viZZual.com/Flickr
I was shopping with a girlfriend who at the end of our jaunt checked the time and said “I hope I didn’t get a parking ticket!”
“How much money did you put in the meter,” I asked.
“36 minutes.”
I tried to hide my scowl. I hoped for her sake that she didn’t get a ticket, but I was exasperated that she had not forked over one or two extra quarters for peace of mind.
We reached her car. Phew, no ticket. I hugged my friend goodbye and walked onto my car, where the patient meter read 45 minutes. At a dollar an hour, I had put in $.75 extra.
My friend had gotten away with paying less for parking and I couldn’t help but wonder if my $.75 a waste – or a wise investment? Is it always financially savvy to overfeed the meter? Or is it wiser to save my coins and risk getting a ticket?
I did one calculation to figure it out.
1. Say you park at a meter once a week and put in an extra 45 minutes – $.75 on many Los Angeles meters – each time. That means you are putting in an extra $39 a year ($.75 x 52 weeks). If a parking tickets costs $40, that means you can overfeed the meter for an entire year and still come up ahead (by $1).
But how often do you get caught for under feeding? I guesstimate that the meter maid catches me about one in 10 times I underfeed. If I underfed a meter once a week for a year, I would save that $39 in extra quarters but end up with five parking tickets, one every 10 weeks. (If you think you get caught more often or less often by the meter maid, then change how many tickets per year you would receive.) At $40 each my tickets would total $200, a net loss of $161.
Clearly, it makes a lot of sense to generously overpay the meter.
Run this calculation for your hometown meter and ticket prices using this formula:
the cost of putting an extra 45 minutes in the meter x 52 weeks = yearly cost of over feeding the meter
the cost of five parking tickets in your hometown – yearly cost of over feeding = how much you can save by over feeding
UPDATE: Reader Mira says:
In Long Beach, tickets are $44!! It takes A LOT of extra coins pumped in to get to that amount! (Like 660!! 440 nickels + 220 dimes!) Don’t chance it. I find I don’t need to add 45 extra minutes, even 12 or 15 extra minutes gives a nice cushion — depends on what you’re doing that day.
Welcome to Bargain Babe! I’m Mara, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am an obsessive bargain hunter and penny pincher, and I am determined to live a full life without EVER paying full price. 
I experienced that dilemma when I had my birthday dinner at the Benihana’s in Encino. You are either forced to use their valet service which I hate or feed the meter on the street. I chose to feed the meter. I thought 45-minutes would be enough. But not the way Benihana serves its meals. So I was forced to feed the meter two more times to void the possibility of getting that dreaded ticket. My time did expire by a few minutes, so I did gamble a little. Not the wisest thing to do, but I was fortunate not to get busted. As a rule, I tend to avoid areas that don’t have adequate free self-parking lots. Hence, I usually avoid driving down Ventura Blvd.
A couple of people that work in stores at an outdoor mall near me flat out told me they only check the parking meters on weekends so I don’t worry if I run out of time if I am there during the week.
Live in Burbank. No parking meters. I love it!
In Long Beach, tickets are $44!!
It takes ALOT of extra coins pumped in to get to that amount! (Like 660!! 440 nickels + 220 dimes!) Don’t chance it.
I find I don’t need to add 45 extra minutes, even 12 or 15 extra minutes gives a nice cushion — depends on what you’re doing that day.
Parking tickets are in the $50 range in Berkeley, California and the meter maids are diligent…
I hate tickets and when we lived in west L.A. we would get tickets all the time, especially in Brentwood. I finally would stock the cars with rolls of quarters to avoid the no change problem. I cut our tickets by about 98%. A HUGE savings. And as important, the peace of mind of having money in the meter was incalculable. .25 is a small price to pay for calm.
I put enough money in the meter at the beginning. I am NEVER stressed about time. That in itself is worth an extra quarter.
$50 downtown. Got one last week, even though I had a 15-minute down period between (unexpected additional) city meetings and totally forgot to go & feed. I’ve been lucky about the last 6-7 times, so I guess I was due for some bad parking karma, but ouch! At least in Santa Monica it’s only $35…underpay there, NOT downtown!!
I tend to overfeed the meter. I would rather give up a few cents each time I use the meter than being upset the few times I get the parking ticket (especially now that so many cities are increasing the cost of the tickets to increase revenue).
why chance it? I got a ticket in OC one time, on the weekend, in the beach parking area $77, it was a stupid idea to think I could get away with no pay. Meter maids probably have a competition to see how many tickets they can hand out.
It’s not worth the risk. It’s not just about getting the ticket. It’s easy to forget to pay the ticket on time, garnering fees and potentially a dent in the credit score. A lot of parking meters in South Florida allow you to use credit cards, which works out perfectly.
I suspect your memory of the time you had a bad parking meter experience when you went to dinner with a friend some time ago, and suffered angst over whether you should have offered to share the cost of a parking ticket, is still with you. It’s usually better to be safe than sorry, and go without the worry of whether you’ll avoid a ticket if you under pay. I guess some lessons will always be learned the hard way.
Be advised that most meters on Ventura Blvd are now extended from 6:00PM to 8:00 PM. this gives the meter maids TWO additional hours to get you.
Famouz amos, good point. A lot of meters have been extended to 8 p.m. in Los Angeles. I even saw a meter in Hollywood that runs on Sundays. I suppose it makes sense – there is a budget shortfall, after all.
Yes, feed the meter, even if extra, but not for any of the reasons listed in the article or comments. Parking without paying is breaking the law, it is stealing. If you disagree, go on and just take the groceries without paying. You can drive off with the gas you didn’t pay for in the car you didn’t pay for on the streets you for which you didn’t pay taxes. Go on inside your home you stopped paying for and wash your hands in the water you’re stealing.
Inconvenience is no excuse for ignoring the law.
Set an alarm on your cell phone, unless or course you’re not paying for that either.
Who care why you didn’t pay the meter — just take the ticket and be happy we aren’t living in anarchy.
Sorry, BB. There’s no good reason to raise this question.
If you want to save money, walk to extra blocks from the cheap lot. Use the park-n-ride mass transit; just remember to pay for it.
Sometimes, doing the right thing is the most frugal thing to do. Don’t be cheap with your self-respect.
Anyway, I don’t thing anyone wants to read the ParkingPerp.com blog (doesn’t exist).
Sorry so preachy.
if I’m going to be close to the meter, I figure out a realistic estimate of the time I need, & then set an alarm on my phone to remind me 5-10 minutes before the meter will run out…
I you’ won’t be close to the meter, I always estimate the time I need, generously, but realistically….
It’s like an insurance policy against getting a ticket…
In L.A., feed the meter. They’re watching you.