Annual Cost of Alcohol is a Buzz Kill: Spend Anyway?
@ 11:19 am
Federal guidelines define moderate drinking as “consumption of up to one drink per day for women and up to two drinks per day for men.” Some days I don’t drink, some days I have more than two, but overall, my average consumption is about fifteen drinks per week. How about you?
I’m sure there is a myriad of health reasons to cut down my “slightly above moderate” drinking, but I consider myself a healthy guy in many other respects. I eat obscenely healthy foods; I exercise regularly; and my only vices are diet soda and booze. If I had any incentive to cut down on drinking, it would be financial.
Drinking drains my wallet, and I’m almost embarrassed to say how much. I like fine microbrews and good wine; I’m a bit less discriminating with spirits, so I save money there. Through tracking my expenses, I’ve learned that I spend between $30-$50 per week on alcohol. Granted, half of the money goes to overpriced bar and restaurant drinks, but if you take the median to project spending by the year’s end, the grand total comes out to $2,080 spent on booze.
Depending on where and what you drink, you could be spending a lot more than $2000 a year on alcohol also.
I don’t mean to be a buzz kill, but it’s pretty shocking to see how much money a moderate drinker will spend on alcohol in a year.
Take a rough guess of how much you spend on alcohol each week. Multiply by 52 weeks. Is drinking still worth the money?
It’s a hard question for me to answer. If anything, I might think twice when someone at the bar says, “Let’s have another!” But if it’s free…
October 9th, 2007 at 1:09 pm
For me (and I drink an average of about 3 pints of beer a week give or take) its worth the money. Socialising with friends is one of the purposes of life - what else would I want to spend my money on.
October 9th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
Another in the myriad of reasons why the alcohol industry is fighting to keep”drugs” illegal.
October 9th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
I was also reading an interesting article about fetal alcohol syndrome which pointed out that women tend not to know they’re pregnant for a few weeks, but they could be drinking while the baby’s in key stages of development. Not something that men or those practicing very safe or non-conceptive sex have to worry about, but another bit of food for thought.
October 10th, 2007 at 7:28 am
John, great topic… for me personally, I try to stay between 3-7 drinks per week. I only drink wine these days, but yes… it adds up.
Your question reminds me of a contest that Madame X posted at My Open Wallet when she asked readers to guess the amount of money spent on wine in one year based on her cork collection.
The answer was $754.03. So true to the typical gender stats, you’re consuming 2-3 drinks to her one. Perhaps you can save money by partying in drag.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:24 am
I’m not a teetotaler, but $2000 a year on booze? I’d rather give that money to kids who don’t get enough to eat. Since you consume 15 drinks a week, why do you bother eating “obscenely” healthy foods? That seems counterproductive to a healthy diet.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:56 am
Nina- I’m often told I’d make a hot drag queen.
MeYeZone -Thanks for your comment. We all can choose to spend our money how please; same goes for charity. I’ve found through personal experience that volunteering my time is more effective than donating money, but then again, that comes back to exercising personal choice.
As for, “Since you consume 15 drinks a week, why do you bother eating ‘obscenely’ healthy foods?” That’s called a contrapositive error. It seems your comment was based more on judgment than sound logic.
October 10th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
Take it from a 27 yr veteran healthcare professional…. the problem with the health effects of alcohol is that the “incentive” to quit because of what it’s doing to your health…. comes after you’ve lost your health.
Though I am in remission now….. I lost 16 years of my life to Lupus. Illness robs you of choices. I thank God every morning for my remission and another chance to make the most of my life. For someone to feel like the only incentive to not drink alcohol is financial…… well, i think your priorities are screwed up. You have only one body….. don’t wait till you lose your health to value it.
October 11th, 2007 at 8:53 am
John, like I said, I’m not a teetotaler. Please don’t accuse me of judging. I said that I would rather spend money on hungry kids–I didn’t implore you to adopt what I would do. Also, since you included in your post a comment about your diet, I just pointed out that it seems odd that one who makes an effort to eat “obscenely healthy foods” would consume 15 drinks a week. It was a question of curiosity, not judgment.
October 11th, 2007 at 9:24 am
MeYeZone, please accept my apology and a peaceful handshake. Thanks for clarifying your comment, and now I understand that you weren’t judging.
To answer your question about why I eat healthy despite drinking ~15 drinks a week, I wish I could say I do it for more important reasons than vanity, but I’ve got to be honest - I like to stay trim. I eat extra healthy to make up for the empty calories in alcohol. That was something I thought about adding in my post, but I’m not the kind of guy who likes to admit to vanity. Also, I kind of just wanted to focus on the money aspect / incentive. But anyway, thanks for keeping me on my toes.
October 15th, 2007 at 7:20 am
Welcome to Carnival of Personal Finance #122
It’s Monday today, and here we all are!
You’ve no doubt arrived to this blog from afar,
By hook or by crook or by llama or car.
But on to the posts! There’s no time to spare!
As most of you folks are keenly aware
This Carnival’…
October 30th, 2007 at 5:32 pm
This is a little late, but I have a lot of tips for saving money on alcohol.
First, instead of thinking in terms of reducing your drinking, but think about changing where and when you do most of it.
Save money by doing your big drinking at house parties or by pre-partying at home with friends (did someone say drinking games!?). Then when you go out to the bars, you will already be toasted and won’t feel the need to spend as much there.
Also, take advantage of specials like Dollar Drink Nights or happy hours.
An easy way to save money is to choose drinks that you have to sip. I can drink 3 or more Mojitos in an hour (at $6 each, that’s a pretty penny), but it takes me forever to finish a whiskey and soda.
My partner has this complex where if someone else has a drink, he has to be having one, too. That is ludicrous. Be your own person and have a drink when YOU want one!
Restaurants make big money off of drinks, but I think they make it harder to enjoy the food. I don’t drink and eat.
Remember, too, that the level of fun you have is not determined by the number of drinks you have, but by the situation. When you find yourself ordering another drink to make the evening more fun, that might be a sign to reevaluate the situation.
November 21st, 2007 at 8:00 am
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August 9th, 2008 at 9:55 pm
I see nothing wrong with this 15 drinks a week? please… that’s one night out. All of you stop being middle aged pansy’s if your eating healthy and don’t smoke going out to drink is a’ok I mean what else is there but having a good time with friends and family at the pub. I’m not condoning being irresponsible and drinking before work the next day but if you got nothing to do the next day play hard. And for all of you that say “you don’t have to drink to have fun”, please we don’t drink so we have fun we drink so you’re less boring. Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die!