The Cutting Down Alcohol challenge for October & 2025 :)

RobM99

sheslookinhot said:

Can someone advise what these numbers mean, for the hard of thinking.🤔 

Numbers!   Example; 24/27 means 24 Alcohol Free Days (AFDs) of a target of 27 for a calendar month. 
So for me, it's 27/29 as I had a drink on 3 days (30 days in Sept so 30-3=27) and my tartget was 29.

maman

Yes @sheslookinhot, if you want you can set a target for the month and then post successful AF days. Alternatively, you could go target free (TF) and see how many you can achieve. The lovely @cathybird will add you to the list if you post your aim for October.

20/10 AFDs please@cathybird 

cathybird

I think Imgur (the image website used to host the emojis) seems to be having a problem in the UK so I need to switch the images to another provider. Hopefully it won't take long

doingitanyway

I didn't sign in yesterday but AF and the same yesterday so 25/25 which is good but it didn't feel easy this month. When it gets dark earlier I know the temptation will be greater too. So, thank you for running this @cathybird It really does help

cathybird

September AFD challenge 2025

7 days =  

14 days =   

21 days =  

28 days =  

Target reached =  

Target beaten =  

Entire month =  

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September targets

BlueJ94 25/25          

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cathybird 29/21              

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Dark Sunday 11/14   

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doingitanyway 25/25          

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Dryjan 6/18 

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dustydigger 24 

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Jellybaby 17/28      

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maggiem 2/10  

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maman 20/10          

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oceandreamer 24/24          

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PriceySOS 23 

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redofromstart 28/20              

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RobM99 27/29         

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satchmo1 26/25             

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Season of Mist 30/30               

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sukeyboo 15/10           

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tiddles 21/20             

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Watty1 23/20             

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Wishus 11/20    

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WBF 9/14    

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To see September's results on phone or tablet, click here. See 2025 results here

🌞 🌞  Newcomers welcome! 🌞 🌞

Season_of_Mist

Great work with the emoji’s cathybird, thank you as always for all the time and care you put into this on our behalf. 

I am up to 30/30 thank you. 

Season_of_Mist

[Long post alert, this will likely be of minimal interest to anyone else, but it does really help me to type it out like this - apologies.]

I will today wrap up another completely alcohol-free month in September, to go along with May, June, July and August (plus second half of April). As is usual after a long stint of abstinence I think about giving up alcohol entirely and going completely tee total. 

I joined an earlier version of this thread in 2018, managed to do three months AF but it was from 2019 onwards that I really made the effort and from then on I’ve managed to go five or six months of each year without drinking anything at all. Outside of those periods of total abstinence I’ve generally cut down and even if I’m not having a dry month, I will typically only drink on two or three occasions.

Since 2019 I’ve kept a running tally of drinking days each month on my phone and compared that with what I’ve put on here (cathybird’s careful records very much appreciated) and the two records match up almost exactly, we are talking about a difference of one or two days across that whole period between the two sets of notes.

The numbers look like this:

2019 - 19 days with alcohol out of 365
2020 - 20 days with alcohol out of 366 (leap year)
2021 - 14 days with alcohol out of 365
2022 - 19 days with alcohol out of 365
2023 - 18 days with alcohol out of 365
2024 - 17 days with alcohol out of 366 (leap year)
2025 - 11 days with alcohol out of 273 days so far this year

Taking those six complete years 2019 - 2024, I’ve had alcohol on 118 out of 2475 days. That is 4.78%.

Six years is a long enough sample size to draw some meaningful conclusions. If I am drinking on less than 5% of the available days, consistently, over that whole period then for me that is as close as I can reasonably get to not drinking, without actually giving up alcohol completely. 

I am thinking - again - about giving up alcohol totally, as in many ways it would be a lot easier for me and I am pretty certain I could do it; as of today I haven’t had anything to drink for 5 and a half months and it’s not like I am sat here desperate to break that streak and start opening bottles. 

To give up completely would almost certainly mean not being able to take part in some socials that I really value, yes, I know the argument that I could still enjoy myself without drinking and I have over these last few years sometimes met up with friends at gatherings / evenings together and not drunk anything, but I’ve always come away thinking that I missed out in some way. Some of those friendship groups have dropped away over time (friends becoming very ill, people moving away etc etc) and we won’t meet up any more like we did in times past. Not to sound totally fatalistic about this but I’m getting older, my friends are definitely all getting older, and honestly, spending an evening together with people who have been friends of mine for many years is something that can no longer be taken as read, or taken for granted.

In short I think I’d lose more than I would gain if I cut down those few remaining drinking days to zero. 

So, for now, with the help of this amazing, supportive thread I will hopefully continue to manage my drinking and keep the number of drinking days each month / year very low if not stop altogether. 

Season_of_Mist

Oh - and may I have a target please of 27 for October, thank you cathybird 😉

cathybird

@Season_of_Mist I agree with you about not wanting to cut down altogether, since there are some occasions where a glass or two seems appropriate. And as you say you're drinking so little that I don't think you need to be too concerned from a health point of view either. Well done you on cutting down so much xxx

cathybird

Annual AFD challenge 2025

50 days =  

100 days =  

150 days =  

200 days =  

250 days =  

300 days =  

Target reached =  

Target beaten =

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2025 targets

BlueJ94   66/150    

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cathybird   246/275          

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Dark Sunday   86/160    

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Dryjan   115/TF      

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dustydigger   209/300          

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maggiem   89/200    

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maman   134/TF      

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oceandreamer   192/200        

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PriceySOS   180/TF        

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redofromstart   237/300          

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RobM99   270/325          

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Satchmo1   248/TF          

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sukeyboo   129/TF      

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tiddles   199/257        

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Watty1   154/300      

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WBF   75/168    

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To see the updated results for 2025 on phone or tablet, click here

🌞 🌞  Newcomers welcome! 🌞 🌞