The Cutting Down Alcohol Challenge for January & 2026 :)

cathybird

Welcome to the Cutting Down Alcohol challenge for the month of January and for 2026!    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

January targets

BlueJ94 18 

Brie 10 

cathybird 21 

Dark Sunday 14 

doingitanyway 31 

Dryjan 18 

dustydigger 24 

Jellybaby TF 

leftatthetrafficlights 20 

maggiem 10  

maman 10 

oceandreamer 24  

PriceySOS 23 

redofromstart 20 

RobM99 30  

satchmo1 25  

Season of Mist 25  

sukeyboo 10  

tiddles 25  

Vanlady 21  

Watty1 25  

Wishus 20  

WBF 14  

🌞 🌞  Newcomers welcome! 🌞 🌞

cathybird

2026 targets

BlueJ94 150

cathybird 300
Dark Sunday 160
doingitanyway 300
Dryjan TF
dustydigger 300
Jellybaby TF
maggiem 200
maman TF
oceandreamer 250
PriceySOS TF
redofromstart 300
RobM99 325
Satchmo1 TF
sukeyboo TF
tiddles 257
Vanlady 252
Watty 300
WBF 168

🌞 🌞  Everyone welcome to join! 🌞 🌞

Brie

Going to try this again and while I'd like to go without completely instead I will state 10 dry days a month as being more reasonable.  Let's see how that goes.  

cathybird

hi @Brie , good to see you here! I've added you to the list, hope you enjoy the challenge