I’m fortunate to have a few cheap friends who hip me to bargains that please my palate and my occasional need to splurge on a small scale. Here’s your chance to submit your recommended CTs that cost $5 or less. I’m talking wholesome and legal even though I doubt anything otherwise is less than $5 these days. This is not qualified by high brow or low brow tastes as you’ll see from my three CTs.

Hey the Lincoln Bicentennial is coming up in 2009. You might walk over pennies from heaven, but a 5 could make your day.

Here are three of my CTs in DC:
The lunch special at So’s Your Mom – soup, heated bread with butter, and a slice of cheese for $3.50. This is my favorite “Depression-era” combo. My friend Jennifer hipped me to this and So’s Your Mom is right under my nose in my neighborhood. Drink is extra, but hydrate with some tap water if you care to risk it. Try the chili.
So’s Your Mom
1831 Columbia Road, NW (in Adams Morgan, DC – zip 20009)

McDonald’s Iced Coffee. Around $1.86 with tax. Okay, they hooked me on this one. Not bad. Really. Not bad at all, if you’ve got to have it. And even the 3 cookies for $1 can tame a sweet tooth. I like the chocolate chip.

A slice of pizza at Costco costs just under $2 or just under $4 with a drink). The hotdog and soda special ($1.50). You have three choices in pizza at Costco – cheese, pepperoni, and combo (with sausage, onions, pepperoni, mushroom and green peppers). The pizza slices are generous enough in size (not your monster slices to soak up a night of binge drinking). Plus you have free refills on the drinks. So even with the cost of membership (if you can get it or make it a date with a friend with a card), and a weekly Cheap Thrill, Costco still adds up as a bargain. And try to get there when they’re giving out free samples on the main floor.
Costco (my regular)
1200 S. Fern Street, Arlington, VA 22202 (Pentagon City Metro)

What’s your CT?