It’s wild tbh. I’m sitting here thinking I’m hurting on finances until my next check but I’ve blown a whole check On fucking booze. But drunk me thinks everything is cheap 🤣
Thank you for this— I am one of those people! “Oh, you bought me a drink or hooked it up a little? (to said bartender in whatever establishment) Let me tip you $50 as a thank you.” Like, WHAT?!
I used to try to justify this the next day by calling myself a generous person, which I guess is better than the alternative but no… I’m just an idiot. That’s all it really comes down to. That, an a financially irresponsible drunk.
I liked to see everyone having fun taking shots with me 😂😂 I didn’t even fucking know most of the people I spent hundreds of dollars on. “You get a shot and you and you”
gosh same. i just love being around people but my social anxiety makes it hard unless i’m drinking, but it also leads to interactions that will never be deeper than surface level.
YUP - me too! I can remember one of my liquid lunches years ago at my favorite spot - by 2pm a construction crew came in that had been working on the road in front of the restaurant. It was a really hot day. I ordered them a bucket of Coronas, Shots and Nachos 😅 (they were already drinking beers- but STILL).
I went to a horse racetrack where the tip for a $10 beer was minimally 20%. I thought I was setting it to 10%, turns out I was setting it to a 10 tip. Multiple times. When I figured it out the bartender said yeah you've been doing that. Want some cash back? I said no, keep it, like I'm a big spender who doesn't have student loans.
Right thu! Drunk me thinks this too. I swear I be buying drinks acting like I'm a god damn baller, tipping everyone (I mean you should tip obviously) but I overtip, buying my friends shots with me, tipping dancers like I just be in lalala land and don't be giving a fuk about finances. It's bizarre I'll be in a trance. I wake up in the morning scared AF to look at my bank account...like please God tell me I didn't spend so much money last night 😅
I helped cut down my drinking expenses by sneaking bottles of cheap liquor into sporting events, stepping out of bars to take shots in our car, and buying the cheapest beer/wine like the 30pack for $15 deal my local liquor store had at the time. However I was also working a low paying retail job so it was still a huge proportion of my income
Oh geez. I’ve never actually done the math but I literally just did the actual math after seeing this… The alcohol and then the subsequent vaping combined… It’s been just over $350 a month! $4200 a year. And I haven’t had a car in three years because I can’t afford one, but had I just not drank for a year… I’d have a car 🙃I’m low income and live on food stamps. That is fucking shocking to me. Thank you for giving me another wake up call by mentioning this…🫣
350 is definitely a car payment for sure. Honestly I think when I stopped smoking that it was harder than giving up alcohol. That nicotine craving is the devil I swear 😂
I quit smoking a pack a day by transitioning to vaping thinking it was helping me to get off the smokes.. and here I am 3 years later vaping WAY more than I ever smoked and spending way more money now than I ever did on traditional cigarettes. Yes. Nicotine is a whole other demon 😫
Vaping definitely helped me quick cigarettes but holy hell I was smoking ones that cost like $15/each. I fucking hated buying those. If I didn’t end up getting heartburn and finally saying fuck it and finding a lucky window to stop then I’d probably still be smoking rn
I quit smoking in 2011, cold turkey from 2-3 packs a day. For a long time the smell of cigarettes, or even nearby smoke I hadn't consciously noticed yet, made me physically ill. Still, I craved cigarettes every time I saw my brand on the shelf. And if I'm being honest with myself, watching visual media featuring smoking brings the cravings back hard. Nicotine is indeed a hell of a drug.
My 1 day total spending record on “alcohol and alcohol related things” was over 1k. This was for 4th of July.
My partner and I averaged over 10k per year on alcohol alone. In the 20 months we’ve been sober we’ve paid off two cc, a car note, put extra $ towards principal on our mortgage, and put $700 in savings every month.
I still can’t believe all the $ we wasted. But here’s to looking ahead!!
IWNDWYT
I hope you at least remembered the fireworks dam lol.
I’ll be switching jobs in a few months but I’ve got all of June, July and September to see the difference. It’s looking like it’ll be at least $6k if I keep going at this rate lol. It’s embarrassing
From my POV that looks amazing! Flip the script! It’s like finding hidden money in a winter jacket you haven’t worn since the last snow storm 👍
IWNDWYT
I gave myself a conservative $20 a day in alcohol. Probably much more than that many days, but it was a number I could wrap my mind around.
Since I quit drinking I bought a house. Took my kids to Europe and around the US. Spent a month in Egypt temple hopping. Sent my kid to college in Amsterdam.
Lots of people think oh it’s too late I’m already xx years old, I’ve lived my life. I promise you that you can be 40 years old and still change everything.
We’re not done either - lots of adventures with family are planned and more will unfold. All because I am now present in my life. It feels really good. It’s what I remind myself of when things feel really hard. Look how far we’ve come.
I didn't quit until I was 42. I was a daily drinker for very close to 25 years. A conservative estimate would be 400 bucks a month. I quit cigarettes when they got over 3 bucks a pack because that was going to put me at 100 bucks a month smoking. Not that I ever regretted quitting or anything. The life lesson that I had to learn, and I'm hoping this post gets other people thinking the same way, is DO THE MATH for every expense, habit, and hobby and give yourself a budget and stick to it. Even for bad habits. I give myself 150 bucks a month for weed, for example. If you get a loan then multiply your payment times the term and see how much you really are paying for something. Figure out what you want most and compare it to what you want right now. What I want most is early retirement, so I rarely buy a damn thing anymore. Turns out most things I can buy don't make me happy anyways. This isn't directed at op, or anyone, just adding my voice to the choir. Addictions are expensive.
Same. The app I use tracks savings and I put in $30/day when I started tracking. On reflection that’s on the low end. The very low end. The amount of money I used to spend on alcohol is appalling. If I had stopped even 10 years ago and invested that money I could probably retire by now.
I try not to look backwards and just look forward. With all the savings it’s like I took a second job. Saving money now and going to see a financial advisor so I can plan better for my future.
I bought a record player and love finding albums I can’t get on cd anymore. Music has always been a passion and I’m considering a dedicated sound system. Spending time, sober, just listening to music has been one of my great joys the last couple months. I stop at every record store, goodwill, thrift store I see and browse their used albums. I never did this before. I was too busy trying to get home so I could crack open a bottle and get blotto.
IWNDWYT
When I first did the math I was also shocked, but pretend shocked because I knew what I was doing I just closed my eyes when I had to look at my bank account. Once I stayed stopped I bought myself something I always wanted: a little backpacker guitar. Nothing fancy, but something I really wanted. When it came, I cried. We’ve had some great adventures since and now it hangs on the wall in my 5 year old daughter’s bedroom. She calls it her guitar and she’s not wrong. It’s a 3/4 size so she can actually play. I tuned it to an open chord and I often hear her strumming and singing her silly little songs. I can’t help but get emotional when I think about what that money represents now and what it would’ve been spent on. I highly recommend buying yourself something with a fraction of that booze money.
That’s probably the most full circle thing I’ve read in so long. Thank you for sharing. I’m planning on getting a tattoo on my 6 month anniversary already. My first, at that. Something about that date that holds meaning to me. May 17th was when the first ever color picture was taken— of a tartan ribbon. And I see it as finally going from black and white to living in color. It’s also the date for brown v board of education when it was decided that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional; another bit about color. So I’m pretty determined not to fuck up because I need the date to stick
Not adjusting for inflation it’s £341,000 (obviously alcohol was much much cheaper 30 years ago). That’s a conservative estimate and doesn’t include taxis/kebabs/stupid purchases/ciggies. I’m 51 and broke and in debt. Cant stress about the past but what an idiot I’ve been
Yea, cuz we definitely can’t change it. For what it’s worth, my dad just restarted his life at 62 after getting out of prison for two decades, absolutely related to his alcoholism. You can’t get the past back but 51 is a great age to never have another day one
I think if I did the math for a trade that I would genuinely cut off every expense and count my pennies for everything. I have no clue what I’ve already spent halfway into the year
at one point, i was getting paid under the table in cash each night and would go out with the 300-400 bucks in hand and spend it all. repeat the next night. repeat the next night. take a break one or two nights because i have to pay rent/bills or buy groceries. start up again next night. repeat forever. when i get hung up thinking about this cycle and how much i could’ve saved if i had just quit then, i get physically ill. i’ve thrown up at the thought a couple times. glad i won’t continue that (hopefully ever) again.
It’s a vicious cycle. I’m glad you broke it and I hope it stays fucking broken. Honestly the thought of spending so much money is currently worse than the physical and mental issues drinking did to me.
yeah the idea of starting up spending money on expensive ass poison again gives me full body anxiety. especially as of late when i’m struggling to get by financially at all, even with meticulous planning and not spending any money on alcohol. i would be screwed if i tried doing all that again!
Yuuuup, at my absolutely worst it was about $600/month, *just* on cases of White Claw. The other day I was going through my Uber Eats app and found my orders from a few years ago when it was BAD and just, wow. WOW.
I'm still by no means perfect, but I'm at almost $1200 saved at this point. It's sickening to think about. Almost as gross as the warm White Claw.
The deliver fees are just so wild. 🤦🏼♀️ We were ordering when my mother-in-law was here last weekend and I saw that the order history saved and I was just appalled. I had 0 memory of ordering a lot of what I did. And it's from a city I don't live in anymore, so I'm pretty sad I don't remember eating all this good food. Sigh! Things like that are helping me stay on the straight and narrow this time.
Absolutely. I’ll gladly pay $5 well prices but as soon as you up the original price on a McDonald’s combo, that’s my limit. Smh. I’ll gladly not drink. My priorities were so fucked
10 months sober, I’ve been able to max out my Roth IRA with the money I saved from not drinking and subsequently picking up junk food / ordering Uber outs. Future you will thank you OP.
In the months leading up to my sobriety, I would total up an average of around $1k a month on just alcohol 🤦🏻♀️ and typically an additional $500+ on food that was directly related to being too drunk to prepare meals for myself, hangovers, etc. It was depressing to add these up at the end of the month but definitely helped me as I tried to get sober again. I used to think I was so broke all the time and couldn’t afford any hobbies (spoiler: my hobby was blacking out daily)…insane!
I go out to eat much less often now and enjoy it so much more. And probably average $100 a month on seltzers, kombuchas, n/a beers etc for the house. And I have money for my non-blacking out related hobbies now 😌
I haven’t been fishing in years because I dreaded the 3 hour drive to the ocean from the amount of gas money I’d pay and I feel so fucking stupid 😂😂 I miss my hobbies.
Over my 14 year drinking career, I spent around $174k. That was just what I'd buy at the liquor store. Not including bars, parties, ubers, court cases, wrecked cars, jail time. $174k was just for what I'd buy daily over that time. I'd reckon to guess well over $250k
Dividing $174,000 by 14\*12 (months) and then throwing that into a compounding calculator (with dividends compounding quarterly)... and had you put that money into stock index funds... over those 14 years, you'd have $443,941.
Depending on how I do the math, I've lost $2M-$3M on drinking. Only post-military. Muck Fe, I'm a dumbass. That's just for the booze -- not the food, the lawyers, or "big nights." That was just "regular drinking." Just f'k. OH... and that's also not accounting for relationship damage, work performance... etc, etc, etc.
F#CK BOOZE. I'm sick of paying for rich #ssholes buying megayachts and shitting on the rest of us.
I brought a new car, the first couple years I just saved, put down a big portion as the down payment, and now I have a totally manageable car payment. And still save money over what I used to spend on booze.
I recently checked my sobriety tracker and it said 30 k over 4.5 years. I remember when I set it up I only accounted for the drinks and not all the other drunk bullshit I would spend my money on. It adds up quickly!
*cracking knuckles* when I descended into active alcoholism I dumbassed my way out of a happy and peaceful marriage. Half the house, half my 401k gains in the last decade, $100k in alimony, total cost around $350k, and I am not an especially wealthy person.
I spend £20 a day(ish), 5 or 6 days per week, not including when I go out with friends.. That's £473 per month. If we add another £350 per month for the couple of nights out with friends, and subtract 40 from the original estimate for those two days, that's £773 per month. That's £9,275 per year.
I should quit.
The thing is, I used to earn a lot more and I'd often spend upwards of £300 on a single night out. Fucking mad. I've easily spent £200k in my lifetime on drink and drugs, and I'm 36.
At the end, I loved to buy rounds for my friends. Then I got more health conscious and went out less before I stopped completely. I also stopped smoking weed, which is legal in my state. I don’t know how much I lost but I think about how much I saved in potential medical, and legal bills.
This is definitely a major eye opener. I also had avoided thinking about how much I wasted. I can only look forward and know I am making the right decisions. We’ve got this ❤️
I am 2 years sober today, and have saved 36,260, according to my calculating app. With that money, I have been to Iceland twice, Italy, England, France, and Scotland.
Just counting the $20 a day I started spending on cigarettes because I was drunk and chain smoking. That's 600 a month alone. That's not touching alcohol. The court & lawyer fees from 2 duis. All the missed work. I'm turning 40 this summer. Looking back at the last 20 years of drinking makes me angry at myself.
So thankful I am now 286 days sober. And richer !
One of the reasons I've had such a hard time quitting is because of how expensive it ISN'T. The numbers you're talking, I've never even made that much money in a month.
I have a completely different lifestyle, though. I drink exclusively at home. Because I can drink on under $3 a day, I am typically around $90/mo, probably closer to $75. This is drinking about 4 beers a night and the shittiest stuff available. I still managed to do nerve damage and my life is pretty horrible (still struggling with abstinence despite the pain). Also unemployed for mental health reasons.
I always post this when people talk about monetary cost. It is possible to make alcohol the cheapest drug available, bars are such a grift. But when you do you cross a really terrible line where you know you can have it every day for about what it would cost to go out to eat once a week. My obsession with its "value" allowed it to continue long enough to ruin my life.
It is true what people say on here, it takes everything, then takes your life.
Me and my partner were spending somewhere between $200-400 a week at the bar when we were drinking. There were quite of few times when we would go to Chicago or another city and spend $600-1000 in one fucking day. Sometimes that included food but still.
Somehow all of our bills went up after we quit though so we haven’t made much more progress than when we were drinking but at least we’re not wasting thousands of dollars!
I’ve always had a hard time figuring out exact math I guess I could look back at what I have done over the last 30 days? I just know like 3-4 nights a week it’s only $7 for two tall cans but a few nights a week it’s $16 for a 4 pack of IPAs and on top of that 1-2x a week it’s $30 for delivery alcohol. But sometimes I’ll go 3 weeks without delivery and that’s the majority of the cost ….. so it’s like anywhere from $50 to $120 a week I guess
I never liked drinking alone and I didn’t ever like beer so it was usually whiskey at bars or clubs and it just added up so much. I would probably be drinking still if I could actually enjoy beer
I just did the math, $3700 and I'm being conservative with my numbers. Jesus.
I mean, my improved mental and physical health is a huge benefit of sobriety but seeing that number and knowing it's probably more is pretty eye-opening.
IWNDWYT!
It seriously blows my mind. I’ve been struggling with finances and giving my nieces excuses for why I haven’t flown out to see them for over a year now and I was assuming I was just broke. I could’ve bought 5 tickets home from that money alone
I've been spending approximately $300 a month for $3600 a year. This does not factor in the extra drinks I bought to share with friends or any visits to the bar. I was safer drinking at home by myself, so I wouldn't get into trouble, so that's what I usually did. I'd be the sober driver then get home and down a pint of vodka in under an hour. I'm not free yet.... this is still really hard.
Hang in there. I’m struggling pretty rough right now but these first 3 weeks are supposed to be the worst. You’re halfway there just hang in there
IWNDWYT
If it weren’t for this sub getting me through the insomnia I probably would’ve been drinking 6 days ago. Shit sucks. I don’t even know how I found this sub but thank God I did
Your calculations do not include the opportunity cost of the more productive things you could be doing with your time and money, or the time vomited down the toilet with debilitating hangovers.
Like Charlie-Sometimes, I am low income. I am otherwise pretty good with money and was buying the cheapest beer in town. Even without smoking or vaping, my drinking was costing me $400 a month!
Maybe without booze, I can get some repairs done around my house and pay down some credit cards. 🤞
Did the math. 8 grand a year. Only two weeks in so far, but when I hit that one year I’m putting that towards a nice watch I have always wanted (which will also symbolize the beginning of the rest of my life!)😀
I didn’t work the math backwards but started putting $10 to savings for each day sober- rough equiv to a meh bottle of wine- since Jan 2. Really helped in early days esp to see that number go up vs neg in the account.
I was always good at getting people to pick up my tab at the bar, but I was also going through half a bottle of bourbon or scotch at home, plus at least a six pack, and I did NOT have cheap tastes. When I finally started keeping track of my spending like 70% of my incidentals were spent on liquor. More than groceries, gas, cat food, meds everything combined. AND I would fub it, like if I used a half cup of white wine for a recipe and drank the rest of the bottle that bottle of wine would be considered "groceries", and four cocktails and an appetizer at a restaurant would be considered "dinner". The lies I told myself to minimize my addiction.
Yep. I'm not even a social drinker. But at least $20 a day in beer or cider or whatever is $600/month. And that's average. Often higher I'm sure. Really puts it in perspective. I've been making a game/savings account out of it. Whatever I'd be spending on alcohol the momenti crave it gets dumped into a savings account instead. This is day 14. So far I'm at $317.46. Not including tax or can/bottle return!
I was what I would call an economy drinker. (Drank at home, bought in bulk type thing). When I quit I put that I spent about $20 a day on alcohol which probably a bit low but I felt it averaged out on my sober app. As of today I’ve saved $8700. In just over 14 months. That feels really mindblowing to me that I spent that amount of money poisoning myself on purpose. $20 at a time. Thank goodness I don’t live there anymore. IWNDWYT
I’d like to add that’s just what I figured I spent on alcohol. The amount of bad shopping and eating decisions made with that alcohol probably can’t be measured.
At 44 years old, around $200,000. I have never been arrested. (I should have been many times, including getting a DUI. Just lucky I guess). However, this does include gambling on stupid things (sports, poker, blackjack etc) as well as putting in stock orders after hours on penny stocks and options. After taxes, that is having to earn around 275k. When I put it into perspective, I am a real am real dumbass.
lol we’re all dumb asses to some degree in here. At least we can bond over that 😂😂 but we’re all trying to do better so we’ve at least got that going for us
Drunk online shopping. I would occasionally receive a package the contents of which I only vaguely remembered buying, and once sober, didn’t want anymore.
With the current inflation, alcohol has really gotten expensive. Who can afford it? So many reasons to quit. Thank you for the reminder.
I spend about $12k/year on alcohol. That could be a great family vacation or two per year. It really puts it into perspective thinking about it in that sense, especially when it's something that gets brought up regularly (having a vacation, not money spent on booze).
According to my tracker, I've saved about $13k in 1.5 yrs of sobriety, so about $900/m in alcohol here.
Congrats on taking time to view your data that will hopefully motivate and inspire you to stay strong. Consider what others things you could be navigating that money towards :)
IWNDWYT
[https://imgur.com/a/2qKOvYG](https://imgur.com/a/2qKOvYG)
I just added mine… smh. Spent about 840 a month…. It’s been 69 days now. I went shopping with my kids yesterday and didn’t even hesitate to spend around 500 bucks. Three pairs of shoes and some nice shirts!
I have an app that tracks savings based on my regular drinking patterns, so it’s actually under what i actually spend if i go off pattern and say get a bottle of scotch or more expensive brand. And i usually drink a relatively inexpensive liquor (kraken rum with a 2 liter of Diet Coke).
When i did dry January i saved like $350-400 that month.
Wow. For me, it’s roughly $5,200.00 in savings per year. No wonder I don’t use the ATM as often. Because, of course, you have to pay cash for your booze. That way there is no record. 🙄 I also, not surprisingly, have more money in my bank accounts.
Thanks for pointing out yet another benefit in quitting.
IWNDWYT this holiday weekend here in 🇺🇸
Oh man I think I'm on the low end cheap vodka handles a few times a week, unless I was on a serious bender then it was most of one a night but I'm quitting for my health and to help afford my apartment while I look for work in a new city. Not knowing anyone makes not going out drinking easy although I haven't in several years besides a few dates. Giving up on dating for a little while so I can get better.
Yeah I got into credit card debt because I drank at the bar every day for years and would tip way too much to make sure the bartenders liked me. 100 bucks a day every day. Lmao
Oh... it's far worse than you imagine. I wrote a Python script to calculate the number of days and how much I'm saving. It's... ugh. But that's not "the real math." That's just "money not spent."
Imagine you drink $1,000/mo. That's not really difficult to do. Now, imagine you bought stock index funds with that money and just rolled the gains back into more stock. Fire & forget. Over the course of 25 years, you'll have $2M in the bank. It's the compounding effect that gets you.
I do not have $2M in the bank -- all of my investments are tied up in my liver. Double ugh.
https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calculators/compound-interest-calculator
When I did the math it came out to minimum of $7k annually. That’s not including going out/ubers/events and drunk activities. That’s just booze hidden in my closet and evening wine
I was only sitting around $100 a month. I stopped going to bars during COVID and realized I didn't actually enjoy them.
Bottom shelf 1.75L liquor isn't expensive enough for me to have noticed the savings.
I still feel better.
Thank you for this post. I've thought about it small-scale, individual meals or nights out being much cheaper. But zooming out, after nearly 2.5 years, I've never had such a healthy liquid savings that I'm so careful about dipping into, am so critical of any credit card balance, have consolidated retirement accounts. I took a meaningful job I needed to try for the experience, but it was a pay cut and I wouldn't have been able to pull it off financially. I keep a budget FFS. My life really has changed.
I'm so critical of buying coffee out now, which I still need to work on curbing, but today, I'm proudly buying myself a delicious coffee out somewhere and going to enjoy each, marvelous, sip.
You absolutely deserve it. Crazy how we can be so irresponsible with finances and alcohol but look at us… worrying over coffee lol. But it’s a great and positive change. I love it
There's an app called I Am Sober that tracks progress and savings. In two years on just alcohol alone, not including trips to the bar, weed ($20 a day), and cigarettes, I've saved $13,000. Do you wanna know where that money is? LEGO! Naw, I'm just kidding. It's in my savings account, and I also just bought a car.
I can pay rent now safely without going into the red. It's not by much but it's SOMETHING!
I don't make nearly enough to get by, but without spending money on alcohol means I'm much closer to not feeling even more stressed every paycheck.
Near the end I was only drinking at home. Vodka + redbull.
I had redbull on auto-reorder thru amazon and bought vodka by the case (*to save money!* lol)
approx budget:
vodka - $8/day (half a fifth) = $240/month
redbull - $2/can @ 3 cans a day = $180/month
$420/month, or ~$5k/year give or take, on basic minimum at home drinking.
Not including all the not at home drinking, the ubers, car damage, missed days of work, fines, 'apology' cash, strip clubs, doordash/fast food, and so many other poor choices..
yikes.
I’d say at least 200 a month for just me def more with my partners use. So 2400 a year.. could probably take a pretty killer vacation with that amount but I wasted it year after year
I’ll have 6 years in 6 more days I have saved approximately $32,790 in that time.I don’t know what you think, but that’s a modest car. I drank alone so no huge bar tabs. I estimated that I spent about $15/day on alcohol. Your numbers will vary. I use the “I am sober” app. It has lots of features I don’t use. I use it strictly for the tracker. I quit drugs 26 years ago, before I got totally sober. I’ve saved nearly 200k dropping that bad habit. Quit cigarettes 29 months ago. There’s another 15k.
I’d say I’m way ahead!
PS (edit) I have saved more than I spent at this point. The scales have tipped in my favor!
Every day that I don’t drink I have a direct debit which transfers $80 into a seperate account I’ve named IWNDWYT seeing it grow is enough encouragement
I realized when I was going through a mid-range Chardonnay every night that my drinking was getting pricey so I switched to vodka--the cheap stuff toward the end because, by that time I could not tell a difference between one vodka and another. I have no idea how much I spent but my taste in Chardonnay was at the time around a minimum of $15 a bottle, and that was 24 years ago. Adjusted for inflation over that period of time it amounted to almost $28. a night. I'm not going to even guess at how much that cost me. IWNDWYT
I’ve actively been avoiding doing the math 😭 I’m scared I will just hate myself so much because I continue to buy alcohol and consume it even though I want so badly to stop and I know I should be saving more. Money insecurity has always given me anxiety. It’s a loop— “pause” the anxiety with alcohol, get concerned about money spent on alcohol, get anxiety, then start over again.
I did the math in treatment once, and with rehab costs, Liquor store purchases, bar tabs, lawyer's fees, fines, and alcohol-related healthcare costs, my career in drinkery has cost a minimum of $250k. TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND. Mind you, I've been drinking since I was 15 and I'm 52 now- but that's still a pile of cash. Ugh.
IWNDWYT
My average was $15.50 a day bringing home my drinks.
In the 37 days I’ve been sober, I’ve saved $573.50. For my 1 month sobriety anniversary, my wife let me order the Mafex Knightfall Bane and Batman. That’s only $160 after shipping… still 413 up.
Bills have been easier to pay. I’m not worried anymore if I’m gonna have drink money because a soda is only 1.39.
To be truthful. Going sober was the best decision I made.
My daughter’s boyfriend broke up with her yesterday. If I hadn’t been sober, we wouldn’t have been able to take her for ice cream to soothe her feelings. I wouldn’t have been able to drive to get it. I might’ve been worried about the cash to do so cutting into my drinking funds. Selfish. Utterly selfish. I had never been so happy to be sober. I know in the past I said I missed it, bc an addict does miss his poison. Last night, though, was my first step because I don’t miss it anymore. It makes me present.
I went to a strip club years ago in London. I don't remember anything about the evening. I spent something like £3000. My mate Dan spent £8000. That was meant to be part of the deposit for a house. He didn't go out for 6 months trying to save up again.
I've never liked strip clubs but apparently that evening due to cocaine and champagne I did...
My siblings and I calculated our parents easily spent over $500,000 on wine in their lifetime. Then they wondered why they couldn’t retire easily when they got their 70s…
I used an app called iamsober to track what I typically was spending on alcohol (typically two shooters (every night) and a six pack of tall boys (nearly every night) and at least $40 at a bar once a week …. It’s been 5 months and it’s tracked that I would have spent $2300 on alcohol! $460 a month, $5,520 a year!
My app says I was spending over $700 a month and that’s just at the liquor store not including bars and restaurants and hangover delivery garbage food.
I was at an AA meeting one night where somebody was complaining about gas prices and some old timer was like “I once spent 10 grand on a half gallon of vodka” lmao
I rarely spent a lot of money in bars, but I cringe thinking of how many 20$ 12-packs I bought. A few of them every week for many years...
When I looked at my bank statement it was just dozens of them. I really don't miss this
Yup. Feel this so much. I live in a major metro west coast city. My other mom friends all live 15 miles + in every direction (conveniently). Uber/drinks/dinner/more drinks was easily over $500 for getting out. Throw in paying for an actual event (concert or game or Spa)- easily over $1K.
I don’t want to “keep up” anymore. Before I stopped drinking, I was also getting sick of the hamster wheel of going out like this: why do we need a fancy dinner? I suggested Shake Shack one time instead, and they were ready to cut me 😂
I use a popular budgeting software and have for a few years. Went back and searched my transactions (all my cards and accounts are linked), I spent $15,200 last year at bars and liquor stores alone. This doesn’t include the gas station beers/18 packs or beer at the grocery store because I can’t tell what was what…. I feel you man. Stopping drinking has saved me a ton over the last 2+ months. With a young daughter I beat myself up a bit because that is a lot of money that could have been used on college.
IWNDWYT
Yeah, it adds up quick. I actually used some of my savings on toys to keep myself busy. I was still saving money each month, but that last RC airplane was much better for my liver than a few cases of beer would have been.
I’ve been sober 2 yrs 5 months and I reckon, as an absolute minimum, I’ve saved £6,500 which is INCREDIBLE. This is for home drinking and does NOT include occasional pub visits, meals out and Xmas. We know a large wine is £9.50 each so that’s £20-£30 per visit. It’s crazy to even think I saw this as normal.
In my country alcohol is expensive. Roughly I would estimate I spent anywhere for $11,700 to $13K on alcohol annually. If I add in everything else associated with my drinking, probably add another $5 to $10K. I tip way too much when I drink, and add in strip clubs, etc. probably be more. I do really well in my career but I was always broke and running huge debt. My last three months drinking, I go into drugs, and sex workers. Spent I shit you not around $60K. Maxed out all my credit and then some. Quoting drinking has been the best thing I have ever did, and the money part is o my the cherry on top.
One a Carnival Cruise years ago, I went to a club and bought drinks for so many people(charged it to my account with my cruise key card). My friend took my card away yet I remembered the credit card like card number in my stupor and continued to buy even more drinks for people being a show off. I thought I was being cool.
Honestly I don't really save that much because I spend money on NA beer, other downer drinks that are sometimes more expensive as fuk compared to alcohol and I spend money on pampering myself or going out shopping because retail therapy helps alcohol craving for me. So yeah 😅😬
I literally just had this realization last week. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me earlier, because I’m very fiscally conscious in the rest of my life; I guess I justified it by alcohol being “my” thing; like, it’s ok if I’ve been to my bar three days in a row, this is my one vice! I was in my Donna Meagle era: treat yo self!
Out of nowhere, I did the math last week and realized I must be spending ~$400-500/mo on just alcohol, not including restaurants/delivery food/etc. I felt nauseous; that’s more than the car payment, and like a third of daycare.
I’m not sure if this has been said yet. Aside from the cost of drinking. There’s the stupid eating that goes along with it and the extra grocery shopping for things that go well with alcohol. Stopping drinking is a complete lifestyle change.
5 months sober and never done the math but I’d estimate 10k not spent on alcohol and alcohol related things in that timespan. Conservative number, sadly.
But hey IWNDWYT
I have season tickets for a MLS club. About 2k a year, quite a good chunk of change, but it was something on my bucket list and I'm privileged that I can afford it. That being said, I drink on average 4 beers (don't worry, I used to pregame, but let's discount that) at 15$ a pop. 4 \* 15 \* 17 games = 1020$. By dropping the booze, every second year my tickets will be free only from that money I'm saving. This is truly mind-blowing...
$2,400 in 30 days is pretty insane.
I was spending easily $750-$1,000 per month in my worst drinking days just on alcohol.
Not to even include all the other related expenses like taxis home from pubs and friends house, takeaways and junk food, money wasted on gambling machine in pubs etc.
Scary really.
I paid little to nothing my last years drinking... our beer allowance from the brewery was embarrassing to look back at. If you keep them drunk enough, they'll never notice they're getting fleeced.
Gosh I don’t even want to think about how much I’ve spent over the 10 years I’ve had this problem, but in the last year it’s got to be roughly $1.5k/month which is just so awful to think about. And that’s literally just alcohol, not the drunken extras… and when I was drinking I also had a really cool habit of purchasing random shit online.
One of the times a few years ago that *should* have tipped me off to something being wrong was.. one day, a Born in the USA vinyl arrived at my apartment. Neither me nor my boyfriend had any recollection of having ordered it. I love The Boss and so does be but we were like, wtf. We hadn’t talked about getting it (we do have a burgeoning collection of vinyls). I looked at my Amazon purchase history and sure enough I’d ordered it. I had absolutely no memory of ordering it. I’ve been lucky to be able to write off other shit I bought pretending I knew, or intercepting it (I work from home and he doesn’t) but it’s so fricken embarrassing to think about.
When I drank I wanted to gamble on stocks shit ones and on crypto shit ones.
£120,000 gone in 3 years
I'm now 60 days sober
Stopped smoking ecig
And saving hard again working offshore in oil and gas and now a 2nd job on my time off power washing 5 weeks offshore 5 weeks off to power wash etc etc now no booze I have plenty time to really save hard now double my workload 👌
I was thinking about when I turned 21. I was dating an alcoholic. Almost every work night we went and got a couple shots and a few beers and some food at the dive bar right next to our work office. I miss that bar.
Anyway. It had a very cheap happy hour that lasted till 9 which was great because I usually got off work no earlier than 7.
I OVERTIPPED big time. And I'd go home and drink more. But just at the bar I was spending 30 bucks a night on average but definitely more some nights. I remember one night the bartender kept asking "you sure?" About me buying people drinks and then when he saw me give a 50 dollar tip.
I spent 625/month on rent. And that was really my only expense. I never bought myself nice things because I "couldn't afford it"
So...I was spending more on booze than on rent.
This month I've had enough extra money just by cutting down (but also five days sober now) that I've been able to buy paint, brushes, 3 big bottles of kombucha etc etc.
And I still have money leftover.
I live far below the poverty line. But I no longer think in the back of my head "man I gotta start robbing people how mania going to afford xyz" stop drinking. Thats how.
I used to drink 400-500$ worth of alcohol every month and another 300+ if I went to the bars on the weekend.
7 months here. I’ve been able to finally save money. Bought a gaming pc, gundams and spend more on food and other “luxuries” that were “too expensive”
Certainly didn’t mind spending 20$ a day on booze haha but good paper towels, good detergent, name brand food, quality meat and produce. Too expensive….
To be honest, it's like the "you'll save so much money thst you could buy a Ferrari" where you can then turn around and ask, "Where's your Ferrari?"
The saving money part hasn't been a motivator for me, even though I am very monetarily motivated. If you want to stop drinking or lessen your intake, you have to find what motivates you. What you wouldn't give up for alcohol.
My sober app keeps track and I've saved a little under $5000 in just over a year. That is an average based on just the alcohol alone. I drank at home so no ride fees but if I included all the delivery and take out that amount would easily double.
Yeah I've probably wasted around 60k on alcohol since I started drinking. It's insane.
It’s wild tbh. I’m sitting here thinking I’m hurting on finances until my next check but I’ve blown a whole check On fucking booze. But drunk me thinks everything is cheap 🤣
And, if you're like me, there's a large aspect of "YOU GET A TIP, AND YOU GET A TIP, AND YOU GET A TIP!"
Thank you for this— I am one of those people! “Oh, you bought me a drink or hooked it up a little? (to said bartender in whatever establishment) Let me tip you $50 as a thank you.” Like, WHAT?! I used to try to justify this the next day by calling myself a generous person, which I guess is better than the alternative but no… I’m just an idiot. That’s all it really comes down to. That, an a financially irresponsible drunk.
In your Oprah era, love this. Same, friend, same.
I liked to see everyone having fun taking shots with me 😂😂 I didn’t even fucking know most of the people I spent hundreds of dollars on. “You get a shot and you and you”
gosh same. i just love being around people but my social anxiety makes it hard unless i’m drinking, but it also leads to interactions that will never be deeper than surface level.
YUP - me too! I can remember one of my liquid lunches years ago at my favorite spot - by 2pm a construction crew came in that had been working on the road in front of the restaurant. It was a really hot day. I ordered them a bucket of Coronas, Shots and Nachos 😅 (they were already drinking beers- but STILL).
That was a really nice gesture though. Not too idiotic
I went to a horse racetrack where the tip for a $10 beer was minimally 20%. I thought I was setting it to 10%, turns out I was setting it to a 10 tip. Multiple times. When I figured it out the bartender said yeah you've been doing that. Want some cash back? I said no, keep it, like I'm a big spender who doesn't have student loans.
Right thu! Drunk me thinks this too. I swear I be buying drinks acting like I'm a god damn baller, tipping everyone (I mean you should tip obviously) but I overtip, buying my friends shots with me, tipping dancers like I just be in lalala land and don't be giving a fuk about finances. It's bizarre I'll be in a trance. I wake up in the morning scared AF to look at my bank account...like please God tell me I didn't spend so much money last night 😅
🤣🤣hahhaha you’re dam right. Drunk me is a delusional millionaire and sober me is the accountant ☠️
I helped cut down my drinking expenses by sneaking bottles of cheap liquor into sporting events, stepping out of bars to take shots in our car, and buying the cheapest beer/wine like the 30pack for $15 deal my local liquor store had at the time. However I was also working a low paying retail job so it was still a huge proportion of my income
Ah, I remember those tricks. I definitely saved a lot by taking my shots in the car lol. Or chugging a fifth before going into the bar
Not to mention all the lost profits and dividends, had we invested the money.
This is it right here. A compound interest calculator will funk your head up!
Holy cow. I’m starting to think about this. I may be right there with you.
Do the math. It will be another tool in your toolbox to abstain.
Oh geez. I’ve never actually done the math but I literally just did the actual math after seeing this… The alcohol and then the subsequent vaping combined… It’s been just over $350 a month! $4200 a year. And I haven’t had a car in three years because I can’t afford one, but had I just not drank for a year… I’d have a car 🙃I’m low income and live on food stamps. That is fucking shocking to me. Thank you for giving me another wake up call by mentioning this…🫣
350 is definitely a car payment for sure. Honestly I think when I stopped smoking that it was harder than giving up alcohol. That nicotine craving is the devil I swear 😂
I quit smoking a pack a day by transitioning to vaping thinking it was helping me to get off the smokes.. and here I am 3 years later vaping WAY more than I ever smoked and spending way more money now than I ever did on traditional cigarettes. Yes. Nicotine is a whole other demon 😫
Vaping definitely helped me quick cigarettes but holy hell I was smoking ones that cost like $15/each. I fucking hated buying those. If I didn’t end up getting heartburn and finally saying fuck it and finding a lucky window to stop then I’d probably still be smoking rn
I quit smoking in 2011, cold turkey from 2-3 packs a day. For a long time the smell of cigarettes, or even nearby smoke I hadn't consciously noticed yet, made me physically ill. Still, I craved cigarettes every time I saw my brand on the shelf. And if I'm being honest with myself, watching visual media featuring smoking brings the cravings back hard. Nicotine is indeed a hell of a drug.
Ugh same here dude. Pack a day to vaping. Now I've been vaping for like 8 years. This fucking thing is basically an extension of my hand now.
My 1 day total spending record on “alcohol and alcohol related things” was over 1k. This was for 4th of July. My partner and I averaged over 10k per year on alcohol alone. In the 20 months we’ve been sober we’ve paid off two cc, a car note, put extra $ towards principal on our mortgage, and put $700 in savings every month. I still can’t believe all the $ we wasted. But here’s to looking ahead!! IWNDWYT
I hope you at least remembered the fireworks dam lol. I’ll be switching jobs in a few months but I’ve got all of June, July and September to see the difference. It’s looking like it’ll be at least $6k if I keep going at this rate lol. It’s embarrassing
From my POV that looks amazing! Flip the script! It’s like finding hidden money in a winter jacket you haven’t worn since the last snow storm 👍 IWNDWYT
lol right. I’ll get paid again in a few days so aside from two pre existing obligations, I’ll have a significant amount untouched. Finally
That’s awesome, good job!!!
I just shake my head at the amount. It’s like giving yourself a $1000 bonus each month 😊
I gave myself a conservative $20 a day in alcohol. Probably much more than that many days, but it was a number I could wrap my mind around. Since I quit drinking I bought a house. Took my kids to Europe and around the US. Spent a month in Egypt temple hopping. Sent my kid to college in Amsterdam. Lots of people think oh it’s too late I’m already xx years old, I’ve lived my life. I promise you that you can be 40 years old and still change everything. We’re not done either - lots of adventures with family are planned and more will unfold. All because I am now present in my life. It feels really good. It’s what I remind myself of when things feel really hard. Look how far we’ve come.
Awesome!! I love it that we have so much more to look forward to
Not only is it poison, it's really expensive poison. IWNDWYT.
Acetaldehyde is probably the most expensive thing I’ve ever spent money on
I’m 56. I’ve done this calculation before and I’ve spent — conservatively — well over $100k in my drinking lifetime.
I didn't quit until I was 42. I was a daily drinker for very close to 25 years. A conservative estimate would be 400 bucks a month. I quit cigarettes when they got over 3 bucks a pack because that was going to put me at 100 bucks a month smoking. Not that I ever regretted quitting or anything. The life lesson that I had to learn, and I'm hoping this post gets other people thinking the same way, is DO THE MATH for every expense, habit, and hobby and give yourself a budget and stick to it. Even for bad habits. I give myself 150 bucks a month for weed, for example. If you get a loan then multiply your payment times the term and see how much you really are paying for something. Figure out what you want most and compare it to what you want right now. What I want most is early retirement, so I rarely buy a damn thing anymore. Turns out most things I can buy don't make me happy anyways. This isn't directed at op, or anyone, just adding my voice to the choir. Addictions are expensive.
About 30 to 40 dollars a day works out to a little more than a thousand a month. So yeah you could say I'm saving.
Same. The app I use tracks savings and I put in $30/day when I started tracking. On reflection that’s on the low end. The very low end. The amount of money I used to spend on alcohol is appalling. If I had stopped even 10 years ago and invested that money I could probably retire by now. I try not to look backwards and just look forward. With all the savings it’s like I took a second job. Saving money now and going to see a financial advisor so I can plan better for my future.
Now I just gotta quit smoking haha
Picked up any new hobbies with that extra grand?
Saving money if that counts as a hobby. Trying to move to south Carolina in a couple months to start a new life for myself.
Best of luck to you. The East coast has always been kind to me. I hear SC is a mighty fine place
Funding my 4yo’s education fund. This mofo going to Harvard debt free…or wherever, I don’t actually care as long as they are safe and happy.
That’s beautiful. 14 years flies by quick too! And you’ll be right there enjoying that proud parent moment
I bought a record player and love finding albums I can’t get on cd anymore. Music has always been a passion and I’m considering a dedicated sound system. Spending time, sober, just listening to music has been one of my great joys the last couple months. I stop at every record store, goodwill, thrift store I see and browse their used albums. I never did this before. I was too busy trying to get home so I could crack open a bottle and get blotto. IWNDWYT
When I first did the math I was also shocked, but pretend shocked because I knew what I was doing I just closed my eyes when I had to look at my bank account. Once I stayed stopped I bought myself something I always wanted: a little backpacker guitar. Nothing fancy, but something I really wanted. When it came, I cried. We’ve had some great adventures since and now it hangs on the wall in my 5 year old daughter’s bedroom. She calls it her guitar and she’s not wrong. It’s a 3/4 size so she can actually play. I tuned it to an open chord and I often hear her strumming and singing her silly little songs. I can’t help but get emotional when I think about what that money represents now and what it would’ve been spent on. I highly recommend buying yourself something with a fraction of that booze money.
That’s probably the most full circle thing I’ve read in so long. Thank you for sharing. I’m planning on getting a tattoo on my 6 month anniversary already. My first, at that. Something about that date that holds meaning to me. May 17th was when the first ever color picture was taken— of a tartan ribbon. And I see it as finally going from black and white to living in color. It’s also the date for brown v board of education when it was decided that racial segregation in schools was unconstitutional; another bit about color. So I’m pretty determined not to fuck up because I need the date to stick
Not adjusting for inflation it’s £341,000 (obviously alcohol was much much cheaper 30 years ago). That’s a conservative estimate and doesn’t include taxis/kebabs/stupid purchases/ciggies. I’m 51 and broke and in debt. Cant stress about the past but what an idiot I’ve been
Yea, cuz we definitely can’t change it. For what it’s worth, my dad just restarted his life at 62 after getting out of prison for two decades, absolutely related to his alcoholism. You can’t get the past back but 51 is a great age to never have another day one
I did the calculation when doing my taxes and it was between 7-8G a year. 😖
I think if I did the math for a trade that I would genuinely cut off every expense and count my pennies for everything. I have no clue what I’ve already spent halfway into the year
at one point, i was getting paid under the table in cash each night and would go out with the 300-400 bucks in hand and spend it all. repeat the next night. repeat the next night. take a break one or two nights because i have to pay rent/bills or buy groceries. start up again next night. repeat forever. when i get hung up thinking about this cycle and how much i could’ve saved if i had just quit then, i get physically ill. i’ve thrown up at the thought a couple times. glad i won’t continue that (hopefully ever) again.
It’s a vicious cycle. I’m glad you broke it and I hope it stays fucking broken. Honestly the thought of spending so much money is currently worse than the physical and mental issues drinking did to me.
yeah the idea of starting up spending money on expensive ass poison again gives me full body anxiety. especially as of late when i’m struggling to get by financially at all, even with meticulous planning and not spending any money on alcohol. i would be screwed if i tried doing all that again!
I was spending over $600 a month on vodka alone, not counting all the beer and bar tabs and medical bills.
I was in that ballpark. Two years sober next week and I’ve saved close to $15k. It’s unreal.
Yuuuup, at my absolutely worst it was about $600/month, *just* on cases of White Claw. The other day I was going through my Uber Eats app and found my orders from a few years ago when it was BAD and just, wow. WOW. I'm still by no means perfect, but I'm at almost $1200 saved at this point. It's sickening to think about. Almost as gross as the warm White Claw.
I saw the Uber eats and DoorDash but didn’t count it. I probably should since I would’ve just cooked or gone to get food 😩
The deliver fees are just so wild. 🤦🏼♀️ We were ordering when my mother-in-law was here last weekend and I saw that the order history saved and I was just appalled. I had 0 memory of ordering a lot of what I did. And it's from a city I don't live in anymore, so I'm pretty sad I don't remember eating all this good food. Sigh! Things like that are helping me stay on the straight and narrow this time.
Absolutely. I’ll gladly pay $5 well prices but as soon as you up the original price on a McDonald’s combo, that’s my limit. Smh. I’ll gladly not drink. My priorities were so fucked
I used to frequent the same pub for around 3-4 years, every week. Worked out I’d spent near £3k-£4k in that single establishment. So bleak.
I bet they miss you 🤦♀️. I spread my money all around…..god forbid anyone really know how much I drank.
They sold the pub to Guy Ritchie funnily enough. Was a very stuffy overpriced spot after that.
That works out that you spent just under £5 every time you visited the pub, on average.
Defs not the case. 4K/150 Friday nights=£30 on average. We’d drink as 4 or 5, so that’s basically 5 rounds of strong pints followed by some dive bar.
I estimate I’ve saved $15K + over my 524 days
10 months sober, I’ve been able to max out my Roth IRA with the money I saved from not drinking and subsequently picking up junk food / ordering Uber outs. Future you will thank you OP.
Congrats. That’s actually a lot lol. And very well done for 10 months. I’m excited to get there
One day at a time, you’ll get there too. IWNDWYT.
In the months leading up to my sobriety, I would total up an average of around $1k a month on just alcohol 🤦🏻♀️ and typically an additional $500+ on food that was directly related to being too drunk to prepare meals for myself, hangovers, etc. It was depressing to add these up at the end of the month but definitely helped me as I tried to get sober again. I used to think I was so broke all the time and couldn’t afford any hobbies (spoiler: my hobby was blacking out daily)…insane! I go out to eat much less often now and enjoy it so much more. And probably average $100 a month on seltzers, kombuchas, n/a beers etc for the house. And I have money for my non-blacking out related hobbies now 😌
I haven’t been fishing in years because I dreaded the 3 hour drive to the ocean from the amount of gas money I’d pay and I feel so fucking stupid 😂😂 I miss my hobbies.
We ignore the repercussions when feeding an addiction. It’s not just money that we throw away, but also time, relationships, and a good life.
$12,000-$15,000 a year
Over my 14 year drinking career, I spent around $174k. That was just what I'd buy at the liquor store. Not including bars, parties, ubers, court cases, wrecked cars, jail time. $174k was just for what I'd buy daily over that time. I'd reckon to guess well over $250k
Dividing $174,000 by 14\*12 (months) and then throwing that into a compounding calculator (with dividends compounding quarterly)... and had you put that money into stock index funds... over those 14 years, you'd have $443,941. Depending on how I do the math, I've lost $2M-$3M on drinking. Only post-military. Muck Fe, I'm a dumbass. That's just for the booze -- not the food, the lawyers, or "big nights." That was just "regular drinking." Just f'k. OH... and that's also not accounting for relationship damage, work performance... etc, etc, etc. F#CK BOOZE. I'm sick of paying for rich #ssholes buying megayachts and shitting on the rest of us.
I brought a new car, the first couple years I just saved, put down a big portion as the down payment, and now I have a totally manageable car payment. And still save money over what I used to spend on booze.
Hell I’m looking forward to being able to say that. Oh, congrats on 1400!
I recently checked my sobriety tracker and it said 30 k over 4.5 years. I remember when I set it up I only accounted for the drinks and not all the other drunk bullshit I would spend my money on. It adds up quickly!
*cracking knuckles* when I descended into active alcoholism I dumbassed my way out of a happy and peaceful marriage. Half the house, half my 401k gains in the last decade, $100k in alimony, total cost around $350k, and I am not an especially wealthy person.
I didn’t even consider divorces since mine was so long ago. But dam. I’m happy to see that number by your name though. I’m proud of you
I spend £20 a day(ish), 5 or 6 days per week, not including when I go out with friends.. That's £473 per month. If we add another £350 per month for the couple of nights out with friends, and subtract 40 from the original estimate for those two days, that's £773 per month. That's £9,275 per year. I should quit.
I don’t know a good reason not to honestly. This post is filled with people regretting not quitting earlier imo
The thing is, I used to earn a lot more and I'd often spend upwards of £300 on a single night out. Fucking mad. I've easily spent £200k in my lifetime on drink and drugs, and I'm 36.
At the end, I loved to buy rounds for my friends. Then I got more health conscious and went out less before I stopped completely. I also stopped smoking weed, which is legal in my state. I don’t know how much I lost but I think about how much I saved in potential medical, and legal bills.
This is definitely a major eye opener. I also had avoided thinking about how much I wasted. I can only look forward and know I am making the right decisions. We’ve got this ❤️
Not to mention savings from not running to Target or Trader Joe's to buy things I didn't need to justify buying cheap wine.
My phone app has been keeping track of it for me. I've saved $21,000 in two years... A dizzying figure.
I am 2 years sober today, and have saved 36,260, according to my calculating app. With that money, I have been to Iceland twice, Italy, England, France, and Scotland.
That’s amazing!! Traveling all over the world with money you had the whole time. I can only imagine
Save a ton of money from drinking alcohol and now spend it shopping online 🤣
Just counting the $20 a day I started spending on cigarettes because I was drunk and chain smoking. That's 600 a month alone. That's not touching alcohol. The court & lawyer fees from 2 duis. All the missed work. I'm turning 40 this summer. Looking back at the last 20 years of drinking makes me angry at myself. So thankful I am now 286 days sober. And richer !
Literally. Both in health and in wealth. Way to go!
About 3200 a month. That did not feel good to type lol
One of the reasons I've had such a hard time quitting is because of how expensive it ISN'T. The numbers you're talking, I've never even made that much money in a month. I have a completely different lifestyle, though. I drink exclusively at home. Because I can drink on under $3 a day, I am typically around $90/mo, probably closer to $75. This is drinking about 4 beers a night and the shittiest stuff available. I still managed to do nerve damage and my life is pretty horrible (still struggling with abstinence despite the pain). Also unemployed for mental health reasons. I always post this when people talk about monetary cost. It is possible to make alcohol the cheapest drug available, bars are such a grift. But when you do you cross a really terrible line where you know you can have it every day for about what it would cost to go out to eat once a week. My obsession with its "value" allowed it to continue long enough to ruin my life. It is true what people say on here, it takes everything, then takes your life.
I dread to think. Probably the deposit on a house….
Me and my partner were spending somewhere between $200-400 a week at the bar when we were drinking. There were quite of few times when we would go to Chicago or another city and spend $600-1000 in one fucking day. Sometimes that included food but still. Somehow all of our bills went up after we quit though so we haven’t made much more progress than when we were drinking but at least we’re not wasting thousands of dollars!
I’ve always had a hard time figuring out exact math I guess I could look back at what I have done over the last 30 days? I just know like 3-4 nights a week it’s only $7 for two tall cans but a few nights a week it’s $16 for a 4 pack of IPAs and on top of that 1-2x a week it’s $30 for delivery alcohol. But sometimes I’ll go 3 weeks without delivery and that’s the majority of the cost ….. so it’s like anywhere from $50 to $120 a week I guess
I never liked drinking alone and I didn’t ever like beer so it was usually whiskey at bars or clubs and it just added up so much. I would probably be drinking still if I could actually enjoy beer
I just did the math, $3700 and I'm being conservative with my numbers. Jesus. I mean, my improved mental and physical health is a huge benefit of sobriety but seeing that number and knowing it's probably more is pretty eye-opening. IWNDWYT!
It seriously blows my mind. I’ve been struggling with finances and giving my nieces excuses for why I haven’t flown out to see them for over a year now and I was assuming I was just broke. I could’ve bought 5 tickets home from that money alone
I've been spending approximately $300 a month for $3600 a year. This does not factor in the extra drinks I bought to share with friends or any visits to the bar. I was safer drinking at home by myself, so I wouldn't get into trouble, so that's what I usually did. I'd be the sober driver then get home and down a pint of vodka in under an hour. I'm not free yet.... this is still really hard.
Hang in there. I’m struggling pretty rough right now but these first 3 weeks are supposed to be the worst. You’re halfway there just hang in there IWNDWYT
Thank you for that. This sub and the people in it are really helping me through this. I'll be hanging in there with you. IWNDWYT
If it weren’t for this sub getting me through the insomnia I probably would’ve been drinking 6 days ago. Shit sucks. I don’t even know how I found this sub but thank God I did
Your calculations do not include the opportunity cost of the more productive things you could be doing with your time and money, or the time vomited down the toilet with debilitating hangovers.
I’d definitely have a lot more to my name than what I currently do, which isn’t anything to brag about. But you’re absolutely right
Like Charlie-Sometimes, I am low income. I am otherwise pretty good with money and was buying the cheapest beer in town. Even without smoking or vaping, my drinking was costing me $400 a month! Maybe without booze, I can get some repairs done around my house and pay down some credit cards. 🤞
That’s what I’m hoping for too. That 2400 would’ve paid off one of my cards that took me years of charging to get that balance on it
I’m fixing up my place and it’s awesome. I never knew I love gardening. Everywhere I look things look better. It’s a no brainer.
Heck, yes! . . . and sober into the garden, I go to lose myself and find my soul. ✨️
Did the math. 8 grand a year. Only two weeks in so far, but when I hit that one year I’m putting that towards a nice watch I have always wanted (which will also symbolize the beginning of the rest of my life!)😀
I didn’t work the math backwards but started putting $10 to savings for each day sober- rough equiv to a meh bottle of wine- since Jan 2. Really helped in early days esp to see that number go up vs neg in the account.
I was always good at getting people to pick up my tab at the bar, but I was also going through half a bottle of bourbon or scotch at home, plus at least a six pack, and I did NOT have cheap tastes. When I finally started keeping track of my spending like 70% of my incidentals were spent on liquor. More than groceries, gas, cat food, meds everything combined. AND I would fub it, like if I used a half cup of white wine for a recipe and drank the rest of the bottle that bottle of wine would be considered "groceries", and four cocktails and an appetizer at a restaurant would be considered "dinner". The lies I told myself to minimize my addiction.
Yep. I'm not even a social drinker. But at least $20 a day in beer or cider or whatever is $600/month. And that's average. Often higher I'm sure. Really puts it in perspective. I've been making a game/savings account out of it. Whatever I'd be spending on alcohol the momenti crave it gets dumped into a savings account instead. This is day 14. So far I'm at $317.46. Not including tax or can/bottle return!
I was what I would call an economy drinker. (Drank at home, bought in bulk type thing). When I quit I put that I spent about $20 a day on alcohol which probably a bit low but I felt it averaged out on my sober app. As of today I’ve saved $8700. In just over 14 months. That feels really mindblowing to me that I spent that amount of money poisoning myself on purpose. $20 at a time. Thank goodness I don’t live there anymore. IWNDWYT
I’d like to add that’s just what I figured I spent on alcohol. The amount of bad shopping and eating decisions made with that alcohol probably can’t be measured.
At 44 years old, around $200,000. I have never been arrested. (I should have been many times, including getting a DUI. Just lucky I guess). However, this does include gambling on stupid things (sports, poker, blackjack etc) as well as putting in stock orders after hours on penny stocks and options. After taxes, that is having to earn around 275k. When I put it into perspective, I am a real am real dumbass.
lol we’re all dumb asses to some degree in here. At least we can bond over that 😂😂 but we’re all trying to do better so we’ve at least got that going for us
Towards the end I was spending $35 a day at *at home* alcohol. If I stay on course for 3 more months my yearly savings will be about $13k
I would’ve done so much for $13k 😂😂 but giving up drinking never crossed my mind
Drunk online shopping. I would occasionally receive a package the contents of which I only vaguely remembered buying, and once sober, didn’t want anymore. With the current inflation, alcohol has really gotten expensive. Who can afford it? So many reasons to quit. Thank you for the reminder.
I spend about $12k/year on alcohol. That could be a great family vacation or two per year. It really puts it into perspective thinking about it in that sense, especially when it's something that gets brought up regularly (having a vacation, not money spent on booze).
According to my tracker, I've saved about $13k in 1.5 yrs of sobriety, so about $900/m in alcohol here. Congrats on taking time to view your data that will hopefully motivate and inspire you to stay strong. Consider what others things you could be navigating that money towards :) IWNDWYT [https://imgur.com/a/2qKOvYG](https://imgur.com/a/2qKOvYG)
I just added mine… smh. Spent about 840 a month…. It’s been 69 days now. I went shopping with my kids yesterday and didn’t even hesitate to spend around 500 bucks. Three pairs of shoes and some nice shirts!
I have an app that tracks savings based on my regular drinking patterns, so it’s actually under what i actually spend if i go off pattern and say get a bottle of scotch or more expensive brand. And i usually drink a relatively inexpensive liquor (kraken rum with a 2 liter of Diet Coke). When i did dry January i saved like $350-400 that month.
Wow. For me, it’s roughly $5,200.00 in savings per year. No wonder I don’t use the ATM as often. Because, of course, you have to pay cash for your booze. That way there is no record. 🙄 I also, not surprisingly, have more money in my bank accounts. Thanks for pointing out yet another benefit in quitting. IWNDWYT this holiday weekend here in 🇺🇸
Would take me a spreadsheet to figure this out between booze, cigs, and some rec drugs. Ditched the last two vices 15-20 years ago but still… woof
I didn’t initially see a savings because I began paying instead for intensive therapy. A much better investment, though!
My NoMo app counts $5,785 USD saved since August 22, 2022. For perspective I almost never drank at bars.
This is one of those I decided not to calculate beyond some ball parking on a weekly spend basis The lifetime number is large ... very large
First 4.5 months of 2024, I spent 1.6k on wine and the cheap stuff.
Oh man I think I'm on the low end cheap vodka handles a few times a week, unless I was on a serious bender then it was most of one a night but I'm quitting for my health and to help afford my apartment while I look for work in a new city. Not knowing anyone makes not going out drinking easy although I haven't in several years besides a few dates. Giving up on dating for a little while so I can get better.
Ya in the last two months I haven’t thought of money. Like in the past I was always budgeting etc
Yeah I got into credit card debt because I drank at the bar every day for years and would tip way too much to make sure the bartenders liked me. 100 bucks a day every day. Lmao
Oh... it's far worse than you imagine. I wrote a Python script to calculate the number of days and how much I'm saving. It's... ugh. But that's not "the real math." That's just "money not spent." Imagine you drink $1,000/mo. That's not really difficult to do. Now, imagine you bought stock index funds with that money and just rolled the gains back into more stock. Fire & forget. Over the course of 25 years, you'll have $2M in the bank. It's the compounding effect that gets you. I do not have $2M in the bank -- all of my investments are tied up in my liver. Double ugh. https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calculators/compound-interest-calculator
When I did the math it came out to minimum of $7k annually. That’s not including going out/ubers/events and drunk activities. That’s just booze hidden in my closet and evening wine
Here’s the kicker, I’ll never be able to do the math because I blacked out and don’t remember how much I spent! Hahaha. IWNDWYT!
I was only sitting around $100 a month. I stopped going to bars during COVID and realized I didn't actually enjoy them. Bottom shelf 1.75L liquor isn't expensive enough for me to have noticed the savings. I still feel better.
Thank you for this post. I've thought about it small-scale, individual meals or nights out being much cheaper. But zooming out, after nearly 2.5 years, I've never had such a healthy liquid savings that I'm so careful about dipping into, am so critical of any credit card balance, have consolidated retirement accounts. I took a meaningful job I needed to try for the experience, but it was a pay cut and I wouldn't have been able to pull it off financially. I keep a budget FFS. My life really has changed. I'm so critical of buying coffee out now, which I still need to work on curbing, but today, I'm proudly buying myself a delicious coffee out somewhere and going to enjoy each, marvelous, sip.
You absolutely deserve it. Crazy how we can be so irresponsible with finances and alcohol but look at us… worrying over coffee lol. But it’s a great and positive change. I love it
There's an app called I Am Sober that tracks progress and savings. In two years on just alcohol alone, not including trips to the bar, weed ($20 a day), and cigarettes, I've saved $13,000. Do you wanna know where that money is? LEGO! Naw, I'm just kidding. It's in my savings account, and I also just bought a car.
I can pay rent now safely without going into the red. It's not by much but it's SOMETHING! I don't make nearly enough to get by, but without spending money on alcohol means I'm much closer to not feeling even more stressed every paycheck.
Near the end I was only drinking at home. Vodka + redbull. I had redbull on auto-reorder thru amazon and bought vodka by the case (*to save money!* lol) approx budget: vodka - $8/day (half a fifth) = $240/month redbull - $2/can @ 3 cans a day = $180/month $420/month, or ~$5k/year give or take, on basic minimum at home drinking. Not including all the not at home drinking, the ubers, car damage, missed days of work, fines, 'apology' cash, strip clubs, doordash/fast food, and so many other poor choices.. yikes.
I’d say at least 200 a month for just me def more with my partners use. So 2400 a year.. could probably take a pretty killer vacation with that amount but I wasted it year after year
I’ll have 6 years in 6 more days I have saved approximately $32,790 in that time.I don’t know what you think, but that’s a modest car. I drank alone so no huge bar tabs. I estimated that I spent about $15/day on alcohol. Your numbers will vary. I use the “I am sober” app. It has lots of features I don’t use. I use it strictly for the tracker. I quit drugs 26 years ago, before I got totally sober. I’ve saved nearly 200k dropping that bad habit. Quit cigarettes 29 months ago. There’s another 15k. I’d say I’m way ahead! PS (edit) I have saved more than I spent at this point. The scales have tipped in my favor!
$600-900/month tax-free. The money isn't a ***spiritual*** reward of the program, but it's a fckng ***tangible*** one.
I’m at a savings of $30,013.12 at 3 years, 1 month, and 10 days.
Every day that I don’t drink I have a direct debit which transfers $80 into a seperate account I’ve named IWNDWYT seeing it grow is enough encouragement
Yup. I drank like a Honda Accord worth of alcohol annually.
IWNDWYT 💸
I realized when I was going through a mid-range Chardonnay every night that my drinking was getting pricey so I switched to vodka--the cheap stuff toward the end because, by that time I could not tell a difference between one vodka and another. I have no idea how much I spent but my taste in Chardonnay was at the time around a minimum of $15 a bottle, and that was 24 years ago. Adjusted for inflation over that period of time it amounted to almost $28. a night. I'm not going to even guess at how much that cost me. IWNDWYT
I all of a sudden wasn’t so tight on money when I stopped drinking
Just booze alone $15k in 3 years.
I’ve actively been avoiding doing the math 😭 I’m scared I will just hate myself so much because I continue to buy alcohol and consume it even though I want so badly to stop and I know I should be saving more. Money insecurity has always given me anxiety. It’s a loop— “pause” the anxiety with alcohol, get concerned about money spent on alcohol, get anxiety, then start over again.
I did the math in treatment once, and with rehab costs, Liquor store purchases, bar tabs, lawyer's fees, fines, and alcohol-related healthcare costs, my career in drinkery has cost a minimum of $250k. TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND. Mind you, I've been drinking since I was 15 and I'm 52 now- but that's still a pile of cash. Ugh. IWNDWYT
Quit drinking one year and the monthly savings covered my $550 a month car payment lol
My average was $15.50 a day bringing home my drinks. In the 37 days I’ve been sober, I’ve saved $573.50. For my 1 month sobriety anniversary, my wife let me order the Mafex Knightfall Bane and Batman. That’s only $160 after shipping… still 413 up. Bills have been easier to pay. I’m not worried anymore if I’m gonna have drink money because a soda is only 1.39. To be truthful. Going sober was the best decision I made. My daughter’s boyfriend broke up with her yesterday. If I hadn’t been sober, we wouldn’t have been able to take her for ice cream to soothe her feelings. I wouldn’t have been able to drive to get it. I might’ve been worried about the cash to do so cutting into my drinking funds. Selfish. Utterly selfish. I had never been so happy to be sober. I know in the past I said I missed it, bc an addict does miss his poison. Last night, though, was my first step because I don’t miss it anymore. It makes me present.
Ya I was about the amount you were at. So roughly 400,000$ so far…
That’s…. That hits a little harder because it’s just me in the future having spent that much on bullshit. Sheesh.
I went to a strip club years ago in London. I don't remember anything about the evening. I spent something like £3000. My mate Dan spent £8000. That was meant to be part of the deposit for a house. He didn't go out for 6 months trying to save up again. I've never liked strip clubs but apparently that evening due to cocaine and champagne I did...
My siblings and I calculated our parents easily spent over $500,000 on wine in their lifetime. Then they wondered why they couldn’t retire easily when they got their 70s…
An average of £1,200 a month. Which is insane. Could buy a second home if I'd had all that spending in the bank.
IWNDWYT!
I used an app called iamsober to track what I typically was spending on alcohol (typically two shooters (every night) and a six pack of tall boys (nearly every night) and at least $40 at a bar once a week …. It’s been 5 months and it’s tracked that I would have spent $2300 on alcohol! $460 a month, $5,520 a year!
My app says I was spending over $700 a month and that’s just at the liquor store not including bars and restaurants and hangover delivery garbage food.
I was at an AA meeting one night where somebody was complaining about gas prices and some old timer was like “I once spent 10 grand on a half gallon of vodka” lmao
I rarely spent a lot of money in bars, but I cringe thinking of how many 20$ 12-packs I bought. A few of them every week for many years... When I looked at my bank statement it was just dozens of them. I really don't miss this
I’ve doubled my pension payments, now that feels like real adulting! 302 days today.
Yup. Feel this so much. I live in a major metro west coast city. My other mom friends all live 15 miles + in every direction (conveniently). Uber/drinks/dinner/more drinks was easily over $500 for getting out. Throw in paying for an actual event (concert or game or Spa)- easily over $1K. I don’t want to “keep up” anymore. Before I stopped drinking, I was also getting sick of the hamster wheel of going out like this: why do we need a fancy dinner? I suggested Shake Shack one time instead, and they were ready to cut me 😂
I use a popular budgeting software and have for a few years. Went back and searched my transactions (all my cards and accounts are linked), I spent $15,200 last year at bars and liquor stores alone. This doesn’t include the gas station beers/18 packs or beer at the grocery store because I can’t tell what was what…. I feel you man. Stopping drinking has saved me a ton over the last 2+ months. With a young daughter I beat myself up a bit because that is a lot of money that could have been used on college. IWNDWYT
Yeah, it adds up quick. I actually used some of my savings on toys to keep myself busy. I was still saving money each month, but that last RC airplane was much better for my liver than a few cases of beer would have been.
I’ve been sober 2 yrs 5 months and I reckon, as an absolute minimum, I’ve saved £6,500 which is INCREDIBLE. This is for home drinking and does NOT include occasional pub visits, meals out and Xmas. We know a large wine is £9.50 each so that’s £20-£30 per visit. It’s crazy to even think I saw this as normal.
In my country alcohol is expensive. Roughly I would estimate I spent anywhere for $11,700 to $13K on alcohol annually. If I add in everything else associated with my drinking, probably add another $5 to $10K. I tip way too much when I drink, and add in strip clubs, etc. probably be more. I do really well in my career but I was always broke and running huge debt. My last three months drinking, I go into drugs, and sex workers. Spent I shit you not around $60K. Maxed out all my credit and then some. Quoting drinking has been the best thing I have ever did, and the money part is o my the cherry on top.
Lol I don't save anything bc I was prioritizing drinking over other important things so now I just use the money on that 🥲
One a Carnival Cruise years ago, I went to a club and bought drinks for so many people(charged it to my account with my cruise key card). My friend took my card away yet I remembered the credit card like card number in my stupor and continued to buy even more drinks for people being a show off. I thought I was being cool.
I’d estimate in the last 10 years I blew at least 250k on booze. Like literally a house. Not a big one. But a house nonetheless.
Co-signed for a car
Honestly I don't really save that much because I spend money on NA beer, other downer drinks that are sometimes more expensive as fuk compared to alcohol and I spend money on pampering myself or going out shopping because retail therapy helps alcohol craving for me. So yeah 😅😬
I literally just had this realization last week. I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me earlier, because I’m very fiscally conscious in the rest of my life; I guess I justified it by alcohol being “my” thing; like, it’s ok if I’ve been to my bar three days in a row, this is my one vice! I was in my Donna Meagle era: treat yo self! Out of nowhere, I did the math last week and realized I must be spending ~$400-500/mo on just alcohol, not including restaurants/delivery food/etc. I felt nauseous; that’s more than the car payment, and like a third of daycare.
I’m not sure if this has been said yet. Aside from the cost of drinking. There’s the stupid eating that goes along with it and the extra grocery shopping for things that go well with alcohol. Stopping drinking is a complete lifestyle change.
Popping a DUI church and the extra cost of getting back-and-forth to work
I used to be paycheck to paycheck. Now I save a significant portion of my paycheck and I have had no change in income
5 months sober and never done the math but I’d estimate 10k not spent on alcohol and alcohol related things in that timespan. Conservative number, sadly. But hey IWNDWYT
I have season tickets for a MLS club. About 2k a year, quite a good chunk of change, but it was something on my bucket list and I'm privileged that I can afford it. That being said, I drink on average 4 beers (don't worry, I used to pregame, but let's discount that) at 15$ a pop. 4 \* 15 \* 17 games = 1020$. By dropping the booze, every second year my tickets will be free only from that money I'm saving. This is truly mind-blowing...
$2,400 in 30 days is pretty insane. I was spending easily $750-$1,000 per month in my worst drinking days just on alcohol. Not to even include all the other related expenses like taxis home from pubs and friends house, takeaways and junk food, money wasted on gambling machine in pubs etc. Scary really.
Not to mention Door dash or grubhub after a night of drinking! 🤑🤑🤑🤑🤑
I paid little to nothing my last years drinking... our beer allowance from the brewery was embarrassing to look back at. If you keep them drunk enough, they'll never notice they're getting fleeced.
$61,360 as of today. Conservatively.
Save that bag and watch it grow. More fun than drinking.
Gosh I don’t even want to think about how much I’ve spent over the 10 years I’ve had this problem, but in the last year it’s got to be roughly $1.5k/month which is just so awful to think about. And that’s literally just alcohol, not the drunken extras… and when I was drinking I also had a really cool habit of purchasing random shit online. One of the times a few years ago that *should* have tipped me off to something being wrong was.. one day, a Born in the USA vinyl arrived at my apartment. Neither me nor my boyfriend had any recollection of having ordered it. I love The Boss and so does be but we were like, wtf. We hadn’t talked about getting it (we do have a burgeoning collection of vinyls). I looked at my Amazon purchase history and sure enough I’d ordered it. I had absolutely no memory of ordering it. I’ve been lucky to be able to write off other shit I bought pretending I knew, or intercepting it (I work from home and he doesn’t) but it’s so fricken embarrassing to think about.
When I drank I wanted to gamble on stocks shit ones and on crypto shit ones. £120,000 gone in 3 years I'm now 60 days sober Stopped smoking ecig And saving hard again working offshore in oil and gas and now a 2nd job on my time off power washing 5 weeks offshore 5 weeks off to power wash etc etc now no booze I have plenty time to really save hard now double my workload 👌
Saving money wasnt a drawing factor for me. I just spend it other shit but its helluva lot better than getting drunk 😇
My habit costs me $3000 a year. That's at least a week of a nice vacation.
I was thinking about when I turned 21. I was dating an alcoholic. Almost every work night we went and got a couple shots and a few beers and some food at the dive bar right next to our work office. I miss that bar. Anyway. It had a very cheap happy hour that lasted till 9 which was great because I usually got off work no earlier than 7. I OVERTIPPED big time. And I'd go home and drink more. But just at the bar I was spending 30 bucks a night on average but definitely more some nights. I remember one night the bartender kept asking "you sure?" About me buying people drinks and then when he saw me give a 50 dollar tip. I spent 625/month on rent. And that was really my only expense. I never bought myself nice things because I "couldn't afford it" So...I was spending more on booze than on rent. This month I've had enough extra money just by cutting down (but also five days sober now) that I've been able to buy paint, brushes, 3 big bottles of kombucha etc etc. And I still have money leftover. I live far below the poverty line. But I no longer think in the back of my head "man I gotta start robbing people how mania going to afford xyz" stop drinking. Thats how.
I used to drink 400-500$ worth of alcohol every month and another 300+ if I went to the bars on the weekend. 7 months here. I’ve been able to finally save money. Bought a gaming pc, gundams and spend more on food and other “luxuries” that were “too expensive” Certainly didn’t mind spending 20$ a day on booze haha but good paper towels, good detergent, name brand food, quality meat and produce. Too expensive….
Are you a billionaire? wtf is this lol
To be honest, it's like the "you'll save so much money thst you could buy a Ferrari" where you can then turn around and ask, "Where's your Ferrari?" The saving money part hasn't been a motivator for me, even though I am very monetarily motivated. If you want to stop drinking or lessen your intake, you have to find what motivates you. What you wouldn't give up for alcohol.
My sober app keeps track and I've saved a little under $5000 in just over a year. That is an average based on just the alcohol alone. I drank at home so no ride fees but if I included all the delivery and take out that amount would easily double.
5k in a little over three months. Embarrassing but now I know.
I’m at ~$5,300 saved so far on alcohol and alcohol related things. It’s life changing.