Giving up/ Cutting Down Alcohol Thread Part 16

cathybird

Just out of interest, I wonder if we could work out a (very rough) figure of how much we save per month by taking part on this thread? Compared to old drinking habits. I'd quite like to calculate a rough total figure. I reckon I'm saving about £116. That's based on buying (on average) 3 bottles of Chardonnay per week at about £8 (though sometimes I spent more) and a couple of bottles of vodka per month at about £10 each.

RobM99

Saving a month? At least £150. Which is quite scary!  (Hence the sports car fund!)  The big point is - all that TAX we're not paying!

ManPants

Just finished a really busy Sunday lunch time in the pub and with the staff still on until 5pm i thought I'd take advantage to clock in. Successfully completed 10/31 days so far for Stoptober.  Sunday is traditionally the night a group of us "lads" head out to another pub for a few jars. I will drive to ensure I don't drink and have another clear headed monday morning. 
Hope you're all having a great sunday. 
Man Pants X 

maman

On current full price for my wine, I'm saving £38 per week. That's roughly £164 per month. Of course, some of my previous drinking would have been far more expensive at bar prices and some extra at Christmas and other occasions especially when bubbles were involved . But being very mse I try not to pay full price. 😁 Current wine was 25% off in Sainsburys offer. 

cathybird

Actually looking back I'm really probably underestimating ... I'm sure I drank 2/3 of a bottle of wine every night with no nights off, so that's 2 bottles every 3 days ... so that's 20 bottles a month ... which with the vodka comes to £180. Sheesh! That's a lot. Scary to think about, honestly, not the cost, the amount of alcohol! I remember when I first decided it had to stop I cut down quite sharply then started monitoring myself on Drinkaware and Drinkaware would still tell me every night "you're drinking way too much" even though that was the cut-down version! Really I am glad I found this thread

Season_of_Mist

It’s a real eye-opener isn’t it cathybird? When we stop to write it down like that. Wouldn’t like to think what I was spending on booze but it was A LOT, and for a long time. I definitely have significantly more money left at the end of the month now. Plus I suppose we need to factor in all the ‘supplementary costs’ of drinking; I’m thinking taxis, takeaways, dry-cleaning bills (if things got really ‘messy’), even the odd unwanted Eb*y purchase in more recent times. Ugh.

11/28 please. Special mention to Manpants for doing great so far in your dry October. 

maman

And all the crisps and other snacks consumed SoM! 🤣

marahouti

I can't begin to guess how much money I have spent on alcohol and supplementary costs over the years 😕. A very conservative estimate of my alcohol spend over the past five or six years would be about £4000 a year. I now buy some AF alternatives that I wouldn't have bought before but even so the savings are considerable. 

RobM99

The spend is misleading in that "Oh, it's only £x a night". Ah. Then multiply it up per month, that's when it gets a bit "Ooh er!"

Season_of_Mist

maman said:

And all the crisps and other snacks consumed SoM! 🤣

You’re right maman. I tried to use “takeaways” as a sort of catch-all phrase but it would also have to encompass late-night trips to the curry house, snacks of all kinds as you say, and after a particularly heavy night there would also be the cost the following morning of a proper cooked breakfast and about 5 mugs of really strong, sweet tea before the day could be faced.

Also just the bland phrase “taxis” doesn’t reflect the true cost of late night / early hours drunken travel; when I lived & worked in London I’d inevitably fall asleep on the night bus back out East, miss my stop, wake up at the end of the route in Dalston Junction or Hackney Downs or somewhere equally god forsaken at about 01.30 am, then in desperation have to find a private hire cab and get absolutely fleeced for the ride back (this in the days before all those taxi Apps. Or smartphones full stop come to think of it.). 

Bad times.