Low $ Money Pit

[moneymaven]

So, what do you spend just a few dollars on, often? What is your low ticket price money pit?

Lotto tickets, apps for your smart phone or iPad, fountain soda at the gas station, slurpees, iTunes?

How much money do you spend on these items every month?

[Sum Dum Gai]

Lunches at work. $3-6 a day adds up.

ETA - My monthly total on this probably averages $100 or so.

[Urban Chicago]

Magazines. About $3 a piece on the newsstand, and I buy them when I forget to bring my own reading material.

[Miss Tequila]

DD coffee...$1.80 a clip and I usually get two a day

[BeenThere...DoneThat...]

...Chick-fil-A sweet tea... but I love them, so I don't think an intervention would help...

[TrixAre4Kids]

Lottery tickets, with a group at work. $6/week.

[soon2bmomof3]

Needlecraft supplies. Every now and then I go buy another cross-stitch kit or skeins of thread even though I already have many kits at home that are brand new and many, many skeins of thread in a rainbow of colors.

$25-$30 every 3 or 4 months.

[kiskis]

Yeah, I can't pass Chick-fil-a without stopping for a #1. Luckily, I only go that way about once a month, though this past month, it's been 3x. Blame it on the pregnancy hormones. I also treat whoever is with me, so it's been about $35. ...I guess that's not so bad.

[Deleted]

Definitely iPod stuff- another charger or case, another app- maybe $20/month on average.

I've gotten very lazy about packing lunches and now spend about $20/week in the company cafeteria.

Never bought a lottery ticket in my life. Don't plan to.

[constanz22]

In the winter, DD coffee, usually only a couple times a week, less than $2 a pop. During the summer, either Caramel Frappe's from McD's (I've had one the last 5 out of 5 days), just under $2 each with the $1 coupon that's out, or Sonic slushie, but, we only have one and it's not on a route I travel regularly. I try to go when they are half price (2-4 pm). I honestly could drink a Caramel Frappe every day, even more than one, so, I really need to reign that in a bit, both money wise and calorie wise. If I keep it up, those 8 pounds I lost since March will be back in no time. But, they are OH so good!

[chiver78]

coffee each morning (not DD, but another local chain) around $2/day.
lottery ticket - set numbers, 1 ticket per drawing, $6/week.

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

I cannot think of anything that could be viewed as a leaky faucet, on an ongoing basis.
I don't mindlessly fritter away money.

[lynnerself]

May 31, 2011 18:47:18 GMT -5 constanz22 said:

In the winter, DD coffee, usually only a couple times a week, less than $2 a pop. During the summer, either Caramel Frappe's from McD's (I've had one the last 5 out of 5 days), just under $2 each with the $1 coupon that's out, or Sonic slushie, but, we only have one and it's not on a route I travel regularly. I try to go when they are half price (2-4 pm). I honestly could drink a Caramel Frappe every day, even more than one, so, I really need to reign that in a bit, both money wise and calorie wise. If I keep it up, those 8 pounds I lost since March will be back in no time. But, they are OH so good!

450 calories in 12 oz

[Cookies Galore]

My weekly burrito, $6 from the best food truck in Philly!

[cronewitch]

May 31, 2011 18:53:34 GMT -5 Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ said:

I cannot think of anything that could be viewed as a leaky faucet, on an ongoing basis.
I don't mindlessly fritter away money.

[midjd]

Polar Pops (32-oz fountain sodas for those of you unfortunate enough not to have them )
Parking - our "free" parking garage is about 5 blocks from work, but if I'm running late I park downstairs for $1.50/3 hours. It's worth it to not be late to work!

Another gripe is that, although there is free Folgers coffee at work, the only sweeteners are generic Sweet N Low and sugar. I am a Splenda gal. Some mornings I forget to pack some Splendas in my purse... so I either tough it out or go to Starbucks, depending on what kind of morning I'm having!

[Ava]

McDonald's.

[wvugurl26]

Coffee on those mornings where I am just not awake, I try to go to DD and get an iced one for $2 something but its not exactly on my direct travel path. There's a Starbucks that I drive right by going to the interstate. So to see if everyone's heads explode my grande caramel machiatto with 3 shots of espresso was $5.30 and lunch was $6.63. I got back in town late last night, I was running off maybe 2.5 hours of sleep this morning and suffering from an evil allergy attack. The $5 kept my head from bouncing off my desk this morning so necessary evil.

Lunches or snacks at work are another one. I try to keep snacks in my desk but sometimes I don't have anything. Most of the lunches occur when I've been out of town for the weekend. Even when I have good intentions I never seem to make it back before 10pm. If its a longer weekend 3-4 days making something before I leave and leaving it in the fridge isn't really an option.

Things go bad in my fridge very quickly. I'm done beyotching to the landlord, I'm just looking for a new place. Apparently its reasonable to expect milk to go bad within a week of being opened and when its still a week out from the expiration date. Or so the lying maintenance guy who thinks I can't read a date manufactured stamp told me. Yeah buddy two year old fridge that's why that stamp says 2004.

Magazines used to be another one but I found some killer dealers on magazines I like through Tanga so I have a pile of reading material now. I would say most of my spending on stuff like this happens when I'm not prepared. Didn't take anything out to make for dinner, etc that sort of thing.

Oh and random note on fridge thing the back is completely encased so cleaning the coils isn't an option. I pulled it out thinking it just needed cleaning only to discover the coils are behind a sheet of metal.

[Havoc]

Orange juice addiction. Usually about a gallon a week - my kids drink some, but at least half of it goes to me. Less during summer time... so about $5/week.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I buy a $1 Lottery Ticket when I go to a certain grocery store.

[Deleted]

My afternoon diet coke was my leaky faucet, but I gave that up in January.

So, now it is whatever I think will perk me up for the last few hours of the workday. Iced tea, Vitamin Water, candy bar... it varies, but I suspect I was better off back when it was diet coke.

[commuter]

Afternoon diet coke

[Deleted]

Lately it's been apps and books for my ipad. And good cheese. I'm a sucker for that.

[reader79]

Jamba juice smoothies in the summer ($4.95 for my small Strawberry Surf Rider yesterday,) lunch out year-round. I try to keep my total under $10/day, but I am away from home for sooooo long. And we have fridge bandits here, so keeping drinks in the kitchen is not an option.

I can't even count how many kindle books for my ipod I've purchased YTD.....

[telephus44]

Glad to see I'm not the only one with a cliche habit - Starbucks. Usually once or twice a week, but can be every day if work is really stressful.

[moneymaven]

My Starbucks habit gets me. I am a sucker for the $1 soft serve at McD's during the summer too.

[alabamagal]

May 31, 2011 12:58:52 GMT -5 BeenThere...DoneThat... said:

...Chick-fil-A sweet tea... but I love them, so I don't think an intervention would help...

DH loves Chik-fil-A sweet tea. He is cutting back on sugar, so he sometimes gets one sweet one unsweet. They also served mixed tea (half sweet/half unsweet) but I think he prefers to go ahead and get 2. Sometimes this is 2x per day. I try to get him to cut back, but not possible.

[Catseye]

I buy lunch 3 days a week, roughly $6 a pop. The River Market next door has some great eateries. Hey, it's better than McD's!
I sometimes go by a fast food drive-thru on the weekends, not nearly as often as I did before the economy tanked. Not really into lotto tickets, Big Gulps, Starbuck's, etc.

[wvugurl26]

After losing multiple cans of Mt Dew in my work fridge and a whole bottle of salad dressing, I bought 2 ice packs for $0.99 each when I was at the grocery store that night. And in unYM fashion I ordered a Vera Bradley lunch bag and a wristlet for my cafe trips downstairs Add that to my YM sins list.

I wanted some chocolate chip cookies this afternoon. I went downstairs but they didn't have any. When I lived closer to Chick Fil A I used to get a large lemonade all the time.

[mithrin]

Pop is my leak.

I go through 2-3 cans at work, and another 1-2 at home. At least I switched to the Safeway brand so they are only 16¢ each. When I forget/run out I sometimes break down and buy a 20 oz from the machine for $1.25 (really hurts because I could get 10 cans for that!).

Also, lotto tickets. I try to limit it to only when the cash value of the pot is over $50M, so it can be $0-4 a week depending on where the jackpots are.