I want to jump in here and offer a bit of my own perspective to this conversation, because I’ve seen similar things come up a few times.
While I am responding to you, this is not really meant to be directed only at you, but I feel like maybe this is a good opportunity for me to hop on my little soapbox..
Just a warning, this will likely be a very long post… I’ll be nice and hide it for anyone who doesn’t care about my opinion 
Mike's opinion on buying software (and other ways to convince your wife you need more tools and stuff..)
First, let me say, I am not trying to sway anyone’s opinion on how they should spend their money. Everyone has their own priorities and issues in life, and you are the only one who can determine whether your money should go where it goes, or whether it’s worth it to you to trade your time for money.
We are all also tinkerers by nature, so it’s hard to get over the “I can do this myself” or the “I can do this cheaper” mindset.
However, over the years, my perspective has changed on this quite a lot. Well mostly over the last year or two…
In my earlier years (~25-30 years ago), I would do everything I could to not spend money on software. Mostly, well, because I had no money lol. Things were quite a bit different in those days though. “Free” software was pretty easy to get your hands on if you knew where to look…
I think, overall, open source offerings have really spoiled people nowadays. We have all greatly benefitted over the last 10 years of a huge amount of effort put in to creating some really good software, just because it was a really trendy thing to do for a while. I think there’s a bit of a shift coming though. I see fewer and fewer people willing to put in time to write free software for the, generally speaking, very demanding and very unappreciative masses that tend to flock to any of it that is any good.
However, only a certain percentage of free software really ever will stand the test of time. Usually, only because there is enough people willing to voluntarily fund the work to offset the ones who won’t ever pay.
I also think that there are a lot of people who don’t really understand the amount of time, effort, and skill it takes to make a polished, stable, well-documented piece of software.
Even as someone who has spent the last 20 years writing software commercially, I find myself doing the same at times.
So here’s how I evaluate whether it’s worth it to buy software.. (or really, almost any tool…)
Let’s take Lightburn, for example, at $99, or even $199 if you have a big, fancy laser.
How much is your time worth? Will you make and sell anything with your laser? If so, how much is it worth if Lightburn can help you produce even 1-2 more projects a day? a week? a month?
When you think about what your time is worth, remember that in order for Lightburn to even be a thing, the company has to pay a lot of people to code, test, document, maintain, etc. all there is in the application, plus all of the management of licensing, legal, offices, overhead, etc., etc. that it takes to run a business. To be honest, I’m still kinda shocked they offer it this cheap. I can only assume this means they have a ton of customers.
It is extremely difficult for an open-source product to be maintained at that level without some big financial backing (like Blender, etc.)
So I think about it…
How many times have I spent $50, $80, $100 to go eat a restaurant, or go to a movie, or any number of things that only brings some enjoyment for an hour, or 2, or 3?..
So, for that same price, how many hours of frustration can I save myself? If I have to fight some buggy piece of software just to use my machine, how many times will I just not use it all? (Spoiler Alert: a lot) How many crashes and losses of work am I willing to deal with?
If there is not a very clear alternative to the paid software, it’s likely because the alternatives are not nearly as good, and you will have to deal with some of these things… or extremely long workflows to get the same results.
Obviously, there’s a limit to where this can be applied depending on the amount of money you have. It’s a lot harder sell yourself if it’s $400, $800, $1000, etc…
But more recently, I’ve given in a lot more and put more value on myself, and on the enjoyment of my hobbies.
So it’s become a lot easier to convince myself to spend $50-$100 here or there when I can afford it.
I’m just old enough, and just busy enough, to have finally come to the realization that nothing is as valuable as my time, and my ability to enjoy it when I actually get to use it for myself…
This is obviously not some ground-breaking revelation to think this way… but it did take me a while to finally come around to it, and I still fight it in other areas of my life
I realize in this forum, there are a lot of people who will staunchly defend open source, but my point is not that I’m against open source. I think it’s awesome… but there are limits to it, and downsides that need to be weighed depending on your use-case.
Anyway, thanks for coming to my TED talk. I’ll be here all week, try the veal…
