No Buying Unnecessary Alcohol 2018

trailingspouse

One of my long list of ways to save money in 2018 is to use up the alcohol we already have in the house!

We stocked up for Christmas, but what with people coming round and various people staying, who all brought a bottle (at least) with them - we've got more than we started with!!

We're not big drinkers (although I'm beginning to wonder...), just a glass or two a couple of nights a week.

Here's my list of alcohol that is in my house right now. We should be able to go a fair length of time before we need to buy more!!

Red wine (my personal favourite) - 6 bottles plus two open bottles
White wine (OHs personal favourite) - 6 bottles
Sherry - one bottle
One large bottle Hendricks gin - started
One small bottle Hendricks gin - nearly finished
A miniature Famous Grouse whiskey
A miniature Bombay Sapphire gin
A miniature Haig whiskey
10 bottles of San Miguel
Tequila
Chinese vodka (given to OH on a business trip - we're seriously scared of it, although they also gave him some Chinese wine which was truly wonderful so maybe we're worrying unnecessarily)
Disarrono - a full bottle and a half-used bottle
Gordon's gin
2 bottles of port
Drambuie
Co-op own brand gin (don't ask...)
Rhucello - like limoncello, but made with rhubarb. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
Coffee liqueur
rum
Triple Sec
Whiskey
Advocaat
vodka
Tesco's own brand rum (see above)
Pimm's
Calvados (holiday souvenir, can't abide the stuff)
Grappa
Cointreau.

Oh, and 10 bottles of Becks Blue.

We also have a large quantity of mixers/soft drinks that might help in the using up of the alcohol -

Coke (neither of us ever drink Coke) - 2 x 2 litre bottles + a case of 10x330ml cans
Diet Coke (ditto) - 2 x 2 litre bottles (both opened!!) + a case of 10x330ml cans
Lemonade - 1 x 2 litre bottle plus two more opened bottles
Elderflower presse
Schloer (pink)
Sparkling water - 5 x Aldi's own, 1 bottle of Perrier
tonic water - 3 bottles + 2 opened bottles
J2O - 2 x orange and mango, 4 x sparkle berry
cranberry juice - nearly finished
box of fresh orange with bits
box of fresh orange without bits

I'm not suggesting that anyone drinks more than they normally drink - just that we use up what we have. And if it takes the whole year, so be it. Think I'll finish the red wine that's been opened first, then make a beeline for the Drambuie. We've got enough advocaat and lemonade to make a goodly quantity of snowballs, which is appropriate at the moment (it's been snowing here since early this morning and isn't showing any sign of stopping).

JingsMyBucket

Oh I thought my list of alcohol was large! How many drinking age people are in your household trailingspouse? I wonder if it might help to ask any guests from now on to only bring dessert as you're totally covered for booze.

My stash is much smaller but it is taking up space in the pantry though. So I'm thinking of having some parties just to get rid of it all. Here's what I've got:

1 large bottle of St. Germain elderflower liqueur

6 mini bottles of St. Germain elderflower liqueur (I meant to give them as gifts last year but never got around to it)

1.5 large bottles of iced tea vodka (great for making Arnold Palmers) - link to the product

1 bottle of ros! wine

1/3rd bottle of Kentucky bourbon

1 bottle of persimmon and lavender drinking vinegar

1 bottle Angostura bitters

1 bottle of cinnamon and warm spiced syrup to mix into drinks.

There's probably something else but I'm blanking. Looking at that list, I should probably start drinking more hot toddys this winter.

TiredTrophy

Use the own brand vodka to make chilli vodka...which we use in cooking..the own brand gin for sloe gin...it will keep til the autumn! and the own brand rum in cooking...flamed banana for example.
If you then have a cocktail on saturday evenings, working through an online recipe book, you can moderately work through the other stuff....even the calvados!
We usually drink one red or white bottle every weekend but it has been much more over the last 5 weeks and I am refusing to buy more until its back under control...we have a lot more wine in than you do but very little else other than gin.
You probably need bitters for those cocktails.....and ice:)

pavlovs_dog

some of it could be used in cooking

red wine and ales both work well with red meat
white wine goes well in creamy sauces for chicken or risottos
rum/brandy is good for soaking fruit for fruit cakes

neither of us particularly like neat baileys, but both enjoy a baileys coffee. Baileys is also great in chocolate mouse, truffles or cheesecake

orange juice and less palatable fizz for a bucks fizz type drink

anyone got any thoughts on using up limoncello?

Islandmaid

trailingspouse use the Calvados in cooking, anything to do with apples, Normany Pork, caramelised apples with a calvados cream, flamb! Apple pancakes etc it cooks off the harshness of the alcohol leaving the yummy flavours

We buy 2/3 bottles of wine a week which is expensive and fattening, we also have a full ‘bar’, so we may join you in your buy no booze ways

ancientofdays

Seconding the calved is in anything containing apples, it works also with pears though I am not keen on pears.
Could you use limincello in a lemon cake or lemony pie of some sort?

We haven't got that much in
2 x bottles part finished of whisky, yuck, for O.H
I bottle of gin, fir me, unopened as yet
1 of vodka, for DS unopened
Half a bottle of Ricardo for O.H again yuck, aniseed
Possibly a bottle or 2 of wine, we both like that.
Some cabs of beer, I don't drink beer

I think that's it.

greenbee

Try this for the advocaat if you want to do something different: https://mortgagefreeinthree.com/2014/11/anettes-advocat-cake/

My mum has been using up some not very nice red wine and the cooking brandy making spiced pears (random recipe from a friend that includes chillies, honey, cinnamon, cardamom and star anise as well as the wine and brandy, and has no quantities attached to it...)

There are plenty of recipes out there for limoncello cake if anyone has a glut of that. I have rather a lot of liqueurs from when I used to do chocolate making, but I'm not going to get rid of them as I'm hoping that when my kitchen is done I'll be able to start making chocolates again.

trailingspouse

Some great ideas!!

IslandMaid - hadn't thought of using the calvados in cooking - but we often cook pork in cider, so it amounts to the same sort of thing. Will add pork to my shopping list for next week.

Typical isn't it - all that booze in the house, and OH announced that he fancies a cider. Do we have cider? No we flippin' well don't!!! I should have mixed some calvados with lemonade and waited to see how long it took him to notice...

JingsMyBucket - what on earth is 'persimmon and lavender drinking vinegar'?? To answer your question, there are only two of us most of the time, but there's a regular stream of adult children and their partners. One of the daughters had a boyfriend who worked behind the bar in a high-end restaurant - his cocktails were legendary. I think that's where a lot of the spirits have come from. They split up, sadly...

And I've just noticed that we've had a totally Bailey's-free Christmas - usually someone buys me a bottle, but not this year!!

Found the Angostura bitters - had forgotten about them until you mentioned them, Tired Trophy - they were right at the back.

Islandmaid

I like lemoncello poured over a scoop of vanilla Icecream

LameWolf

If you're worried that the Chinese vodka might not be very wonderful, try turning it into blackberry liqueur; you'll need to put it aside til blackberry season, but trust me, it makes even paintstripper-quality vodka more than palatable.

I confess, I'm a little puzzled as to why you have so much Coke when neither of you drinks it? I have a rule that I won't buy anything that we can't use up afterwards ourselves.

trailingspouse

A very good question LameWolf.

I was at Aldi, doing the Big Shop, and decided to get a case each of the normal Coke and the Diet Coke, in case some of our visitors wanted it. When I got home I realised that we already had the big bottles left over from a previous gathering. And then when OHs daughter and her man (who do actually drink it regularly) left, I never thought to offer it to them until it was too late.