The Cutting Down Alcohol challenge for February & 2025 :)

cathybird

Welcome to the Cutting Down Alcohol challenge for January and 2025!    This challenge is all about helping people cut down or even give up on their alcohol consumption, mainly for health reasons, but it can also save a lot of money, because the cost of buying alcohol really mounts up over time and sometimes you don't even notice.

The challenge has been running since February 2008 (this is thread no. 19) and has helped many people cut down on their drinking over the past 17 years. The original thread, if anyone would like to read it, is here  

Absolutely anyone and everyone is welcome to join.

The rules are simple, you set a target at the start of the month for the number of days you would like to refrain from drinking. This can be as low or as high as you like but if you haven’t done the challenge before it might be a good idea to make it a low target, say 10 days. Or you can go target-free (which gets shortened to TF in the thread), which means you don't set any specific target and you just see how you go day to day.

As you notch up the alcohol-free days you get rewarded with emojis. These work like gold stars. There is an emoji for 7 days with no alcohol, 14 days, 21 days, 28 days, when you reach your target, when you beat your target, and if you do the whole month.  

An emoji might not sound like a huge reward but they are surprisingly motivating and really help you reach your goals.

As well as the monthly challenge, there is an annual challenge for people who want to measure their progress over the entire year (it feels good to see the days mount up!) Feel free to join either or both  Also, anyone who wants to do Dry January would obviously be most welcome but if you don't want to cut out altogether for Jan, that's also fine (just to clarify!)

It can be hard cutting down and it is helpful to post often, even daily, and even if you feel you aren’t managing well. If you do slip back, always feel free to try again, it’s so much better to keep trying. Everyone else on the thread wants to help everyone else succeed.

We're a friendly lot and we would love to have you around! xxx See you on the thread!

cathybird

2025 targets

Brie 110  

cathybird 275  

CuppaTea  

Dark Sunday 160  

Dryjan TF  

dustydigger  

Justcrackingonwithit  

lantanna  

lilian1977 306  

maggiem 200  

maman TF  

marahouti 325  

oceandreamer 200  

PriceySOS  

RobM99 330  

Satchmo1  

Season of Mist  

Shrewbie  

sukeyboo TF  

tiddles 257  

Watty1  

WBF 168  

🌞 🌞  Newcomers welcome! 🌞 🌞

cathybird

January targets

BlueJ94 25 

Brie 8 

cathybird 21 

clootiedumplin 30 

CuppaTea 25 

Dark Sunday 15 

Dryjan 21  

dustydigger  

Justcrackingonwithit 25 

lantanna  

leftatthetrafficlights  

lilian1977 31  

maggiem 10  

maman 10 

marahouti 25 

oceandreamer 20 

PriceySOS 22 

RobM99 30  

satchmo1 28  

Season of Mist  

Shrewbie  

sukeyboo 10  

tiddles 25 

Watty1 18  

WBF 14  

🌞 🌞  Newcomers welcome! 🌞 🌞

Brie

Hi there - Would like to join in please!  

Starting out with a very low target for January of 8 (assuming 2 dry days a week after the half week at the beginning).  Extrapolating this out for the full year would have me aiming for 104 but let's round that up to 110.  Not big numbers but I should start somewhere.

Health living needs a bit of a kick start but the main issue is weight loss to ensure that when I finally get to see a consultant about my knee in about 18 months they won't look at me and tut and comment (too much) about how much I still need to lose.  

I'll be trying to get healthy in other ways too as I slip into retirement but think this will be the most challenging.

BTW - what does TF as a goal signify?

cathybird

hi @Brie and welcome to our lovely thread! I've added you to the list, best of luck with the challenge! TF means "target free" as in you're not setting any specific target but just seeing how you go day to day, which some people prefer, sorry not to clarify earlier. You can go target free on either the annual or monthly challenges. Hope that helps!

BlueJ94

Hey @cathybird! I'm now down to 4 bottles of wine, so keeping to my word once that's gone then I will buy no more! I've allowed myself 6 days to have a drink if wanted/needed so hoping this works!

cathybird

@BlueJ94 sounds like a great plan Looking forward to January! xx

Justcrackingonwithit

Thanks for the new thread @cathybird and thanks for keeping us all on track.  I normally do dry January, but giving myself a bit of grace this year as I've got a lot going on and I'm doing the 25 in 25 challenge so will have lots of plates to spin!  I've set my target at 25

oceandreamer

Welcome Brie and thanks Cathybird for the brand new shiny thread. This thread has helped me so much over the past year but I have had some dreadful months.  I'm really hoping to be more consistent over the next year.  Good luck to everyone with their challenges.

lilian1977

Please can I join? Dry January so 31, then 25 per month after that. So I make that 306 for the year!

sukeyboo

Thanks for the new thread @cathybird and for all your hard work over the months and years keeping us all on track - you are a star ⭐.

Welcome to @brie and @lilian1977 - good luck to both of you with your 2025 challenges