It doesn’t take a business person to know that some purchases are pretty costly. When things start to go wrong and you don’t have a lot of money, you’re forced to make the best financial decision possible.

Even if you have a lot of money, you don’t want to go spending your money indiscriminately. Therefore, you need to have a set of guidelines to determine whether it’s time to purchase something new, something formerly owned or go for the repair option.

1. Accumulative cost of repairs

Sometimes a simple fix can take care of all your problems, so this is an easy decision. However, if you find yourself constantly putting money into repairing something, whether it’s new or not, and especially if it’s not under warranty, it might be time to consider buying new.

For instance, if you have a car that’s paid off but every time you take it to the shop you’re walking out upwards of $500 or less, and you’re going to the repair shop every 2 or 3 months, it might be time to buy a new vehicle. Sure, you’re going to have monthly payments but these days your warranty for most things lasts upwards of 10 years or 100,000 miles and you’ll have your vehicle paid off way before then.

2. Determination of what the issue might be

Computers are a dicey thing for the overwhelming majority of people. Even the simplest thing can cause a lot of grief and consternation because you’re unsure where the problems lie.

This is one of those times where getting a diagnostic might save you a lot of money, no matter the age of your computer. Depending on who you go to the costs range from $60 to $150 an hour. They’ll run your computer through a series of tests to figure out where the problems lie.

Truth be told, most of the time the cost of replacing something significant isn’t really that expensive on a computer and it’s possible that you’ll walk out with a computer that’s humming for less than the cost of a new computer.

The flip side is that it depends on the cost of your original computer. If you only paid $250 for one and it starts going faulty it’s cost prohibitive to try to repair it unless you can do the work yourself. If you paid anywhere around $700 or more, then a diagnostic could end up saving you a lot of money.

3. Age of your item

Strangely enough, these days it feels like a lot of things you buy have a short term life before they become obsolete. Think about many of the appliances in your house; if they’re older, don’t they seem to last longer than something you purchased a few years ago?

In the short run, calling someone to see if your item is repairable is the smart way to go, warranty or not. The downside is that the older your item is, the less likely there’s anyone who can repair it because finding old parts isn’t easy for a lot of things, and what you might get is a recommendation for someone to do a “fix” that they’ll say is as good as new. That never seems to work, so in this case the smarter thing to do is to buy new.

These are only a few ways of looking at cost effective ways to address your issues. Each situation is different, but there are always patterns that should help you make the proper decision.