trinityvixen (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
trinityvixen) wrote2009-04-13 05:42 pm
trinityvixen) wrote2009-04-13 05:42 pm
Entry tags:
I am all for saving money
This is a decent list of obvious to not-so things to do to save money. But this one is just in denial about something:
STOP DRINKING
I quit drinking for a month, and by a rough estimate, I saved probably $300-$350. Maybe I'm kind of an alky, but even people who drink moderately can save money by cutting down on drinking, or just drinking at home. Also, buy the cheap stuff. Booze tastes exactly the same with any mixer in it. Like, you probably won't notice the difference between Pinnacle vodka (12 bucks a bottle in WA, where I live) and Ketel One ($27 a bottle) if you're putting cranberry juice in it. Just a thought.
Just a thought: when you can drink half the cost of my rent in booze each month, you're not kind of an alcoholic. You're such an alcoholic that you're coming out the other side of sobriety. I live in New York, home of muchos expensive alcohol, and I'd have to really work to drink half that much money in alcohol. With your average mixed beverage being $10 in this city, that's still 35 standard drinks, or at least one a day. Jay-sus.
On the subject of alcohol, though, here are a few things I've learned from various booze aficionados that can always save you money:
1) If you're mixing the drink with anything really sweet (daquiry mix, etc.), it doesn't really matter whether you buy top shelf or bargain basement booze. So go with the cheap stuff.
1a) Unless you get SMASHED OUT OF YOUR SKULL, which you should not do but rarely, in which case better booze does, occasionally, protect you from the worst of a hang-over. Buy Georgi for your every-other-day-at-most martinis; save the Grey Goose for a special hitting-a-brick-wall-at-sixty-miles-per evening.
1b) People who drink alcohol straight are doing it to get drunk 9 times out of 10. Ergo, it STILL shouldn't matter what they buy so long as they get a buzz.
1c) People who drink alcohol for the taste are probably drinking Scotch anyway, and are obviously richer than me so any advice on saving money is pretty much falling on infertile ground there.
2) You are not the dudes from Sideways. Buy cheap wine. $10 and under makes for entirely tasty, drinkable wine. Most of my favorite wines are $5-8 for a full liter, if not 1.5.
3) Buy bigger. If you like a lot of margaritas like some people I know, it's just always better to buy by the liter and above. It doesn't go bad. (Not if you drink it fast enough!)
4) Beer is cheap for a reason--it tastes like shit and requires roughly a full six pack to put you in a nice buzzed state. You'd be better off paying the same $15/case for some quality rum and having enough booze to satisfy you through your next umpteen drinkings.
Okay, so that last one is my editorial as far as the taste thing. But it's true--beer and wine coolers are pretty expensive. If you want something like a Mike's Hard anything, it's easiest to buy the bottle. (And much less messy at parties.) But if you're on your own, get some flavored vodka/rum and pour it into ginger ale. Same exact thing, more alcohol, less expensive.
STOP DRINKING
I quit drinking for a month, and by a rough estimate, I saved probably $300-$350. Maybe I'm kind of an alky, but even people who drink moderately can save money by cutting down on drinking, or just drinking at home. Also, buy the cheap stuff. Booze tastes exactly the same with any mixer in it. Like, you probably won't notice the difference between Pinnacle vodka (12 bucks a bottle in WA, where I live) and Ketel One ($27 a bottle) if you're putting cranberry juice in it. Just a thought.
Just a thought: when you can drink half the cost of my rent in booze each month, you're not kind of an alcoholic. You're such an alcoholic that you're coming out the other side of sobriety. I live in New York, home of muchos expensive alcohol, and I'd have to really work to drink half that much money in alcohol. With your average mixed beverage being $10 in this city, that's still 35 standard drinks, or at least one a day. Jay-sus.
On the subject of alcohol, though, here are a few things I've learned from various booze aficionados that can always save you money:
1) If you're mixing the drink with anything really sweet (daquiry mix, etc.), it doesn't really matter whether you buy top shelf or bargain basement booze. So go with the cheap stuff.
1a) Unless you get SMASHED OUT OF YOUR SKULL, which you should not do but rarely, in which case better booze does, occasionally, protect you from the worst of a hang-over. Buy Georgi for your every-other-day-at-most martinis; save the Grey Goose for a special hitting-a-brick-wall-at-sixty-miles-per evening.
1b) People who drink alcohol straight are doing it to get drunk 9 times out of 10. Ergo, it STILL shouldn't matter what they buy so long as they get a buzz.
1c) People who drink alcohol for the taste are probably drinking Scotch anyway, and are obviously richer than me so any advice on saving money is pretty much falling on infertile ground there.
2) You are not the dudes from Sideways. Buy cheap wine. $10 and under makes for entirely tasty, drinkable wine. Most of my favorite wines are $5-8 for a full liter, if not 1.5.
3) Buy bigger. If you like a lot of margaritas like some people I know, it's just always better to buy by the liter and above. It doesn't go bad. (Not if you drink it fast enough!)
4) Beer is cheap for a reason--it tastes like shit and requires roughly a full six pack to put you in a nice buzzed state. You'd be better off paying the same $15/case for some quality rum and having enough booze to satisfy you through your next umpteen drinkings.
Okay, so that last one is my editorial as far as the taste thing. But it's true--beer and wine coolers are pretty expensive. If you want something like a Mike's Hard anything, it's easiest to buy the bottle. (And much less messy at parties.) But if you're on your own, get some flavored vodka/rum and pour it into ginger ale. Same exact thing, more alcohol, less expensive.
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Turns out he was going out to clubs most nights and getting hammered. Gee, no wonder he didn't have any money. We tried to explain the concept of, say, movie nights or inviting friends over for pizza. Or even just having your own booze in your own house instead of paying $15 for a martini. He stared at us like we were nuts. We gave up and told him to get used to being poor.
But yeah, I've known of people who spend that much or more. Partially, it's a sign of subsituting alcohol for social skills. Partially, it's a sign of being a pretentious idiot and picking bars that are two damn expensive.
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