What is the opportunity cost of buying the lottery?

- Save the $2. It's not a ton, but use $2 as a starting point to save more every week. Treat every dollar that you spend like the $2 that you saved. Is it worth spending? Can you save it or invest it instead?

- Buy dental floss if you don't have any already. Your gums will thank you, and you'll be significantly less likely to have bone loss and have teeth loosen up or fall out.

- Buy an apple or two at the grocery store. Start eating more fruit. The fiber will keep you full longer. You'll see the pounds drop on the scale.

- For $8 a month, you can purchase many mass paperback books or ebooks. Find topics or genres that interest you. You're probably more likely to enjoy the book than win a significant lottery (maybe unless you absolutely hate reading).

- Set the $8 a month aside for your child's education or needs.

- For $96/year, you can probably buy a warm pullover or jacket. About 7 years ago, I paid maybe $90 plus tax for a Patagonia jacket/fleece. I wore it yesterday when it was snowing outside.

- Uniqlo and other stores sell underwear and socks pretty cheap, and they actually last a long time. It's nice to have extra pairs, especially if you were busy and didn't do the laundry.

Depends on what you mean by "impact". If you want money forget about the 2 dollars and focus on the bigger picture first. Invest larger sums of money in things where you statistically actually get positive returns (i.e. not the lottery) and if you're lacking funds for investing figure out how to make more money and/or live a bit more frugally. Learn about finances. The average person worries about their kids leaving the lights on or such, while wasting tens of thousands in missed opportunities, to inflation and by not optimizing their taxes.