ShenzyT

Morning everyone.

How much did you spend in a day / week on booze ?

My bottle of red was £7 - if hubby was having a red, we got 2 bottles, he'd have a couple of glasses and I'd polish off the rest, couldn't go to bed and leave half a bottle of wine.

£14 a day I was spending - OMG - nearly £100 a week !!!!

desypete

when i had my business i had over 100,000 uk pounds in my bank

i dont know what i spent on my booze but i ended up flat broke with nothing left and going to prison and losing my kids to social workers

i think it cost me a hell of a lot in both money and more importantly the pain and suffering i caused to people who i was supposed to love

so booze cost me more than money a lot more

Marcher13

I figure I spent about $100 aust a week so now I save it and buy myself treats.

PurpleKnight

Probably about £100 a week on average . . . though that doesn't include cab fares, replacement phones, special occasions like Xmas, birthdays, weddings, funerals, New Years, St Patricks day etc etc.

I shared on another thread recently that I like to now go to a coffee shop with a good book as a treat, I used to think expensive fancy coffees was a waste of money, oh the irony is making my chest hurt lol, but considering how much I'm now saving, a £2/3 coffee and maybe a muffin doesn't seem so expensive once a week!!

FreeOwl

there's no real way of knowing.... but I would estimate that over the span of my drinking 'career' - if I include all the money spent on buying booze for others, all the money spent on poor decisions like eating expensive dinners out instead of cooking at home, all the money spent at bars, at strip clubs on the road for work, on drugs because I was drinking and that seemed like a good idea, on consequences of drinking and on the 'flow-on' effect of dealing with hangovers and late fees and other charges associated with being drunk and not attending to life's basic responsibilities - a half million bucks wouldn't be unreasonable.

Thepatman

No doubt about it, my house would be payed and I would be driving a Porsche instead of a old beat up pickup truck. LOL!

Jupiters

on booze? a lot. one month I saw just under $700 that included cabs and hotels.
add 2 DUI charges, lawyers cost, court fees, car repairs, remedial program costs...
hahahah tens of thousands over the course of 10 or so years. I can't even begin to add it all up. I should own a home or at least a cottage by now though.
instead I live in a rinky dink apt with no car and a bank account that is pretty meager...but I'm sober, have food in the fridge and happy. (somewhat, still working on that! day 74!)

ccam1973

Just on my booze I was averaging $125 each week. Add another $50 per week for my wife. Although she hasnt quit yet. So much wasted money over 21 years!

GracieLou

I could have bought a lot but to be honest I would not have appreciated it nor been grateful they way I am today for my 60 x 14 trailer.

Jupiters

even with all those thousands, tens of thousands spent....the worst feeling is the missed time. Missed weddings, missed bday parties and bbq's, missed ANYTHING b/c I was either drunk, still trying to get drunk or hungover and unable to leave my apt.
I cannot ever make that back. Money I can earn again. That stuff, I can't.

HockeyGuy

I remember reading a book that asked this question.. but it also explained that you should include taxi rides, cover charges, Whopper Combos after a night of drinking, and stuff like that. Tips too.

So I remember factoring in around $400 a month, which is wild. Imagine what I can do with $400 extra a month.

HockeyGuy

Yeah, exactly. The money thing is kind of a side effect for me. It was never a deterrent for me to "stay sober and save money". I really didn't care about it.. I'm not rich by any means, but I've always had enough to do whatever I wanted.

ElleDee

Probably $75 to $100 a week.

But with the way my drinking was increasing it was on it's way up to $150+ a week. I was reached the point where I could polish off a bottle of scotch in a 24 hour period.

I had to stop slowly killing myself.

0percentABV

I added it up when I quit and I would have to say the last few years of my career I spent roughly $100 on a typical week. But it could have went as high as $150 depending how often I went out or as low as $50 if I either regulated myself successfully or got free beer for working at the brewery. So $400 a month and $4,800 a year. It's funny because back in my drinking days if I ever got cold hard cash it was like free booze money and wouldn't count against my actually bank money so party it up! Now I got an envelope in my drawer full of cash that just sits there waiting for something to come along that I would like to buy. Plus I sit here contemplating if I should buy that 20 dollar shirt then realize that I used to drink 20 dollars in 2 hours with nothing to show for it except a hangover. Having that extra cash is a big plus of sobriety. Plus having quit weed too that was almost a quarter a month which was $100 so in reality I'm saving close to $6,000 a year! Wow.

But all that said quitting booze and weed has given me a better perspective on life. Last year I had 40 dollars in my pocket and it fell out somewhere, I had no idea. During my drinking days I would have been going mad trying to find it. DANG IT! I COULD HAVE GOTTEN SOME GOOD BELGIAN STUFF WITH THAT! ARRRRGGGGGG! NOW I GOT TO GET CHEAPER STUFF BUT I'M SO MAD THAT I'LL MAKE MYSELF FEEL BETTER BY GETTING WASTED! But instead I retraced my steps a bit and no luck and was like, oh well. And I completely forgot about it. It just wasn't that important to me. It was money I got for selling something I never use anyways so to me it was like free money. The next day I found it in my back yard anyways so all right. It feels nice to have that cushion. In my drinking days spending money was stressful because I knew that I needed booze and the less I spent on other things the more I wouldn't feel bad for dropping 40 dollars a night on all these rare beers that you have to buy now or they won't be there tomorrow! My wife would spend $15 on a bottle of vodka that would last her almost a month and here I am dropping that a night. So manny aspects of drinking is stressful. Money is one of them. Not having to spend cash on that anymore is just another weight lifted.

Windancer

Oh geeze...a BARE MINIMUM of $100 a week in the past year....generally more.

LBrain

Yeah I'm with patman on this

cusper

I think on the average about $100.00/week just on drinks at home. Bar money is a different story.

FusterCluck

Not alcohol, but various other drugs for me. If I factor all of them in, I'm guessing roughly £100-£150 per week. Ouch...

Nonsensical

How much it cost me is not a function of how much I spent.

SoberHoopsFan

I couldn't even calculate really, but I nearly bankrupted myself more than once from my lifestyle. At my first job, I was making a very high salary for two years and I have absolutely nothing to show for it. Next job, which I was at for 3.5 years and I lost because of booze, I made a bit less but still substantially more annually than the average family household (as a single male), but again nothing to show for it. Mind you, I was single without even a girlfriend the majority of the time and I have no kids, nor was I generous to anyone with my money. I spent everything on alcohol (purchase, bar tabs, clubs, etc.), drugs, alcohol-related purchases, alcohol-related vacations, alcohol-related activities, leased fast cars, pointless material items, etc. I'm embarrassed by the way I lived for many years, and the money I blew.

Per week? It was not uncommon for me to run up a couple $500 bar/club tabs in a week when I was living in NYC.

Since getting sober, I've been far more fiscally responsible, and I intend to keep it that way.