I am all for saving money

[trinityvixen]

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.

Comments

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Just. How? It also sounds like he's drinking from home. Even $30/bottle would mean ten-eleven bottles a month. That's not "maybe" an alcoholic anything.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I had a conversation with a coworker at my old job in which he was complaining about how much money he was spending. Another coworker and I were baffled that he couldn't save money, when we were pretty sure he was getting paid about what we were and we had no trouble putting money away.

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.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

Yikes. I thought for sure I was closer to the mark with $10/drink, but it shouldn't surprise me that I'm not. I can't imagine going out every night. Every. Night!? Yeesh.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I got the feeling the only friends he had were bar friends.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

That's incredibly sad :(

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

It was. We were both really kind of taken aback, especially by his puzzlement that this wasn't how all 20-somethings in New York lived. He thought we were boring and too conservative. We thought he was nuts and sad.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I have, on occasion, felt bad that I don't do the go-out-and-get-smashed club life of a "proper" New Yorker. But that shit is boring, expensive, and boring some more. I don't regret having the money and not wasting the time.

[lizzatherussian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, for a while I assumed I was a reticent and boring person because I got easily BORED at clubs. (How can I get bored with all these loud things going on around me? I must be a boring person)- but now I get that maybe people who live this lifestyle are just trying to fill a gaping void.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I am amused for a bit when dancing is involved. The clubs that are really loud, with a cover and overpriced drinks, yet have no dance floor? Totally baffling. I mean, it's fun to have some drinks with friends, but I can do that in my/their apartment. Plus, worst case, there's somewhere safe to crash if someone accidentally overdoes it or stays out later than they're comfortable traveling.

[trinityvixen.livejournal.com]

I just never like going places where you have to shout to be heard. I always shout (or so it probably seems), but I hate having to. Or having to strain to hear. That's the worst--how can you have fun if you're all just sitting there going "WHAAAT???" at each other?

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it's great if you're interested in sex ... and absolutely nothing else.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Still not interesting unless you manage to actually find someone with whom to have sex.

[kent-allard-jr.livejournal.com]

If everyone around you is drunk enough -- and is as sex focused as you are -- I'm sure sex is easy to find.