The Cutting Down / Giving Up Booze Thread (Part 14)

maman

tallyhoh wrote: »

Well its been about 10 days since I joined this thread & about 12 days since I had any alcohol.

I estimate in that time I have saved a very conservative £60 by not buying wine, even more if you add on the stuff I used to buy on impulsive when buying my fix in the supermarket!

That's great tallyho. Well done!:)


The wine aisle in the supermarket can be deadly. I've taken to buying milk in our local Co-op and was aware the other afternoon of how seeing all those bottles can make me fancy a drink. I dismissed it immediately but it just shows how vigilant I need to be.


I had another AF Friday yesterday. That's 2 weeks in a row.:eek:The main reason was that we had no heating or hot water (plumber's been this morning so now fixed) and I just couldn't fancy a cold drink. It sounds ridiculous but it gave me another to add to my total.


12 AFDs please Shaggy.

Barny1979

17/25 AFDs today

cathybird

Honey_Bear wrote: »

Ooooh CathyBird, you've really got the bit between your teeth now, haven't you?! :T:T:T

Keeping a check of what not drinking is saving you is a brilliant idea, TallyHo!

Ha ha, yes I think I have, Honey Bear - I really want to make not drinking much at all a habit - thanks for the handclapping It's good for now so just going with it. October is my birthday month plus I am going away, so I am trying to make September as "good" as possible to make up for the fact that there will be extra drinking days next month.

I think keeping note of savings is a brilliant idea too, TallyHo - alcohol costs really mount up over the longer term for regular drinkers. I don't know if anyone else has read Amy Dacyczyn's "Tightwad Gazette" books but she was a famous lobbyist for living frugally back in the day in the US and an early pointer out of the fact that what saves you money can also often help with your health and also be environmentally better (for example, if you cook from scratch, it's not only cheaper, the food will probably be healthier than a ready meal or a takeaway and there will usually be less waste because less packaging to throw away). Think it holds true with alcohol too - AFDs are cheaper, healthier and there's no booze bottle/can to recycle/go into landfill! Anyway, just a thought.

Poor_Single_lady

17/24 please Shaggy. Not going to make target but not too far off and this month was a bit excessive. Quietly paving the way for a very low alcohol October.

For me personally November last year was quite catastrophic on the drinking and i felt terrible for a lot of the month purely due to far too much drinking and going out. (And that's what brought me here to you lovely people) So have November on the radar and anxious to have a better month this year.

Can't help but find it a bit ironic The complete Tightead Gazette retails on amazon at £17.91
Will look out for this in charity book shops though Cathybird, sounds like something I need. Thank you for your post. Xxx

cathybird

23/21 for me today please.

I hope you have a better November this year Poor_Single_lady - at least I suppose it was so bad you decided to do something about it? ... I was feeling unwell for a long time before I decided to do anything but I did in the end. These low points and warning signs do help, if people let them.

I can see the price tag of Tightwad Gazette new probably seems ironic and AD would certainly have advised to pick it up second-hand/dirt cheap if you can. The books are actually three volumes of newsletters that AD published back in the early 90s - some of the advice has probably dated and some of it is incredibly good for any age. I wasn't really giving a plug for the book tho per se, it was more that TallyHo's calculations of the savings from not drinking put me in mind of what she said. A good deal of her advice or similar will probably be floating around MSE on frugal living threads too, which is free - MSE being a complete gold mine for that sort of stuff.

Arkers

Good morning everyone,

1 more for last night! Will probably have a drink or two today as it's my wedding anniversary, and I want to have a couple.

Have a good day everyone x
Arkers

maman

Arkers wrote: »

Good morning everyone,

1 more for last night! Will probably have a drink or two today as it's my wedding anniversary, and I want to have a couple.

Have a good day everyone x
Arkers

Congratulations to you and MrA on your anniversary. Hope you both have a good day.:)

Barny1979

18/25 AFDs

Honey_Bear

Happy anniversary Arkers! :beer: - as I imagine you'll be having a bevy or three.

TallyHo, for the first two years every six months after I gave up drinking completely I'd spend far more money on myself than I ever normally do. It was a great deal less than I'd have spent on alcohol, but the things I bought/spent it on were things I'd wanted for a long time. I did a carpentry evening class, a plastering course, bought myself an eye-wateringly expensive silk scarf and a couple of dozen blue pots for our sundeck. I don't regret a single penny of it, and love knowing I can do things I didn't used to be able to (saw in a straight line! plaster holes in the walls!), have something really beautiful to wear and have beautiful things to look at. I don't regret a penny of the expenditure and no longer need to splurge, either. I heartily recommend it when you've reached a target you set for yourself.

I've heard of the Tightwad Gazette but never come across a copy, although one of my very first MSE projects was to Amazon all the books I no longer particularly wanted, and to stop buying them unless there was a really high chance I'd want to re-read them, or dump them after I'd read them on holiday when I'm abroad for which I use charity shops. It always makes me laugh that Marie Kondo has made a very good living out of people buying her decluttering book - if the library doesn't have it, I don't need it. Everything I know about money-saving I read on this site and it's very, very rare I come across a new way of not spending money now - I've been using this site for over a decade and it's still my first port of call for anything to do with money - travel insurance, pet insurance, buying new stuff, money-saving tips etc etc. And it taught me how to list and sell stuff on Amazon and Ebay too. Unlike the Tightwad Gazette, it's tailored to the UK as well. Happy reading!

Good luck for November, PSL.

We went to a drinks and nibbles thing last night. The only AF option was orange juice. I'm learning to really dislike the type of OJ that's served at those corporate-style events. I shouldn't grumble, it was a free event for a new neighbourhood forum underwritten by the university, but I know it's all that's ever on offer and it sets my teeth on edge. It somehow manages to combine being loaded with sugar and unpleasantly bitter at the same time, apparently because it's made from concentrate. Sometimes cheap just means nasty. The only time I've ever served OJ as the only AF alternative it was freshly squeezed OJ (by moi) and it was blimmin' lovely.

24/31 please, Shaggy.

cathybird

Honey_Bear wrote: »

I've heard of the Tightwad Gazette but never come across a copy, although one of my very first MSE projects was to Amazon all the books I no longer particularly wanted, and to stop buying them unless there was a really high chance I'd want to re-read them, or dump them after I'd read them on holiday when I'm abroad for which I use charity shops. It always makes me laugh that Marie Kondo has made a very good living out of people buying her decluttering book - if the library doesn't have it, I don't need it. Everything I know about money-saving I read on this site and it's very, very rare I come across a new way of not spending money now - I've been using this site for over a decade and it's still my first port of call for anything to do with money - travel insurance, pet insurance, buying new stuff, money-saving tips etc etc. And it taught me how to list and sell stuff on Amazon and Ebay too. Unlike the Tightwad Gazette, it's tailored to the UK as well. Happy reading!

Aargh, now I feel my mention of her has been misread - I really wasn't recommending people rush out and buy the book! In fact I assumed it was likely people would have heard of her already because you can't really poke round among money-saving websites without coming across a reference to her at some point or another. What I wanted to highlight was that saving money can very often be good for the health and the environment, which she emphasised, and TallyHo had reminded me of what she said. Having said that I don't think reading the Gazette is time wasted - it helped me a great deal back in the day, as did MSE - I owe a great many good things in my life to MSE.

Honey Bear, I'm also an avid user of my local library, and always have books on the go from there - I own a lot of books too though - I love books, and love having them round me. My ideal home is one that has floor to ceiling books! I love the look of it. I do have a rule of thumb that I'm not allowed to buy a book unless I've read it already (from the library), but I sometimes break that rule, since even though the local library is very good it can't supply everything I want to read.