How Much Money Has Alcohol Cost You In Your Life?
Humanoid thing
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Posts: 87
Thanks for the responses everyone, this thread was a brain dump of a thought process yesterday which, for me, adds to the attraction of sobriety.
I fully appreciate all the other costs and opportunity costs over the years, in terms of relationships, sanity and mental health etc. Sorry if I came across a bit single minded but damaged relationships (god knows there are too many of them!) are given for most of us and I felt that writing this is one of the only ways (if a little crude) that the damage can be quantified.
I am not looking to dwell on the past but I think it's pretty important to look into the past to ensure and promote a stable future.
I fully appreciate all the other costs and opportunity costs over the years, in terms of relationships, sanity and mental health etc. Sorry if I came across a bit single minded but damaged relationships (god knows there are too many of them!) are given for most of us and I felt that writing this is one of the only ways (if a little crude) that the damage can be quantified.
I am not looking to dwell on the past but I think it's pretty important to look into the past to ensure and promote a stable future.
Member
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: MN
Posts: 8,704
To be perfectly honest, the money doesn't concern me. What concerns me is the time I have lost. I am of the belief that we only get one shot at living on this merry-go-round, and when its over, that's it. All the lost time I can never get back.
Member
Join Date: May 2015
Posts: 136
Jeez I don't know.
When I was real bad, which was a little more than 2&1/2 years of daily binge drinking, I had it down to this a week:
X3 36 pack of Boxer Light - $50
X1 Boxed merlot - $18
So I suck at math :P But 52 weeks in a year, so that's 126 weeks where I spent $68 at least a week on booze (there's always those tallboys and whatnot between).
So however much that is---- and then some extra thousands for the five years where I drank crazily but without regular spending habit :P
When I was real bad, which was a little more than 2&1/2 years of daily binge drinking, I had it down to this a week:
X3 36 pack of Boxer Light - $50
X1 Boxed merlot - $18
So I suck at math :P But 52 weeks in a year, so that's 126 weeks where I spent $68 at least a week on booze (there's always those tallboys and whatnot between).
So however much that is---- and then some extra thousands for the five years where I drank crazily but without regular spending habit :P
Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Mid-Atlantic USA
Posts: 2,441
Originally Posted by thomas11 
To be perfectly honest, the money doesn't concern me. What concerns me is the time I have lost. I am of the belief that we only get one shot at living on this merry-go-round, and when its over, that's it. All the lost time I can never get back.
Adventurer
Join Date: Feb 2015
Location: Tuxedo Park, NY
Posts: 1,101
Alcohol has cost me $ from missing work, health issues, lost productivity, actual cost of alcohol. Nothing I can do about that now though.
Luckily I have not lost my wife or my family or job, the most important things to me. I see no point in dwelling on it like has been mentioned, move forward with the right outlook.
Luckily I have not lost my wife or my family or job, the most important things to me. I see no point in dwelling on it like has been mentioned, move forward with the right outlook.
Member
Join Date: May 2015
Location: ny
Posts: 156
did some quick math,over 20 years of heavy drinking the last 7 mostly from home but adding all the messed up weekends ,wow I could burn thru 400$ easily in the hamptons ,fire isle did that from 17 to 33 years old ..I am in the range of 400k prob more don't like the math....almost 80 days whoohoo
Member
Join Date: May 2014
Posts: 596
It would be too depressing to go back and calculate. I squandered almost everything I earned on buying booze, buying drinks for others, and ridiculous drunk purchases of unnecessary material things. I can't go back. I'm far more fiscally responsible these days, and that's all that matters.
Trudgin
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 6,348
I too have contemplated the monetary costs over many years / the opportunity costs of what I could have done. Yes , ouch....
As others have stated the cost to body , mind and spirit is impossible to measure.
So what's done cannot be undone and I am grateful to have this sober season in my life now. Additional opportunities continue to arise in sobriety.
As a side note - maybe it's just me - but when I buy anything now be it coffee, a sandwich, a pair of shoes or whatever I am very frugal. I make the most I can now of all resources.
A review of bills and cash outlay - booze aside - has saved 20% in sobriety.
Turns out 8 bucks is hard for me to part with
Thanks for the thread !
As others have stated the cost to body , mind and spirit is impossible to measure.
So what's done cannot be undone and I am grateful to have this sober season in my life now. Additional opportunities continue to arise in sobriety.
As a side note - maybe it's just me - but when I buy anything now be it coffee, a sandwich, a pair of shoes or whatever I am very frugal. I make the most I can now of all resources.
A review of bills and cash outlay - booze aside - has saved 20% in sobriety.
Turns out 8 bucks is hard for me to part with
Thanks for the thread !
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