Okay, I need to talk about this because it’s the main reason my 'food' budget looks fine on paper but my checking account says absolutely not. I am not talking about full grocery hauls. I’m talking about the 3-4 times a week I run into the bodega for a seltzer, the CVS stop for dish soap and allergy medicine, the deli paper towel emergency, the 'we need onions and a lime' at 8 p.m. because the Key Food is too far and I’m not doing that walk. Those are not groceries! But they’re not exactly fun money either!

I’ve tried splitting them into categories, using cash, the envelope thing, doing a weekly 'small stuff' budget, but then I overspend and rob my own laundry money. What’s the actual method that works for people here? Do you assign an amount per week for exactly these stops, or do you just accept it as NYC overhead like the MTA and Con Ed? I’m especially curious about pharmacy runs because the price difference between the bodega, Duane Reade, and a real grocery store is wild! And the bodega is right there. Why does that happen?!

Unpopular opinion but I think you’re setting yourself up by calling them 'not groceries.' If you consume it in your home, it’s a consumable. Trying to split bodega onions from Key Food onions into two mental buckets is what makes budgets feel fake. You still spent food money, just at a worse point-of-sale markup. The trick isn’t a separate category, it’s reducing the number of trips where the corner store is your only option. One weekly big shop plus a small walking-distance top-up list is less about discipline and more about trip frequency. But a zero bodega budget isn’t realistic either.

Been here forever and honestly, I just have a 'walking around money' line. If I buy a roll of paper towels and a coffee from the corner store, that’s walking around money. It’s not groceries, it’s not entertainment, it’s just life. I put the same amount in my front pocket at the start of the week and when it’s gone, I’m eating pasta from the apartment. You can drive yourself crazy trying to separate seltzer vs soap vs emergency condiments. The only rule I keep is: don’t use the card for those little ones. Cash only. More annoying but real.

Wait, I’m new here and I thought I was doing something wrong because I'll go to the pharmacy for dish soap and somehow leave with a face mask, a pack of gum, and a single bottle of sparkling water? Is that a thing? I moved from a place where you drove to a big Walmart and bought everything once a month. Here I don’t have storage so I can’t buy the huge paper towels, and the smaller pack at the corner store costs way more per roll. Do you just buy the smaller packs forever or do you make the big grocery trip with a cart? Sorry if this is basic.

Yes, big_city_beth, that is extremely a thing! The pharmacy is a trap because they put the non-essentials right in the line and the app coupons make you spend more to 'save.' I’ve tried one very specific rule that helped a little: I don’t enter Duane Reade unless I have a list in my phone and I order ahead for pickup at the counter if I can. Not for everything, but for dish soap, batteries, that kind of item. It keeps me away from the gum wall!

Also have you tried splitting a big grocery trip with a friend? One person gets the heavy stuff, the other gets the giant paper towels, and you each take half. It sounds absurd but it fixed my storage problem. Also, bodega seltzer is a luxury but the place near me sells a 1L bottle for less than the cold case single. You have to grab from the shelf, not the fridge. That detail changed me.

I feel like this whole city has a tax on not planning ahead. The random package locker situation is the same energy—did anyone read the thread about Management installed package lockers mid-lease and now posts $5/day after 48 hours for oversized boxes? That one made me start looking at all these little 'convenience' charges as one big category: fees and markups for not being home, not carrying enough, not walking far enough. Not saying that’s healthy! But I made a note in my budget app for 'avoidable-but-probably-not' and I’m testing a weekly number. Do you all use a separate emergency corner store cushion? Or is that just the same as walking around money?

To LIC_newbie: package locker fees are a fixed late penalty, not a repeated small purchase. I wouldn't merge them with bodega spending. If you lump them together, you lose the signal about which problem you actually have. The person who gets a package fee needs a different fix—ship to your job, track deliveries, add a pickup reminder—than the person who goes to the corner store four times a week.

To DumboSunset’s point, ordering ahead at the pharmacy is a real operational change. I’d add: keep a running note of what you’re 'almost out of' so a trip to the big store actually clears the list. Devil’s advocate against cash-only though: some cards give better rewards, and cash can turn into 'oh I have a ten left, guess I’ll grab a snack.'

Thank you both. I tried the cash thing for one week after LowerEast_L mentioned it. It was honestly embarrassing how fast it went, but I did stop buying the checkout line stuff. I also made a list for the pharmacy and did the pickup order like DumboSunset said. I still ended up at the bodega twice for a lime and a box of trash bags, but I’m not gonna act like I can be perfect in week one. For the big paper towels, I’m going to try splitting a pack with my neighbor. Does anyone have a good system for knowing when you’re actually out of stuff before the bodega emergency? My 'almost out' note is just 'buy soap' and then I forget which soap.

big_city_beth, don’t overthink the soap thing. Put a phone reminder for the first weekend each month, walk the big store with a list, and buy the same brand whatever it is. If you forget something, that’s what the bodega is for. To answer the original question: no, I don’t think you can fully budget out the corner store runs in this city. You just make it harder to be lazy, keep a few bills on you, and don’t treat every small purchase like a moral failure. That’s the real NYC overhead.