How long until I can build the version that fits?

I used to live with software that almost fit. A spreadsheet for household finances that nobody updated. A note-taking app that wasn't quite designed for the way I capture things. The cost of building something better was prohibitive, so I lived with the friction.

That calculation has flipped. Almost everything I now use day-to-day, I've at least considered rebuilding. Two of them I have. The question I ask before reaching for an off-the-shelf tool is: how long would the bespoke version take? If the answer is "a weekend", the conversation about whether to build it gets a lot more honest.