I stopped by the 7-11 yesterday for the first time in years. I was thirsty and wasn’t willing to wait until I got home for a glass of water. I grabbed a $1.59 bottle of Aquafina and headed to the checkout stand.
A woman and her two teenage daughters were in front of me. They were purchasing three Big Bite hot dogs, a Slurpee, and a couple pieces of candy. From the way they acted, this seemed to be routine for them. They knew where everything was and how much it cost. There was some confusion at first as to the price of the Big Bites, but the woman was right and the clerk was wrong. The total bill was $7.21.
The woman me ran her credit card through the machine. “I’m sorry, ma’am,” said the clerk. “That card was declined.”
The woman frowned and whispered to her oldest daughter, who then rummaged through her pockets and handed her mother some change. The woman turned and asked the clerk, “Can I put part of it on credit and pay for part of it with cash?”
“Er, yes,” said the clerk. “But the card was just declined.”
“Oh, I have six dollars on the card,” said the woman, and she ran it through again. Sure enough, the card was accepted for six dollars. She paid the remaining $1.21 in cash.
While I waited for the transaction to be completed, I examined two signs taped to the cash register. The smaller of the two read: credit not accepted for lottery transactions. The larger sign, which was hand-printed, declared: lottery tickets cash only. I felt like I was in another dimension, a dimension where charging lottery tickets was an acceptable investment strategy, a dimension where people knew to the penny how much room they had left on their credit cards.
As the woman and her family left the store, I wondered what sort of advice a person could offer them that might have any practical use. I wondered what their future might be like. What would the woman do now that she had reached her credit limit? And why was she buying her meals at 7-11? There’s a grocery store across the street.
After paying for the expensive water, I climbed in my car and drove away. As I pulled out of the parking lot, I spied the woman and her two daughters sitting on a sidewalk in a nearby alley, munching on their Big Bites and sharing the Slurpee. They seemed perfectly content.
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I’m not a fan of 7-11 but sometimes its fun to walk down to our local 7-11 and buy a Slurpee and some yummy Doritos, or sometimes a yummy ice-cream treat. I can’t walk to my local grocery store and we don’t buy junk food when we go to the grocery store so sometimes a 7-11 trip is just what we need.
I recommend Nickel and Dimed as a good read for anyone interested in the financial health of lower wage workers.
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Thank you for posting your convenience store experience. I appreciate that you took a risk that you’d be criticized for sharing the situation with us, however, reading it reminds me of my desire to be able to assist the economically vulnerable once again.
The lives and life choices of the poor and homeless can be confusing to those who live a relatively predictable life. I must say that for them, simple everyday living can be equated to crawling the infiltration course at a military bootcamp: they are often battling medical problems, dodging unemployment, underemployment (thank you Mr. Bush), facing interpersonal struggles, leaping around marital separation, struggling against hunger, etc.
Until recently, I worked for a law group that provides legal assistance to the working poor and to homeless people. (Although with the falling economy, I’ve assisted homeowners too.)
The women described could very well be homeless. We could be seeing more of the scene you described as the acceleration of foreclosures continues.
http://www.secondharvest.org
MG
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In the days when I used to live paycheck to paycheck, I often found myself in that situation – using a debit card with the visa logo (that can be used as a credit card). With those card, it’s easy to tell how much money you haveleft, so I’m sure that’s the reason why she knew the exact amount.
The comment by mapgirl (#11) was right on point –
“I find the people who mind their money the most are the people who have the least”
This is a VERY true statement, and in terms of the situation with the woman and her 7-11 purchase, she is on the fastrack to nowhere. Trying to budget at 7-11 is not really much of a budget.
It is a strange univere indeed. I’ve been there, and it’s just mainly due to the fact that I honestly didn’t know any better. Maybe she’s in that same boat.
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There have been times ( long in the past and I hope they stay that way) when I used a debit card ( not credit, not that I didn’t use a lot of that too) for $2.00 of gas or a snack when I had, say $2.12 in my checking.
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The sign is because lottery ticket purchases can’t be refunded once the ticket is printed if the credit card is declined (or the check bounces, etc), in case you’re curious. That doesn’t speak to the wisdom of buying lottery tickets that way, though if it’s treated as entertainment and not investment, buying it on credit is no worse than buying baseball game or theater tickets that way. Do you really think there’s no incremental enjoyment in purchasing a lottery ticket for the people who do it?
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“It’s always intriguing to me how agitated complete strangers get over other people’s money, particularly folks who are still learning how to take proper care of their own.”
I think for many it reminds them of their own temptations and failures, and they’re so eager to separate themselves from their own weaknesses and bad history that they rush to condemn those still struggling.
For what it’s worth, though, JD, your post didn’t come across as nastily judgmental. I second the recommendation above for Barbara Ehrenreich’s Nickled and Dimed if you want a further look into this shadow economy.
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@Karen:
I don’t think anybody has to have walked up to this woman and chastised her to fall into righteousness.
I think that happens any time any of us say “Oh! Look at that bad behavior! *I* certainly would *never* do that!”
And yes, that is different from exercising judgement. My own honest reaction to this woman was to feel sad for her, because my natural instinct is to assume the worst — that she’s poor, down on her luck, and doesn’t really have a clue how to do better for herself and her kids. So yes, I’m judgemental too.
But at least I know better than to rationalize her behavior with a story I make up for her, or assume that I am any better than she is.
DB
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This is a blog about making good financial decisions. The the original poster posted a commentary about what seems to be a not-so-good financial decision. It doesn’t sound like anyone is eternally damning or “condemning” this woman or her family – just rethinking her purchases for purposes of illustrating the potential impact of day-to-day decisions. At least that’s how I read it.
Shaz, I hear your point. But for someone who stands so firmly against making assumptions about others, you seem to have some pretty strong assumptions about the economic situations and backgrounds of the posters, no? The assumption that she’s poor just because she’s in 7-11 buying a hotdog is just as judgmental.
So why WAS the original poster in the 7-11 when there was a grocery store across the street?
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So they spent $2.40 per person for protein and a grain (in theory), as well as some liquid and sugar. The grocery store probably sold buns for 30c and wieners for 30c. Add 10c for condiments (esp if they had kraut and onions). So they’ve spent 70c before tax. Say 75c for a hot dog.
This leave $1.65 for the sugary drinks and sugary snacks. They have no real health benefits, but do deliver a quick burst of energy and some liquid, if we stretch our imaginations.
JD spent $1.59 for water and I imagine there was tax and a deposit on top of that. So he probably spent more than $1.59.
JD’s the one who got the short end of the stick.
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There are many worse ways to use cards + cash: like using a card to get cash to avoid “card embarrassment”
My sister-in-law used to flabbergast my mother by getting 20$ at a time from the ATM (No doubt for beer or cigarettes)… with a $2/transaction fee.
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[...] the vending machines at Valley is that they take credit cards. I was reminded, several times, of this post on a blog I read. God [...]
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I think we all have to make choices, and sometimes the thinking process is more important than the result.
Yes bottled water is pricy, sometimes even more than soft drinks, but still less than pure fruit juice. Buying bottled water may not seem frugal to everyone, but i think frugality is mostly about putting your cash where it is worth more to you. On a health point of view, buying bottled water is better than driving way too fast to get home sooner and drink free water, still the best thing to do would probably be to refill that bottle and keep in the car ‘just in case’ for next trip. I found out i drink much more water when it is free and easily available.
About buying food in a 7-11, i guess it depends on what is important for someone. If you look at calories/$, then a bag of potato chips seems like a good deal. If you think in terms of nutrition, there are affordable meals: bread and canned tuna fish ($2.50 for 2 adults)
for dessert, a ripe banana can cost as little as $0.20 in a grocery store. better yet, no refrigerator or stove is needed. that family might have eaten cheap healty food all week and that meal out was a way to spend good time together, or maybe the habit of eating out too much forces them to eat cheap food for the rest of the month to pay rent for the next one, or they just starve for 3 days before every paycheck. i’d rather spend money on healty food now than on prescription drugs later, regardless of price.
actually, buying stuff that is not needed isn’t that bad as long as you know that it is for temporary pleasure. it gets dangerous when you begin to rationnalise those purchases as necessities, like pretending a treat is a meal… a sports car is just needed fot daily commute… a 3rd bathroom can’t be lived without even when only 2 people live in the house… more money makes for bigger financial mistakes, but i think rich people are not judged as severly as poor people.
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“It’s true that much about this woman’s transaction puzzles me. I suppose it’s possible that she was using a gift card (for 7-11?).”
J.D, 7-Eleven has their own gift cards, so that’s probably what she was using. And as someone said earlier, most lottery tickets can’t be cancelled once printed. Also to protect the merchant from chargebacks, most don’t accept credit cards for lottery (or money orders). These items have little or no profit margin. And finally, at least go for the Classic Selection water that 7-Eleven sells, it’s about 30 cents cheaper! Or walk across the street to the grocery store!!!
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