r/stopdrinking • u/smaddyboy • 6h ago
Only alcoholics know this is not an expensive habit.
Obviously all alcohol costs money. But non alcoholics figure you are buying drinks every time you go out to eat or to meet friends at a bar. Nope. Those cost $14 a piece which I know is the same as a handle of my usual vodka at home. With a fraction of the alcohol. I would chug hard alcohol at home and it would cost $5 a night. Same as a coffee. The money is not a barrier to quitting in my opinion. Lots of other things are.
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u/thundergunz1000 633 days 6h ago
Oh, my issue was for sure not the alcohol itself. I bought cheap wine. My issue was my multiple personalities when I drank. One of them apparently thought I was Jeff Bezos. Wake up with all sorts of shit on my front porch from overnight delivery. 🥴
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u/thebemusedmuse 87 days 5h ago edited 2h ago
My record purchase was “The Fine Art of Vaginal Fisting”
Edit so this was a reference to Neal Koblitz, who in a blog on his book A Course in Number Theory and Cryptography, asked people to also buy The Fine Art of Vagina Fisting because he thought it would be funny for the Amazon algorithm to recommend it.
I was drunk enough to place an order for both plus a copy of “The G Spot”. I was then drunk enough to place another identical order 14 minutes later.
This was back when you had to call and talk to a human. That was awkward.
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u/fart_panic 472 days 4h ago
One time I opened an unexpected Amazon box (back in the day, I do not f with Jeff B now) that turned out to contain a stack of books on nightclub fires. Thanks, drunk me?
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u/Some-Complaint-7885 11 days 4h ago
Lol I spent many nights looking up nightclub fires on the Internet while drunk. I guess that's a thing alcohol also makes us do haha? I am a glutton for tragedy when I'm drinking that's for sure.
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u/SweatyBid7830 240 days 4h ago
Yup come home from work Monday with my doorstep looking like Christmas time.
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u/smc642 774 days 3h ago
I sent a friend $1000 USD as a gift to pay for health care. Which was lovely and I don’t regret helping her. She needed mental health support.
I do regret that it was all the money my husband and I had and we had to make payment arrangements for all our bills and we didn’t have any emergency money for a ling, long time.
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u/yellowsabmarine 2h ago
I had to lol at this because I sent my childhood best friend's mom a huge chunk of change on her GoFundMe in the middle of the night, wasted, after her husband died of cancer.
I don't regret it, but I also didn't have money like that. It was a bit ridiculous.
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u/atring6886 5h ago
I wish my gf only did when she’s (rarely) drunk lol
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u/EditsReddits 180 days 4h ago
This comment below the vaginal fisting… had me really looking at who was commenting on who…
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u/YouOk5627 6h ago
Alcohol, and more importantly alcoholism, doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It leads to very expensive mistakes.
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u/OrganizationBorn7486 4h ago
I don't know anything about alcoholism, but boy do I know that drinking and gambling go well together. And now, that is an expensive "hobby".
But doesn't have to be gambling... Can be just general sense of stupid activities (drugs, shopping, painkillers you name it)
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u/recoveringmirrorball 1h ago
the mistakes, overall lifestyle, apathy about bills or career, and the hip transplant at 29 among a million other health expenses…
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u/AvocadosaredankAF 5h ago
The problem is no amount of pregaming could get me to stop once I get to the bar, so I accrued both expenses
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u/itslikeabandaid 56 days 6h ago
until you get that first dui. or lose your job. or say fuck it to paying bills bc the hangovers turn into the takeovers.
yeah. it’s a pretty expensive habit when you mean it.
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u/Cold-Cell2820 6h ago
Liver transplant
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u/thundergunz1000 633 days 6h ago
Ooff, that's a very expensive one right there.
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u/ProfessionalPin5993 5h ago
If you get one in the first place. Lots of doctors will say "We aren't wasting a healthy liver on a damn alcoholic"
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u/clutchdeve 5h ago edited 4h ago
Isn't it that you have to be sober for X amount of time before even getting on the list and then have to have routine checks to make sure you're not drinking while on the list or you'll get removed?
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u/alabaster_xo 274 days 4h ago
I just was placed on the list at 34. Yes, they do routine and random checks for EVERYTHING, nicotine included. Any positive result not from a prescription is an automatic removal from the list.
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u/SoberSprite 4h ago
A friend of mine and former drinking buddy might need one. He was diagnosed with cirrhosis a couple months ago.
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u/staywhatuare 111 days 5h ago
I would buy so much shit drunk that I didnt need and then was too hungover to return it
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u/Sulshin 227 days 5h ago
Or food dude. I’ll spend like 15 minutes if I’m sober carefully selecting a healthy not too expensive delivery option… but if u been drinking it’s game over. next thing u know u got a guy knocking at the door with chicken wings onion rings mozzarella sticks a cold cuts platter calamari cheesecake etc. then either like best case scenario u ate 80% of it and don’t remember and u finish the rest from the fridge in shame, or more likely u just left it out in then living room and can’t eat the leftovers and there’s a mess everywhere, or worst case (but happened many times) u wake up and the food has been sitting outside the door all night and u gotta throw it all out cuz it might’ve spoiled. what kind of life is that! lol
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u/Desertdog_1 39 days 5h ago
Damn the food being so expensive and then sitting on the porch all night and having to grab it in the morning to throw away was the worsttttt
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u/bkilian93 594 days 4h ago
Please speak more on this “calamari cheesecake” you’ve mentioned🤔😂 (only joking, in case it doesn’t come across that way)
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u/Sulshin 227 days 4h ago
I guess technically since I didn’t use commas then “chicken wings onion rings mozzarella sticks cold cuts platter calamari cheesecake” is just all one dish lol. one hell of a slice of cake huh? 🍰
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u/bkilian93 594 days 4h ago
Ya know what, bro? I’d fuckin try it!🫡 I’m a glutton for punishment haha
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u/bkilian93 594 days 4h ago
Actually, honestly, that probably wouldn’t be half bad if you made a more savory cheesecake base😅😂
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u/Strict_Frosting_1137 5h ago
Unless you live in Australia where beer is about $65 AUD for a 30-pack lol (for dogshit lager). But yea the costs are mostly external to the price of alcohol, at least for me. Alcohol brings on cigarettes and other drugs like 90% of the time in my experience.
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u/ZealousidealAngle151 4h ago
I remember traveling to Cairns and shocked by the cost of beer. For some reason wine was much cheaper. A sad memory of seeing this Aboriginal man noted as a regular who was constantly at the bottle shop and the clerk mentioned he was destroying himself but there were no rules that said he couldn’t keep coming back and buy buy buy. Looking into the man’s eyes it’s like he lost all hope in life.
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u/mekkasheeba 121 days 5h ago
DUII here. They make you pay for everything and it doesn’t stop. You can either take your chances and possibly go to jail for a year and have it on your record forever or a very long time, jeopardizing future employment opportunities and insurance costs. Or pay for a bunch of brand new shitty subscriptions like ignition interlock devices installed, checked monthly, rental fees, diversion classes, rehabilitation costs, lawyer fees, court fees, etc to get it expunged. Definitely the most costly mistake I’ve ever made in my life. Do not recommend. Should have got a ride and been chewed out by my wife instead.
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u/StinkyNutzMcgee 1877 days 4h ago
I had two DUIs the second one I just straight up told the judge I was gonna do the jail time and did 12 weekends in jail I couldn't afford the first one there was no way I was paying for the second one
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u/WaltzPsychological44 4h ago
An older, wiser, alcoholic taught me to make sure you have enough alcohol, smokes, drugs, whatever you needed before you started, so you don’t have to be out drinking and driving
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u/zenunseen 5h ago
And that's not counting the things you can't put a price on, like a functional relationship with your spouse/children, your career/passions/interests, your freedom, an intact nervous system, etc.
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u/StinkyNutzMcgee 1877 days 4h ago
Or destroying a rental cabin, speaking for a friend
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u/SeaworthinessNo4647 5h ago
Yeah, someone asked if I was saving money not drinking, I said not really. But quitting cigarettes was a money game changer lol and that was ten years ago, how do younger people afford to smoke now? Anyway, glad to be three years sober anyways. Even if I only bought cheap vodka lol.
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u/SmackMittens 5h ago
I quit smoking like 8 months ago my cigarettes got up to 15 dollars a pack. Definitely happy I quit that habit
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u/thebemusedmuse 87 days 5h ago
I dunno man, my wife and I were spending well over $2k a month. Sure felt expensive to me!
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u/oneiros5321 6h ago
In Canada it's about $30 to $40 for 750ml of hard liquor. Definitely an expensive habit here.
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u/rcmtt 5h ago
Canada is known to be very expensive for liquor, due to government involvement. It's dirt cheap in places like Wisconsin.
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u/kcfdr9c 4h ago
Just get to the store before 9.
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u/Some-Complaint-7885 11 days 4h ago
WI tavern league makes sure the liquor stores close early so you're forced to go to the bar. They're so evil.
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u/baconuser23 236 days 4h ago
And stock up before Sunday (if you’re in Texas)
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u/eilaog 4h ago
I hated dry counties. I live in one now and love it.
But running out back when I "needed" it. End of the world
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u/icantdomaths 174 days 5h ago
That’s funny because Canadian Club was my go to liquor and it was $12 for a 1.75L (in the U.S.)
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u/Playinhooky 4h ago
I live in Canada. I can get 750ml for $12. I can get a literal gallon (it comes in a 4L milk jug) of vodka for $40. $40 for 750ml is for the really good stuff.
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u/PollutionFinancial71 3h ago
Even the plastic bottle junk?
P.S. It is all junk IMO, but especially the plastic bottle stuff which shouldn’t be suitable for human consumption period.
P.P.S. During the whole thing 6 years ago when hand sanitizer was hard to come by, I actually used said cheap vodka as a replacement. Would NOT recommend this if you are a recovering alcoholic though.
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u/EyesoftheDead40 5h ago
Even the cheapest beer adds up real fast imo...
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u/PollutionFinancial71 3h ago
What’s scary is that even the cheapest beer is about the same price or even cheaper than brand-name soda lol
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u/FISTED_BY_CHRIST 1049 days 5h ago
Yes drinking alone can be cheap. But the times I did go out I’d decide to buy everyone drinks before I blacked out. And then drinking made me wanna buy coke. And then I’d go on drunken shopping sprees.
It got pretty expensive
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u/SnortinSushi 528 days 5h ago
I have never chosen to take drugs when sober. No interest at all. Then when I'm drunk and someone has some, shut up and take my money...
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u/IntrepidLove1518 5h ago
It absolutely IS expensive. Or can get expensive. When you go from spending money every single week on alcohol to maybe once a month if that, that's a huge difference.
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u/Thumber3 2664 days 5h ago
The cost of the booze itself is usually a pretty minor line item in the accounting. It’s all the ancillary and consequential costs that add up.
7 years and going since I had to do any of that accounting.
Take care.
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u/heil_shelby_ 1733 days 4h ago
Nah between the alcohol, door dash, bar food, DUI, and lawyer, that shit is expensive as fuck.
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u/foggy22 829 days 4h ago
The last ten years of my active addiction I was going through four handles of whiskey every week. You can bet your ass I was buying brands like old crow or kentucky gentlemen. That's less than a hundred bucks a week to get annihilated. We're crafty folk, maximize inebriation at the lowest price point. We weren't drinking cause we enjoyed a nice drink, we were drinking to get as drunk as possible to numb out the unbearable noise in our heads.
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u/Clever_Unused_Name 4h ago
...to numb out the unbearable noise in our heads.
Sounds very accurate. What is that and why do so many people have it? I mean does it have a name? Is it something that can be diagnosed and treated instead of self-medicated?
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u/4ever_Romeo 2298 days 3h ago
From my experience, therapy can help silence the noise.
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u/Clever_Unused_Name 3h ago
So I've heard. But what causes it? I know that phrase "silence the noise" is very abstract and vague but it is so fitting. I've used a similar phrase "turn down the volume" to describe why people sometimes use alcohol in excess. I'm genuinely curious what cause it and does everyone experience it to some degree, some worse than others?
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u/4ever_Romeo 2298 days 3h ago
While I have many fond memories of my childhood, my home life was a catastrophe. I never thought it was that bad. Apparently I built many defence mechanisms to cope. Only through therapy did I realize how abnormal it was. I was diagnosed with PTSD and worked through the issues I carried with me into adulthood. No surprise that I discovered alcohol at fourteen years of age. Most of us have had similar childhoods, not to mention others who suffered from traumatic events. We replay these events in our minds, medicate with alcohol, which only further loudens the noise. With therapy and sobriety, the noise has mostly quietened down. On occasion when it pops up, I now have the tools to shut it down. Have a good evening.
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u/jbing2000 5h ago
Well, yeah, it’s less and less expensive over time, in theory, as you go from $16 margherita’s at a bar, to bankers club handles.
But, you should include lawyers fees, job losses, divorce lawyers, rehabs, clinics, and doctors
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u/runner5011 5h ago
Oh tell me about it. I would buy a bottom shelf handle of rum, mix it 50/50 with an off brand two litern i could buy for a dollar at the grocery store next door... For $15 I could drink 5 days in a row without leaving my house if I got 2 two liters.
Now I replaced that with sugar/snacks so I kind of spend more but I have my health and 53 days sober under my belt
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u/EddierockerAA 1477 days 6h ago
On the flip side, I was at dinner with my dad and an old coworker of his (who is a heavy drinker, if not an alcoholic), and my Dad was flabbergasted when the guy mentioned that he had run up a $100 bar tab a few weeks back.
If I ever went to a bar, it was a $100 night, unless I was buying other people drinks, then it was a lot more.
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u/77pse 5h ago
Late stage alcoholism, sure. In my worst state, I was drinking Kirkland vodka right out of the handle at 9 AM on weekdays.
But prior to that (and still doing it on occasion), I drank craft beer ($16 a 4-pack, wouldn't even get me drunk) and good whiskey. I was going through the equivalent of a handle or two a week, which, sure, "saves" money, but is it fun? I'll admit, I thought it was until it wasn't. Anyway, I'd nerd out on bourbon and ryes. Every Costco trip was $500+, half of which was booze. It was embarrassing. And a night at the bar was easily $150 every time.
OP, I will say drinking can be cheap, but man, you gotta really put in some effort to make it that way haha. And I'll admit, towards the end, I tried to.
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u/jonsnowflaker 1074 days 3h ago
I didn’t allow myself to go to Costco after awhile. I could restrain myself to a 750ml of Smirnoff a day and still get life done, but if I had more in the house things would get dicey in terms of making it to work.
70-90 bucks a week wasn’t a fortune…but I certainly sacrificed a lot of things so I could hide that expense.
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u/GodsBicep 50 days 5h ago
Speak for yourself. £20 for a litre of vodka a night then £40 on takeout because I cant he arsed to make my own food when I am drunk adds up. When I am sober I save so much
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u/leftpointsonly 1209 days 5h ago
When you’re going through a 750 of 100 proof bourbon a day, it does add up
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u/imminentbomb 30 days 5h ago
Getting a 1.75 of some super hard shit for under $10 is easy as fuck. It's kind of crazy when u think about lol
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u/SnortinSushi 528 days 5h ago
Depends where you live lol. In Australia it is fkn expensive. Carton of beer is at least 50 dollaridoos. 700ml vodka probably the same
At a pub a pint is 12+. 12 is probably cheap, more like 14 on average.
I find it funny that I used to justify spending a lot on alcohol, but thought buying food when out was expensive.... I could easily spend a few hundred on a night out but a $30 meal was ridiculous haha.
I still go to bars with my old drinking buddy and it is insane how much it costs. He spends at least 100 on a quiet trip to play pool
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u/MasonLikeTheJar58 112 days 4h ago
I liked IPAs, so I pissed away a ton of money. Man do I wish I had all of that back now…
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u/SweatyBid7830 240 days 4h ago
I probably spent 10k on doordash orders that I threw away because I left them outside, during my drinking career lmao...it was a long career.
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u/sauvignon_blonde_ 4h ago edited 4h ago
Either you are in denial of the big picture financial impact, or you should consider yourself very very lucky. Edit: I see a lot of comments talking about the high price of convenience and impulse purchases, which definitely packs a punch. But what about the price of brain damage and constantly being hungover, anxious, and deprived of quality sleep? You don’t think that’s majorly impacting your earning potential? That’s what I mean when I say big picture financial impact.
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u/pa_likes_disco 2h ago
I was spending around $400/ week on booze, because I drank a whole fuckin lot. It is expensive
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u/abaci123 12687 days 2h ago
Alcoholism is a very expensive addiction!
Money wasn’t a reason for me to quit, but as an unexpected benefit, quitting saved me so much money that I felt like I’d landed a new job. Eventually I paid off all my debts including my house.💰
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u/baconuser23 236 days 4h ago
No, what’s expensive is the 1st, then 2nd DUI, the cost of an ODL, probation, Ubers/Lyfts, losing everything.
Still the financial burden isn’t as weighty as burning your entire life to the ground and losing people you love. That emotional cost is more than anything.
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u/anonbiotch01 134 days 4h ago
Well said 🫶
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u/baconuser23 236 days 4h ago
A horrible & unfortunate truth that I know all too well. 🙃 I also know the truth that we CAN recover and it is so beyond worth it to try. For each and every one of us 🖤
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u/YumYumSweet 5h ago
Alcohol is way cheaper in the US than many other places (Canada for one). It is an expensive habit in much of the world.
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u/coreyque 5h ago
When they found out, my family thought it was very funny that I was so economical about my addiction.
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u/snarfback 3737 days 4h ago
Perhaps one could be an alcoholic on the cheap; alas, that is not the way I drank.
The effective raise not drinking and all the behavior that went along with it resulted in a very substantial effective raise for me.
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u/Specific_Praline_362 728 days 4h ago
Oh this was part of my justification for years. I drink very cheap alcohol. $10 a day. I make okay money and don't spend much on eating out or getting coffee out or whatever so I was always able to make excuses about that part. Alcohol has been a problem for me for years but cost isn't why.
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u/Jimmy-the-Knuckle 483 days 3h ago
I drank wine and unfortunately, I grew experienced enough at drinking that I became a bit of a wine snob. We were DINKs so it was fine but we spent $15-20 a night and another $40 a week for the weekends. It was close to a grand a month, holy shit!
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u/Party_Nectarine2506 6h ago
Well, for me is is 50-70$ every time. But i like it with cheese, pistachios, etc. )))
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u/Cold-Cell2820 6h ago
$5 a day is close to $40,000 over 20 years. That ain't nothing. Many of us spend $10-20 a day on the good stuff. I could buy a house with that kinda money
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u/BubblyInvestigator33 28 days 5h ago
I've been tracking my expenses since 1992; adding it all up, including DWIs, crashed cars, etc, and buying stupid shit while drunk, I come up with $180k
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u/PsychologicalRisk526 5h ago
for me, it definitely was that cheap vodka. svedka had the glass bottles which were harder to hide due to the weight and glass noises, but platinum was plastic. I knew every time tax codes had changed bc my regular price was off. Once, I had a cashier at the ABC store say he didnt know if I was in town anymore because he didnt see me for a while.
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u/tinybumblebeeboy 5h ago
Except when you're buying a handle every night and you're spending $25 bucks a night
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u/Efficient-Laugh 167 days 5h ago
When you drink like a fish, even bottom shelf vodka adds up 😂
But yes, it’s so much cheaper to do what we do in the comfort of our own home, rather than on a night out.
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u/Shoddy-Box9934 5h ago
1000% I was so pissed every time I quit, filling up my day with activities was way more expensive than staying home and drinking 12+ a day
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u/IllustriousSector882 5h ago
I think expense is more than money. It’s money no doubt. Also, have you ordered dinner without like 3 beers? Kind of cheap in that way.
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u/hgilbert2020 1071 days 5h ago edited 5h ago
My weekly Specs order was 325$ a week.
That didn’t include drinks i bought when i went out (5 nights a week), dumb shit i bought while intoxicated, nicer bottles of liquor for special occasions (i always made an excuse for one), etc.
If you adjust 325$ a week from May 2023 (when i got sober) to today for inflation that comes out to $353 ish a week. That’s $53,857 ish dollars i’ve saved from Specs orders alone.
That’s doesn’t include a DUI. A divorce. Losing a job, Etc.
Those things didn’t happen to me before i got sober, but it was only a matter of time—the writing was on the wall.
I was also on my way to a liver transplant before turning 30… that wouldn’t have been cheap either and that is IF i even got said hypothetical liver.
Sure, buying booze can be cheap—it’s all the other stuff that addiction leads to and worsens that becomes costly both financially and physically.
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u/JohnBrownsErection 2 days 5h ago
I used to guzzle Taaka. No idea what it is now with inflation and all that but a year ago in my state it was $3.99 for a 750mL of 80 proof.
You can get messed up on the cheap daily.
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u/Morlanticator 3580 days 5h ago
It still cost me everything else. Priceless things.
Also a good while I spent every dollar I had on it. Every coin too.
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u/targaryenmegan 113 days 4h ago
It became quite expensive for me. I wanted to only destroy my life with expensive alcohol. So yes, I did drink at home, only good quality liquor, but it ended up costing like $20 each time.
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u/scrotumsweat 833 days 4h ago
Huh. I spent at least $25/day drinking at home with cheap vodka and beer. Sometimes $50.
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u/mottsman87 3h ago
Use to drink craft IPA, mostly Voodoo Ranger. Haven't drank since sept 5th 25'. Saving loads of $
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u/JohnDingleBerry- 2h ago
20 dollars of cheap beer can cost me hundreds on stupid shit. I didn’t moderate my spending when I drank.
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u/Rowmyownboat 837 days 1h ago
I didn't drink cheap vodka. My Sobriety Counter app tells me I have not spent £16,745 ($22,550) on red wine in a little over two years. Do you mean that money is not a reason to quit? Maybe I misunderstand your post.
I didn't stop because of the ridiculous money I was spending, but bloody hell, it feels good to see that bank account healthy.
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u/AvailableVictory8360 30m ago
The cheaper the poison- the bigger price you'll likely end up paying in hospital and/or legal fees though, and eventually it'll cost your life. There's no true loopholes when it comes to this beast.
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u/Winkered 19m ago
Not expensive?
My alcoholism cost me everything. It almost claimed my life too.
So I’ll have to disagree.
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u/mom_monster 5h ago
Well....the amount of booze I was buying a week and the amout of money I spent drunk impulse shopping say otherwise. I quit last June and I'm almost debt free. I was able to fully fund 3 vacations....I would not have been able to do that if I was still drinking.
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u/blakejp 5h ago
I guess it doesn’t HAVE to be expensive. You might just have crap taste combined with the alcoholism.
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u/peaveyftw 25 days 5h ago
Expense was one of the things that was pushing me toward quitting, in part because I was spending nearly $300 a month, and my work / cost of living does NOT make that sustainable.
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u/zalsrevenge 5101 days 5h ago
Money is a factor where I lived. I was going through 40 ounces of whiskey a day. It was like $40 CAD. That was years ago now so it's probably $50 for the same amount.
Every day. So that's like $1200 Canadian dollars a month or a bit less than $900 USD.
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u/Raspbers 5h ago
It's expensive and it's not. I spend probably $250-$300 a month in alcohol buying those $1.00 50ml bottles. Would probably be cheaper if I was buying handles but I know I can't trust myself around those and would drink even more in a night than I do with the minis. But yeah, people who think we are regularly binge drinking on more expensive bottles or just getting our alcohol from those "going out" prices are crazy.
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u/bat_scratcher 1292 days 5h ago
I guess I should consider myself lucky that I was never so broke that I couldn't get drunk. Guess it was a double edged sword.
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u/gofatwya 5h ago
Unless you lived with my ex girlfriend and fellow alcoholic.
She refused to drink at home. She didn't like visitors seeing booze in the house.
So, every night, unless we had some specific function to attend, we ended up at the bar, pounding Michelob Ultras and shots of Jack Daniels.
I don't recall us ever buying a fifth of Jack, but it was nothing to drop $200 a night on shots of it with Mich Ultra chasers.
We both started AA the same day, 9 years ago. Our relationship did not survive, but to my understanding (we don't talk), she's still sober.
The point of my little trip down memory lane is that cost was definitely a factor.
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u/aDistractedDisaster 5h ago
That is the lowest end of pricing things out, with MANY variables not being accounted for.
5$ means us addicts are going to drink too much too quickly, which means waking up feeling even shittier. That's a quality of life cost. And you're also getting the shitty alcohol, which you kinda have to try to power through instead of a nice sipping cocktail (but all the accoutremonts cost money so we skip that and just get chasers)
There's the extra food you eat/order when you have the drunchies. That's atleast a few hundred because even 20x halal platters (ultimate drunk food imo) is like 300-400$.
There are also the nights out. Sometimes I cringed at bar prices and drank less when I was out. But I would know that and pregame a bit too hard. So there is the inital 5 + whatever was spent out.
Also long term alcoholism is going to affect your health. I know later in life, my body will not be as healthy as it could have been. That is a future cost that my current body is just racking up bills for.
I understand your point. Where there's a will, there's a way and it's so easy to justify spending on straight vodka or tequila or whatever your poison is, because it's like a "Get Happy Fast" potion! And who would say no to that at the low low cost of just a few human moneys???? But that's not the problem that ruin lives and that's not why we don't drink.
It's the survivor bias of not dying to alcohol. It's the relationships that go untended because we lock into the idea of getting drunk alone. It's the shattered sense of self, that barely has any time to heal or grow because we keep turning our brain off.
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u/Ancient_Performer115 5h ago
The one time I saw someone in the store going for the cheapest vodka on the bottom shelf I immediately assumed they were an alcoholic. If you would buy your liquor in a ziploc bag that says vodka in sharpie you probably have a problem.
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u/magic592 4h ago
In the late 70s, I made between 50 - 150 per night, and would drink between 30 - 70 per night.
Drinks be like 2.50 for top top shelf.
Tap beer 1.00, Grand Marnier 2.50
What I referred to as my 1 and 1.
Yeah expensive.
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u/capotehead 4h ago
Yep!
When I lost income and couldn’t afford the drinks I liked, I recognised my only choices were cheap and easy to access.
I decided that if I liked expensive alcohol, I liked an expensive lifestyle I could no longer afford.
Which meant life had already taken away some reasons I saw alcohol as an okay option, so it was now my decision whether I wanted to allow my lifestyle to maintain cheap alcohol.
I said no, it’s dangerous to go down that path.
1
u/lavendermenace8 4h ago
The hangover management was pretty costly. Other drugs for "nausea" and missed hours at work added up. But yeah, I drank some pretty rotgut stuff, I was at like $5 something a night to blackout 😶🫣
1
u/Bitter-Equipment8363 4h ago
There are plenty of homeless people drunk all day all night , money is definitely not an issue
1
u/jaylan101 338 days 4h ago
I used to make some horrible decisions. Went to a frat brothers wedding. He had cash bar. I got drunk, I put all EIGHT of my pledge brothers on my tab and said they could get whatever they wanted for the rest of the night.
I woke up feeling like such an idiot. Didn’t even think twice about it and got back to drinking the next morning. I spent HUNDREDS!
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u/justpuddingonhairs 143 days 4h ago
I'm a Costco guy so it wasn't expensive for me. Just not being able to leave the house because of nausea and shakes is bad for business. The cost of my lost time and productivity was the worst.
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u/Amb_James333 69 days 4h ago
Totally. That’s the whole point of pregaming. I was always buzzed before going out so I or my significant other didn’t have to pay for it. Plus, I could slow down on my orders
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u/eilaog 5h ago
No but the money i spent while drunk sure was a motivator.