Dining out on a budget can be tough, especially when you’re away from home. Tonight I broke one of my own rules, a hard and fast rule - don’t drink away your budget. No I’m not talking about going to the bar, I’m talking about soda. It’s a huge money pit and has no ROI. However, with that said I really really like Diet Coke. When I find a good deal on it, I stock up. We have people over our house often and in the summer we have people over every weekend, upwards of 30 people for our small group - and soda is often served. Recently I bought (16) 2 liters of soda for $5.00 at CVS (after coupons and ECBs) which is only $0.31 ea! Not a bad price at $0.03 a glass (8 ounces). It may take us a long time to drink all of that and most likely we’ll share it with friends or neighbors, but at that price I had to buy it!
Enter in Frugal Fail :
At dinner tonight, a Diet Coke sounded really nice. We’re away from home, without the kids, and enjoying a semi-quiet dinner. So my husband and I each ordered a soda. I didn’t think to look at the price of it, I figured it would be a dollar something, but not more than $2 for a glass. When we got the bill my mouth dropped open – $2.70 EACH GLASS and to make it even worse we waited the entire night for a refill that neither of us got.
So what could have cost us $0.12 at home ended up costing us $5.40. I’ll be ordering water from now on, I’ll save my soda fix for home.
What is an area where you’ve seen your money being “drained” in your budget? Feel free to leave acomment or if you’re a blogger link up with your “Frugal Fail.”
This post may contain affiliate links. When you use them, you support The Frugal Find. Thank you! Disclosure policy.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I did the same thing a few months ago. Soft drinks were $3 yikes! I refuse to buy them when going out to eat. But, my husband still gets a coke now and then.
When I am in a hurry and I don’t watch my items at a store being scan
and get home to see that I was overcharged. What I don’t like is that I keep forgetting to go back to the store. What I do like is when an item is scanned wrong and you take your receipt to
customer service some stores will give it to you for free.
I know it something that not just everyone can handle but we use cloth diapers when we are at home. Since I am a sahm, that is pretty much all the time. We took a money mange class when we had 2 in diapers. When I saw how much moeny we were literly throw away, we switched. And since I thrift store and yard sale shop I was able to find them at great prices.