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 a comment or if you’re a blogger link up with your “Frugal Fail.”
{ 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.