Save Money by Buying Small and Getting Free Refills

Here's a money saving comment left on my post titled Save Money on Fast Food by Buying the Big Size:

An alternative to this is if you are eating inside the restaurant and they give free refills (or a standing soda area to do it yourself), then get the small size and share it. You can refill as many times as you want.

Good point. If you're dining in and a place has free refills on drinks, why order the large size? Are free refills on large sizes more/bigger/better than free refills on small sizes? Yeah, maybe you'll need to wait a bit for the refills as a small glass will need to be serviced a bit more, but if you're upfront about it, your server should be on the task and watching for it. Even better are those places where you can help yourself to refills. Nice. ;-)

Comments

[Veteran Military Wife at Life Lessons of a Military Wife]

I make my two boys do this all the time...in fact, at Costco, we all share the same drink:-))

[Patty]

Why not skip the soda altogether and just have water? I find I save a ton of money when I don't buy a drink with fast food.

[FMF]

Patty --

I've read that one personal finance journalist started asking his kids whether they wanted soda or if they'd drink water and get the $1 that the soda would have cost. They started drinking a lot of water and saw their savings increase!

[Beyond Paycheck to Paycheck]

How about the fast food places where you serve yourself free refills? It's amazing how many people pay for the large size when they could get just as much soda refilling the small size.

Plus, all that extra exercise going back and forth to the soda fountain just might burn 0.5% of the calories they're eating.

[Minimum Wage]

Veteran Military Wife - Costco has a fast food counter? (I really have no idea, I've never been there.)

Patty - You can save a bunch of money on drinks by switching to water. (Apologies to GEICO.)

Question: How much can you really save at Costco? Are the savings sufficient to make an individual $50 yearly membership worthwhile for a single person?

[Mike]

Where people go wrong is that they order the large or supersize meals which come with the larger drink. They should forget about the "meal" and order the items separately so they can get the small soda.

[Jim Trietsch]

Is it really the intent of the restaurant/store for several people to share the same drink? Or, is it intended for one drink/person and then allow refills? Wouldn't that be like paying for one all-you-can-eat buffet for the whole family?

[Matt]

This one might be a little over the line for me, I agree with Jim. If you get a small drink for yourself and refill it multiple times, that's ok. Sharing with other members of your party seems kinda sleezy.

I always try to drink water. I love free!

[Matthew]

For me it depends on the type of restaurant whether sharing drinks is acceptable.
At fast food restaurants, I think sharing is perfectly acceptable (and my wife and I and our kid when he is old enough do this), but for me it is worth the ten cents extra to share a much larger drink size than the small.
On the other hand, I don't think there are too many sit-down restaurants around here that will even let you share a single drink between two people, and most only have one size drink too. At these places if my wife orders water and I order a soda (diet coke, natch), we will share sips, but not much more than that.
The middle ground are sit down restaurants that have refill stations for the customers, and at these we normally don't share, but do get take out cups full of drink at the end of the meal, even if we were drinking from glasses the whole time.
All of these strategies are well honed in my case, because diet coke is my guilty pleasure and I drink far more of it than I should, and believe me, I always figure out how to get the most of it for my money.

[Ryan]

My wife and I share drinks even at upscale restaurants simply because she never ends up getting a refill and only drinks half of it. We get 2 waters (free) and 1 soda. We both drink the waters mainly and sip the sodas only when we need that something extra.

[Kyle]

Yeah, I have absolutely never understood the concept of buying a large drink when free refills are available. Who does that? But I do agree with the suggestion above about just drinking water. You could easily save $10 per week (and probably over 1000 calories too) just drinking water.

[That One Caveman]

If we're at a "faster"-food restaurant that allows you to refill while you're there and then take the cup with you, we usually get a small and share but sometimes get a medium. With a medium, when we leave, the soda lasts longer.

If we're at a regular sit-down restaurant, we save money by order water. We don't share there, like Matthew commented, but we're not going to spend nearly $2 on a soda.

[Jake]

The real way to save money is clearly to skip the soda. Saves you what you pay for the soda, saves you the cost of extra clothes from when your waist size expands a couple inches, saves you the cost of a future teeth whitening or cavities, etc.

If you're going to buy and drink soda, saving fifty cents by hitting the refil station a couple of extra times is small potatoes. It would save more money and be healthier to cut your trips to fast food restaurants just 15% or so, and replace that 15% of your fast food intake with something at least marginally healthy and homemade -- say a turkey sandwich with mixed nuts and a water instead of fatburger, greasy fries, and a soda.

[Paul]

My wife and I looked at our costs and realized we were spending a TON of money on pop both in restaurants and from the grocery store. First we decided to quit drinking pop ourselves. Then we convinced our kids to stop drinking by starting a Disney fund that we deposited money in that would've gone for pop. They bought into that pretty quickly and we are now saving a lot of money.

On the idea of buying one pop and everyone sharing it, I would say that goes against the spirit of the restaurant offering free refills. It's the same as ordering a salad bar and then letting everyone eat off your plate. To put it bluntly, it's stealing from the restaurant.

[Sara]

I am all for frugality, but sharing a drink (more than a sip or two) in a restaurant with free refills is just stingy. If you really want to save the dollar, then order water or eat at home, don't rip off the restaurant. Geez.

[Sara(h)]

I tend to agree, although it's worth remembering that the beverage in question probably costs less than a penny per ounce wholesale, so we're getting into pretty de minimis territory here.

[PatatrooperJJ]

Sharing one drink is abusing the system and is kind of unethical in my opinion. However buying a small drink and refilling it many times for one person is fine.

[juanny]

I was originally going to comment on the stealing aspect of sharing one small drink and that a buying a larger size allows you to take more home with you, but looks like that's been covered.

But to the last comment, it doesn't matter if it the pop only cost pennies, you're stealing the amount that it would cost you, not the restaurant. Even if that weren't true, stealing is stealing. Let say 10 people a day share a small drink (assuming a 12oz cup we'll use a dime for cost for ease of calculations) that's $1 a day, times 365 days a year.... how about you send me a check for $365 every year.... it's only a few pennies, right?

[Sarah]

I'm not saying the principle is irrelevant, but $365/yr. is not a significant cost for a restaurant. I wouldn't do it, but there is some point at which it's not worth worrying about. I mean, I try to be scrupulous about not being undercharged, but if it was a dime undercharge I probably wouldn't go back to the store and insist on a rering, you know?

[Kyle]

Juanny is right. The dollar value of the theft is equal to what it saves you, not what it costs the restaurant to supply. Say the average drink costs $1.50. At 10 stolen drinks per day per day, that's $15 in a day and $5475 in a year. That's serious money for most restaurants, especially smaller ones. Besides, what level of theft is acceptable? None.

[Sarah]

In criminal law, the theft is valued as you say. However, if you are considering the actual harm involved, that has to be evaluated as: cost to company if you take the action vs. cost to company if you don't (i.e., don't have a second person consuming any drink). In other words, a dime (if that) for your 12-oz drink.

As I said, it's not something I would do, but it's not something I could get into a froth over someone else doing, either.

[mbhunter]

Restaurants print money with the drinks. You'd be hard-pressed to drink more than 20 cents or so (their cost) even with free refills. Share your drink if you want -- they're still making out like a bandit.

[juanny]

Thanks Kyle for clarifying my actual cost.

Sarah - "but $365/yr. is not a significant cost for a restaurant" where does that fit in logically? $100,000 isn't significant to Bill Gates, so does that mean we can go and steal that from him?

mbhunter - "Share your drink if you want -- they're still making out like a bandit" When you're at a movie theater, do you steal boxes of candy from the concession stand? They are way overpriced to, and the movie theater is 'making out like a bandit' on that, so that must be OK, too.

I am amazed at the amount of people who are advocating stealing.

[Conscience]

"Saving" money by stealing is wrong. Why? Because stealing is wrong. I would have hoped this blog would understand that and not even entertain the notion that taking things you haven't paid for is right.

[FMF]

Conscience --

How is my blog post promoting stealing? It's certainly fair to buy a small cup and refill it as many times as possible.

As far as the comments go (if that's what you mean), as long as the conversation is civil, I let readers say what they like.

Refilling a small drink many times is not stealing and if someone buys a drink and shares it with someone else that is not stealing either.Unless the company has a one drink /one person policy there is nothing wrong with it.I would not share a drink with someone but many chains have "small" sizes that the average person wouldn't drink all of.Is the company stealing from the customer when the fill your drink with 95% ice and then if you ask for no ice they give you attitude.If the company doesn't have a policy in place why should the customer assume that sharing is not allowed or an implied policy of one drink per person.

[Conscience]

"How is my blog post promoting stealing? It's certainly fair to buy a small cup and refill it as many times as possible."

But it is not okay to share. It's equivalent to sharing a salad bar. And your post distinctly highlights that sharing is a way to save money:

"Get the small size and share it. You can refill as many times as you want."

That is stealing. It's like giving away copies of CDs you've purchased, but worse, since there is marginal cost to the provider. Please take a stand on this and say that this action is wrong.

[FMF]

Conscience --

That comment was left by a reader. My comments are about buying the small size INSTEAD OF the large size.

[FMF]

BTW, Kurt, I would only buy a small and share it if I first asked the restaurant/waiter/waitress if it was ok.

As far as buying the small size goes, I don't think one needs to ask.

[Conscience]

You might want to clarify then. You post something, and then say "good point." That's an endorsement. And when you post something that is wrong (stealing from a restaurant), you should point out that you disagree with it. Witness:

"I think it's right to kick puppies. I also donate to the poor." Good job! We always need to look out for those less fortunate than us.

[Tom]

1) I've aways wondered if sharing a drink is stealing if you decrease your consumption level equally to the quantity you share? I.e. I usually drink 1 cup then refill and drink a 2nd; instead I drink 1 cup and let my wife drink the 2nd. Is that stealing?

2) I second the motion that you should just get water not soda, for both financial and health reasons.

3) I strongly feel that you should TIP your server as if you had ordered a drink. I know those who order water, with extra ice and 2 slices of lemon. They drink it, have their server refill, drink a 2nd glass, have their server refill (more lemon please), drink that, etc. Poor server makes 0% tip for 5 extra trips to the table! TIP THEM EXTRA IF YOU DO THIS PEOPLE!

[Sarah]

"Sarah - "but $365/yr. is not a significant cost for a restaurant" where does that fit in logically? $100,000 isn't significant to Bill Gates, so does that mean we can go and steal that from him?"

No, Juanny, but I can just about guarantee you that you are doing at least that much money's worth of damage (i.e., a dime) to people (or people's property) around you on a daily basis without being torn up about it. Even most conscientious people do not run around torturing themselves over exceptionally minor harms done to other people. I don't think it represents a callous indifference to justice or other human beings' welfare if one shares one's refillable drink.

Just think about if your family goes to the washroom or even multiple times at a restaurant. Imagine the costs of water, paper towels, electricty for the hand dryer,soap and labour to clean it.This is all free services that could make the restaurant go broke. I wonder if the restaurants have a "bathroom only in extreme emergencys" policy too.Is it stealing to use more water or paper towels than neccesary.

[Ms. J]

If this strategy actually saves you a significant amount of money, perhaps you should rethink the number of restaurant meals you eat rather than worrying about the extra dollar for a soda. Sharing a drink is just tacky and doing so suggests that you cannot afford to be eating out.

I drink diet soda and I always buy it at 25 cents or less per can. Cheapest vice I know of.

[Andy Merrett]

This issue probably rarely comes up in the UK because we don't have many "free refill" services at all - occasionally in some diners/carvery restaurants when you get a second top-up of soda or coffee, but it's rare.

Also, it's generally more expensive anyway. I guess you could buy the big drink (which is always huge, by British standards at least, no idea how large the drinks are in the US) and share it between two or three.

The only way we get refills is to buy another drink!

[Sarah (Real Life)]

Sharing a drink is stealing?!!! Now I've heard everything! We share 3 value meals between our whole family of 5, is that stealing, too?

[Conscience]

On the bathroom issue. Yes. If you were to bring 1000 people through the bathroom without buying anything, that would be wrong. That doesn't sound inconsistent to me. Likewise, if you use the bathroom, you should buy something. They aren't public services. And you can't split a single drink between those 1000 people either. Why is that too hard to comprehend? Don't you feel wrong when you do that? What about the golden rule? Put yourself in the shopkeeper's shoes.

[Sara]

@Sarah (Real Life): People are only saying sharing a drink is stealing/stingy when it's a drink with free refills. I don't think anyone would say sharing 3 value meals among a family of 5 is stealing. But if you went to the Golden Corral and only paid for 3 people and all 5 of you ate, then yeah, that's stealing.

[juanny]

Sarah with in 'h' - I don't understand what you are saying... what damage am I doing to other people's property every day?

Sara (without an 'h') brings up a good point (assuming the Golden Corral is a buffet). Having the free refill station out is essentially a buffet for your drink. Would any of you drink sharers consider it stealing if you paid for one person at a buffet and served two?