Nights out on a budget

Daffykjs

How do you manage it?

I have £30 a week pure spending money! And I've been lucky recently that most events have been getting together at people's houses, or that i have had nothing for one or two weeks before so I can save up budget for the week i have something planned (this is the theory of course)!

However, there's a work night out on the 7th March and I'd really like to go! It's in London so would require a train to get there. dinner will be £9 (if i go for dinner) and then drinks on top! oh and they start the 'event' between 3pm and 4pm which would make it pretty long i guess!

I may be able to scrape some money from other non busy weekends but I'm still worried coz this hasn't in all honestly worked very well before (altho i do intend to be stricter next month!)

Anyway, how do you deal with these things? Do you just say no and don't go to the more expensive events? or do you have some other super tips? or alternatively do you just have willpower (which is something i suffer with a lack of! ) and manage to stick to your budget/time when out?

Thanks

lilian1977

Not sure I can really help because I don't tend to go on "drinking" nights out - my nights out are always 2 for 1 meals or Orange Wednesdays cinemas. But I would advise sticking to the budget, and if you really want to go to this meal you'll have to not spend as much as usual the next few weeks! xx

Storm

Hiya,

If there's a night like this that I really want to go to but don't have the money for, then I generally offer to drive. If you give others a lift & they chip in for the petrol then it's often cheaper than the train, plus it makes you stick to soft drinks all night which are cheaper (and whilst you'll often get included in rounds by others, they don't expect you to buy them back!)

The other option is to only go for a certain proportion of the event - i.e. don't go along at 3pm, join them for dinner & after that or vice versa.

If you're worried about willpower, when you go make sure you have the amount of cash you've budgetted in your pocket and no cash- or credit- cards, that way when the money is gone, it's gone!

sarahs999

Dinner for £9 is super cheap - where are you going, wimpy??!

Drinks alone will knock your £30 budget on teh head, once you add in teh train price. What I tend to do is go, try not to get cornered into buying rounds, drink slowly and always make sure I know the timeof my last train, to avoide nightmare taxi scenarios.

TBH London is far too expensive for a ngith out when you want to save money, unless you#re with like-minded people.

Daffykjs

That's very good advice storm! In fact I do normally drive (not other people if it's london coz i wouldn't want to drive there, but myself to stop the drinking costs) in tight budget situations. Thing is with this one I quite fancy actually drinking for a change. I feel like I haven't had a night out drinking in a very long time!

The cash thing is a very good idea but made me feel so nervous when reading you wouldn't believe!! hehe, daft huh! but i do feel nervous without my cash cards for emergencies! but i guess this is where the willpower would have to come in! have the money i can spend in cash and NOT get any more!

Also good idea about just going for a bit! I'll probably do that, depending on budget I manage to squirrel away for it of course!!

I CAN do this!

Daffykjs

sarahs999 wrote: »

Dinner for £9 is super cheap - where are you going, wimpy??!

Drinks alone will knock your £30 budget on teh head, once you add in teh train price. What I tend to do is go, try not to get cornered into buying rounds, drink slowly and always make sure I know the timeof my last train, to avoide nightmare taxi scenarios.

TBH London is far too expensive for a ngith out when you want to save money, unless you#re with like-minded people.

hehe, set menu at a chinese in soho! apparently! does sound a bit too good to be true huh!

I agree London is a nightmare for budget! it's easy(ish) in my town to stick to, coz it's quite cheap. don't think these are like minded people! i reckon they'll be on a mission and screw the cost!

beckseven

Why don't you ebay or amazon some stuff or do some mystery shops so that you can extend your budget a bit. You do need some fun sometimes and if you made a bit of extra money this could pay for your drinks.

Daffykjs

hehe ebaying stuff is (and has been for a very long time) on my list of things to do! I have bag fulls but haven't got round to putting them on! I must do it and you're right this could be a good incentive to make me do it NOW! Gvie myself a deadline!

I do actually get a bonus from work next week! Which i technically could use some of! But I don't really want to use it 'just' for a random night out! i want it there for things i REALLY want to do and might not have the readies for! and i really would feel guilty if i used it for this I think!