Buying vs. borrowing: the real cost of a drill you'll use twice

Most people don't buy a drill because they need a drill forever — they buy one because they need to hang three shelves this weekend. Then it sits in a cupboard for the next two years.

That's not a personal failing, it's just how ownership works for anything you use occasionally: a pressure washer for the yearly balcony clean, a good camera for one trip, a folding table for a birthday party. The cost isn't just the purchase price — it's also the storage space in a flat where storage space is already scarce.

The math that actually matters is simple: if you'll use something fewer than a handful of times a year, renting it from a neighbor for a few hundred rupees a day almost always beats owning it — and the neighbor who does own it gets some of their money back for something that would otherwise just depreciate in a cupboard.