got thinking cap on now!! brilliant

slig

Hey. Here are my ideas, divided into 2 sections

Part one - ways to save money if you want to have a night out:

• Drink at home. If me and my friends want to have a drunken night, we will drink at someone's house first - saves SOO much money. I have had nights out in town where I've literally spent £0. Not that I'm advocating binge drinking , but if you do want the occasional drunken night, drinking at home first is where it's at.
• Alternate alcoholic drinks with soft drinks. Saves your dignity as well as your money.
• Don't drink alcohol at all on a night out. This can be just as much fun as a normal night out, or can make you realise how stupid everyone is when drunk! If you need an excuse for why you're not drinking (though why should you!), say you're on a detox or are driving.
• Take out cash in advance (£40 is a LOT - I would go for a tenner, but maybe try £20 if you're used to spending £40!) Leave your bank card at home so that you can only spend the cash you've got. Make sure you've got some set aside some for a taxi if needed (though you say this isn't - all the better).

Part two - alternatives to drinking

• Meet your friends for a pub lunch instead
• Have a party round your house - everyone brings what they want to drink and some snacks, you supply the music or a dvd
• Cinema/bowling/ice skating/laser questing/local gig
• TV . Have a couple of friends round to watch X Factor (or whatever show you enjoy) on a Saturday night instead - make an event out of it
• Get fit. I hate sport, but I enjoy doing an excercise class once a week.
• Do an evening class. Also if you have homework to do it can be a good excuse not to go out - 'sorry I've got loads of art/photography/Italian homework this week, I can't come out'
• Can you cook? If not, then learn. It will save you time, you can entertain yourself for an evening learning a new recipe or making muffins and brownies, and you could cook a nice meal for a partner or friend one evening.

Hope some of this helps. What's your plan for this weekend?

MoneyWaster2007

Big thankyou to you all for your helpful suggestions!!!!

i think this weekend, with it being my saturday to work, i will be staying in tonight (i never drink on a work night). then tomorrow i will listen to the leeds game, could possibly go top of league 1, woo hoo!!!
tomorrow evening i think i will get some cans and have a relaxed evening. then on sunday i am gonna give my mountain bike a good seeing to; clean it up make sure its well oiled etc. gonna get it gleaming.....

and by doing all of this i will spend at most £5 (on the cans for sat nite) so a very cheap weekend indeed!! and a very relaxed one- after the hangover i suffered last sunday i dont think i am gonna put myself through that again, lol. not just yet anyways.

plus.....when i do decide to go on a night out, which may possibly be next weekend, i will take the advice of one of the posts in this thread and drink cans at home first, and go out later. this way i will save a packet.

so thankyou once again for your helpful suggestions, i will take them all on board, cheers! money :T

MoneyWaster2007

hey all! so its been another month and another payday, woo hoo! this month i have managed to put an extra £390.00 into my loan, on top of the £174.20 monthly rapayment, taking the outstanding balance down to £4887.54!!!!!:j

so.......its saturday night, but i am staying in with a couple of cans, so i will save my £40 weekend allowance for this week, meaning extra to put into the loan next month, yipee!!

December pay day is early, the 19th, and included in that wage will be the £400.00 bonus. however i will be taxed on this (anyone know how much gets taken off??)

so....when i get my next pay (2 weeks, 6 days time and im not counting, honest) my loan outstanding balance will be into the £3000's. so a great start to the new year and on the home straight!!! not long to go now, although it seems like it....

anyway just thought id share that with you all, hope ur all doing well and working on knocking down your debt!

Money

edinburgher

Glad to see you're doing well mate and coming up with alternatives to the £80 boozeups

While there's nothing wrong with enjoying yourself and having a 'bit' of a hangover at the weekend, don't go too nuts - you've only got one body (bar transplants, anyway!)

One thing that helped me cut down on casual drinking (and it may not be for you) is to join one of these monthly wine/beer clubs that do the rounds in lots of the newspapers etc. There's usually good deals for people joining them (£40 off a case etc.) While monthly drains on the income like this should normally be avoided, the £20 or £30 you spend will be massively cheaper than the £160-£320 you're currently spending.

So you could look forward to a nice crate of wine/beer every few months, still spend £10 or so a week at the pub (what's that, 3-4 pints?) and only spend £80 a month. That's halfing your outgoing costs.

I find that the expectation of looking forward to good quality, specifically picked booze is far more fun than throwing the same old favourites down the neck come Friday night