https://buyornot.jonathantipper.com/","launchLabel":"Open app","launchNote":"Public app; some features have separate access requirements.","started":"2026","tags":["personal-tools","finance","calculator","dashboard"],"links":[{"label":"Open app","url":"https://buyornot.jonathantipper.com/"}],"image":{"src":"https://www.jonathantipper.com/images/projects/purchase-assistant.png","alt":"Purchase Assistant app screenshot showing purchase item controls, value metrics, depreciation, saved items, and visual cost analysis","mode":"screenshot"},"content":"## What it is\n\nPurchase Assistant is a small decision-support app for personal purchases. It helps compare the price of an item with lifespan, usage, depreciation, and retained value.\n\nThe core workflow turns purchase assumptions into cost per use, cost per hour, cost per week, cost per month, and value retained.\n\n## What it changes\n\nThe useful shift is from \"can I afford this?\" to \"will I actually use this enough for it to make sense?\"\n\n## Current status\n\nBuilding. The prototype covers the main comparison model and needs more reliability before it becomes a repeated-use tool."}