Tendencies

Hi All,

I was calculating my sobriety today and doing some math. I have 216 days sober.

When I was drinking I was smoking a pack a day $8 bucks a pack and drinking one bottle of red wine, two tall boys of beer and a mickey of scotch a day. I liked to mix it up you know. So $4 for the beer, $10 for the wine and $14 for the scotch. That was my average intake. Depending on how I felt. I could drink more or less everyday.

So I figure with the smoking and the drinking (I quit smoking about a month after quitting drinking) I have saved around $6000 not drinking and $1500 not smoking. So a total of $7,500

Wow that's a a huge amount. I used to put it all on credit cards when I did not work. I have money in the bank now and the money I do spend is spent on good food and clothes. I had really let myself go so its taking some time to get back into shape as well. I am 35 pounds overweight. I wish I could quit being fat like I quit being a drunk. Hahahahahahah.

Anybody have any similar math? How much have you saved since quitting? How much were you spending? I was a pretty cheap drink as I never went to the bar. It was too costly. I drank at home.

C23

I have thought about this in the past but I came to the conclusion that I just found different things to spend the money on. Although I am much happier spending my money on supplements, vitamins, healthy foods, running shoes, and workout apparel. Oh, and as for the weight loss thing, take it from the guy who lost about 50lbs when he decided to man up and get control, there is money to be spent on new clothes, but it is so awesome to have to do it! Congrats ans keep the total going in the positive direction.

Chris

Mariano

I used to spend on average aprox. 85 euros (aprox 120 $) per week in drinking. I always drank in bars, never in home, so it was more expensive. I used to drink 6-8 pints of beer, three or four times a week. Perhaps the prices are not the same here in Spain. One pint of beer costs 4 euros. Since I have 73 days of sobriety, I have saved more than 850 euros to date (1.200 $). With this money, I'm going on holidays to the beach, where I plan to quit smoking as well.

nandm

3 packs of cigarettes a day @ $2/pack = $6/day
2 30-packs of beer a day @ $15/each = $30/day
1 pint of hard liquor @ 10/each = $10/day
Total per day = $46
Total per week = $322
Total per month = $1288
Total per year =$15456
Total for 10 years of not drinking and not smoking = priceless.... = $154,560

I would say I have saved quite a bit by stopping drinking and smoking at the same time.

fulminouscherub

Since getting sober three years ago I've somehow managed to pay off my credit cards and everything except student loans, despite working part-time for below subsistence wages all this time.

Mariano

Nandm, I think you have saved much more than that. Notice you are using prices of ten years ago. For example, now one pack of cigarettes costs much more than 2 $... At least four more times in US, I think.

Tendencies

Good call on that one.

If you also add in all the wasted time. The loss of wages. The cost of the food binges and the carrying costs of the Credit Card debt mine also goes up. I never got nailed with a DUI but I could have been. I would get drunk and hungry. Sad thing is a lot of the times I could have walked to the store....just lazy fat and stupid.

lovingit

As a motivational tool that someone on here taught me(can't remember who) I have been putting $10 everyday into an envelope(approximately what I would've spent on alcohol). I try not to think of how much I blew over the years. This way every morning I pay myself and see my achievement. I have $430 there now.

Zebra1275

Well I probably saved a ton money by not drinking.

On the other hand, I'm going to spend a lot more because I'll probably live longer.

grateful101010

1.5 bottles of Yellowtail Chardonnay per day = $10.50
1/2 pack cigs per day = $4
$14.50 per day @ 30 dyas per month= $435/mo. x 8.5 mons. sober = $3700

Holy cannoli, I just figured this all out. Spent $ on two vacations for the whole family.

Eddiebuckle

My rehab cost me over $15,000 & I figure that I will break even on that somewhere around 22 months sober (four months from now). But that's just money - not having to drink in the first place is priceless.

Taking5

I was just the opposite, I always drank at the bar, and always drank top shelf stuff. My co-addiction with alcohol was gambling (who coudn't finda bookie in a bar?). I only gambled when I drank. I seriously spent $500 per week on booze alone, and during football season probably add another $100-$200 in gambling losses. Try that for 7 years. Do the math. My house would be paid off and I could probably retire.

EmeraldRose

We did an excerise like that in rehab. I drank for 30 years smoked for most of them but 14. I probably spent a gazillion dollars. I've saved more than money by not drinking.

refrigerator

$8 a pack? I still smoke but usually pay less than 6.

As for my booze habbit, I believe I've saved around 2-3 grand in my 6 months.

refrigerator

I've also been able to save enough to put me through the rest of college. Quitting really, really helped,.

camedown

I was paycheck to paycheck for the last ten years, usually borrowing money at the end of the pay period to get those last couple days of drunkenness in. My first check sober, I deposited, sent off ye ole child support, and drew out a c-note for myself. Including money for groceries, public transportation, and smokes(one at a time, man, one at a time), that hundred lasted me seven days. Quite a change from fifty bucks at the bar a night. Quick math tells me I've all ready saved $1400 in 29 days.

AmericanGirl

On a conservative estimate I was spending at least $5,000 a year. Toward the end I was buying disgusting types of discount liquor.

When I quit I had been digging myself into the hole. Now I am out of the hole and have some savings built up. I do spend more money on lots of other things now that my life is more than just hanging out in my living room or the dive bar. Still, because I was able to secure more work, I really saw my financial situation get more streamlined! I do enjoy thinking about this benefit of sobriety for years I had major anxiety about money and it is a relief to be free of that.

Tendencies

I find it really beneficial to think about all I have saved by quitting. Can we really put a price getting our lives back though? I was a walking talking misery when I was drinking. I ma no longer that person. I smile. I have good days. I have bad days. But I actually have days now.

camedown

Well put, my friend, well put.