I got some Intel Atom NUCs on discount back in the good times for $170 each; 4 cores, 16GB RAM.

Right now one of them hosts the following:

* Jellyfin for my physical disc collection

* Ergo for an IRC server daemon

* A vibe-coded project that lets folks upload images and stick them to a canvas like stickers on a light pole (great for memes)

* Caddy as a reverse proxy

* Pocket-ID for passkey-auth

* LLDAP for crustier directory auth (like Jellyfin)

* FreshRSS for an RSS aggregator

* RSS-Bridge as a support

…and a smattering of in-progress projects. Honestly lamenting not grabbing a $5 Hetzner VPC when they were available so my public services could live out there, but I’m an edge case.

My advice is less to think about justifying it now, and more thinking “would I get $60/yr worth of enjoyment or utility from a VM in a real datacenter somewhere?” In that context, you’ll almost certainly get utility from that by year’s end - and if not, you’re only out the $60.