Yesterday, I wrote about how I planned to spend my fourth. Well this morning, when I was parking my car (we have alternate side of the street rules here), I heard a breakdown of America’s Fourth of July Spending that was published in Forbes magazine. So I decided to look up the article. It lists what Americans will likely spend today on their festivities. Some of the highlights:

  • hotdogs: $101 million and another $34.5 million on buns
  • charcoal and lighter fluid: $274.2 million
  • booze: over $303 million, with another $126.2 million on soda
  • fireworks: $690 million (primarily of the backyard variety)

They estimate the total cost to be about $2.5 billion, which I find to be a staggering number, though I’m not all that surprised. Personally of all the expenses I think that the $690 million for backyard fireworks is the most ridiculous, since they are dangerous, expensive, and illegal in many places.

Whatever your plans are for the fourth count the costs then have some fun.