The British spent roughly £1.75 billion in 2018 (GBP) or roughly (2026) U.S. $3 billion per year in fighting the effort of American revolutionaries, 1776-1783.
And that's for muskets, bullets and cannonballs. Not for jet aircraft, tanks and missiles.
But they were a clear and immediate threat to the US. It was absolutely imperative that we do something or everyone in the western world would be dead now.