How to spend $25

I need a part that I can't find locally, so I'm going to place an order online. I hate the idea of a $5 handling fee for a $3 part, so what else should I pick up to meet the $25 minimum? Preferably stuff that's hard to find locally.

What Part are you trying to get?
And from Which Source?

I'm buying a 10-Ohm power resistor in the TO-220 packaging. I found one at Newark InOne by Caddock. I'm going to pick up a P-channel mosfet as well.

I was looking for suggestions like rail-to-rail opamps, better versions of a LM317, 555/556, etc. Anything that is cheaper or better than what radio shack offers. I noticed that inductors are impossible to find as well.

Bear in mind that I dont know what you have not got, and I dont know how bad the stuff is at Rat Shack.
I suggest:
1/4 watt resistors, 10 of each of the common values
capacitors, 0.1uF ceramics for decoupling, 1uf, 10uf, 100 uf electrolytics for general use.
General purpose transistors eg 2N2222, maybe some power transistors 2N3055 or BD132 etc.
Diodes 1N4007 for power and 1N4148 for small signal, maybe a few 400mW zeners in a range of voltages.
Take the opportunity to build up a stock of reasonable quality "common stuff".

JimB

BG Micro surplus carries that exact device for $0.29:
**broken link removed**

And there's no shortage of fun stuff from BG Micro to fill out an order with.

Well, I got ripped, probably because the tolerance is +/- 1% instead of 20%.

No, you didn't get ripped, precision resistors are always much more expensive than regular ones.

Maybe buy some LEDs? and yes 555's, they always come in handy!
Or better yet, think of a project you'd like to do and order the parts.