What's your vice, and how much does it cost you each month?
A friend started budgeting this summer, and when she did a quarterly summary of expenses, was surprised at what she spent on her “vices” – wine, cigarettes, going to the casino – each month. She spends about $400 a month, or the car payment for a really nice car. She also spent about $200 a month on shoes.
What’s your vice, and do you know what it costs to maintain it?
Observing members:
0
Composing members:
0
35 Answers
I spend about $280 on cigarettes, and about $700 on recreational activities such as going out with friends, lunch and beauty stuff. I need to cut back on both.
Smoking. It costs me about $240 a month. I’m not a huge drinker, but I like to have a few once in a while. I’d say drinking costs me between $20 and $40 a month.
I might have more vices if I had more money, but as a starving student, that’s about all the vices I can (barely) afford!
Dark chocolate and it is costing me these last 3 pounds I am trying to lose!
It seems to be the internet and it is costing me my sanity.
Response moderated (Spam)
@LOL @janbb. Right there with you! Me – $160 a month on Kahlua, another $80 a month on gelato – so good!
@noelleptc, clothes for little girls are really hard to resist buying, even if you head to Target. The little shoes are adorable.
Response moderated (Spam)
Mountain Dew. Only 50 cents a pop from the snack room, but it adds up!
Books. They cost me between $50–75 a month as well as several rooms in my house.
I must be either a saint or a cheapskeate. I can’t think of anything.
I don’t spend on clothes, I don’t drive excessively fancy cars, I don’t do drugs, or drink much – maybe a bottle or two of wine a month? $20.
Does cheese count? $20/month.
Is wasting time on the internet a vice? $43/month
I like clothes,but I am in control of that ;)
Books. How much I spend varies each month depending on when the next book in the series I’m reading comes out. Some months I don’t buy any new books, but then other months I can go into the book store and come out after spending a hundred dollars or more. I think the most I’ve spent in one month was close to $300.
I’m with the books crowd. Although I only spent $.75 this weekend for three of them.
Oh, I hadn’t even thought of books. I guess I was thinking more of traditional vices.
I am a self-professed bibliophile. I love to read, and I love to own books. Recently I moved to Toronto (where cost of living is relatively high) from a smaller city, and had to figure out how to cram my life into an apartment half the size of the one where I used to live. I had to get rid of a bunch of books and am storing most of the rest in my parents’ basement. I decided that I would only bring with me the ones that I couldn’t bear to leave… and I still have a ton of them with me.
I don’t spend much on them anymore; I used to work at a bookstore and so much of my paycheque went right back into the till, but now that I’m on a reduced budget I tend to go the route of @Adirondackwannabe and buy most of my books used (preferably from the $0.10 table at the school library).
I refuse to add up the cost of my vices. What for? I’m not going to cut them out until I’m ready. If I find that I have to steal from peter to pay paul, then I might consider figuring out where do all my funds go.
@Adirondackwannabe Cool. Is there a good used bookstore near you? I have been known to go on driving pilgrimages to find new stores. :-)
@Dr_Dredd Would you believe this one was a christmas tree farm?
Comic Books
About $30 to $40 a month.
Fluther sucks away hours of my time
Books 30–100$ a month, depending on if the used bookstore has what I want
Movies/select TV shows I torrent pretty much everything
Cheesecake 10–50$ every 3 months, maybe, and it depends on if I bake my own or purchase from a restaurant
$200 a month on shoes?!
She should get a better car.
My one true weakness is candy corn. Thankfully it’s a seasonal thing, but two weekends ago I dropped $60 on discount candy at Rite Aid. It’s quite vexing.
Internet. Day and night. Shhhh, don’t tell anyone.
Computer gaming. It has, apparently, cost me $44/mo since February. and I went a bit overboard this past month. Caught up in a craze, I was!
I enjoy snorting coke off the backs of naked teenage prostitutes—fortunately I’m heavily into welfare fraud so my wife and kids still manage to get by.
Sprite Zero and Cold Rock Ice Cream (vanilla with Maltesers as an add in). In Australia a can of SZ, from a gas station or convenience store, costs about $2.50 per can. I envy @erichw1504 at .50 a can. Sometimes if there is a really good sale at the grocery store I might be able to buy at close to that price but not very often! And the ice cream with the add in is over $6.00 for a regular size cup. Thank goodness I don’t smoke and drink, I would have to get a second mortgage on the house!
I read every one of these answers and have come to the conclusion that I have no vices. I wonder if this means I’m virtuous. LOL
Approx. $40.00 a month.
An ex of mine had vices that actually led to our breakup:
Booze- $100. mo.
Weed- $800. mo.
Cigarettes- $125. mo.
Gambling- $3000. mo.
Books are easy to spend money on. I’ve begun “thinning the herd” by dropping books I won’t read again into the library bookdrop at night. Some end up on the shelves, others go to the library fundraising book sale.
around 800 a month on drinking and smoking, thats pretty crazy when you add it up i guess
A Starbucks latte and pastry every morning of the work week. It was five bucks a morning. 25 a week. That’s something like 1000 to 1300 a year, depending on whether I buy every day or not. I’m switching to a tea and a bagel, which probably costs me half as much, which means a savings of $500. Maybe. Not enough money to be worth it based on savings, but I think it might be healthier, too.
Alcoholic drinks cost me about $80 a month and 100’s and 100’s of deadly calories.
Answer this question 
Composing members:
0
