There are also two schools of thought on spending more now vs spending twice. $1k now or $200 4-5 times obey the same course of time misses the opportunity cost -- pay $200 now then put the $800 into index funds. This also assumes that the $200 machine works as well as the $1k machine, which is very likely false. If it's rougher on your clothes and you must replace them more often, there's another hidden cost. If it's loud and keeps you up at night, it's harder to assign a dollar value to that. If you just hate using junky crap, again that's hard to assign a number to.