The Alcohol Balance Sheet (What It Actually Costs Over a Year)

 

This isn’t a sobriety post.

It’s a financial clarity exercise.

If you’re financially literate, this will land harder than opinions ever could.

We’re not looking at worst-case behaviour.

We’re not inflating numbers.

We’re not adding drama.

We’re simply converting habits into a balance sheet.

SECTION 1: Core Alcohol Spend (Annual)

Wine at Home (Moderate, Not Extreme)

Assumptions:

• 2 bottles of wine per week
• £20 per bottle (reasonable if you like decent wine)

Weekly cost:

• £40

Annual cost:

• £40 × 52 = £2,080

Pub Drinking (Social, Not Excessive)

Assumptions:

• 2 drinks per visit
• 2 visits per week
• £7 per drink (conservative in the UK)

Weekly cost:

• £28

Annual cost:

• £28 × 52 = £1,456

Alcohol Spend Subtotal

£2,080 + £1,456 = £3,536

This is before anything else.

SECTION 2: Transport Costs (Direct Consequences)

Taxis Home

Assumptions:

• 1 taxi per month
• £25 per taxi

Annual cost:

• £25 × 12 = £300

(Again: conservative)

SECTION 3: Secondary Spending (Alcohol-Adjacent)

Takeaways & Convenience Food

Assumptions:

• 1 takeaway per week linked to drinking or recovery
• £20 per order

Annual cost:

• £20 × 52 = £1,040

Impulse / Comfort Spending

This is the hardest to quantify, so we’ll stay modest.

Assumptions:

• £10 per week in “I wouldn’t have bought this otherwise” spending

Annual cost:

• £10 × 52 = £520

SECTION 4: Lost Productivity (This Is Where It Escalates)

Now we move from cash out to opportunity cost.

Missed or Low-Quality Work Hours

Assumptions:

• 1 mid-morning per week affected
• 2 hours of reduced output
• Value of time: £25 per hour

Weekly productivity cost:

• £50

Annual productivity cost:

• £50 × 52 = £2,600

This does not assume absence.

Only diminished capacity.

SECTION 5: The Full Annual Cost

Let’s total everything.

• Alcohol (wine + pub): £3,536
• Taxis: £300
• Takeaways: £1,040
• Comfort spending: £520
• Lost productivity: £2,600

TOTAL ANNUAL COST: £7,996

Round that how you like.

£8,000 per year.

SECTION 6: Why This Number Feels Shocking

Because none of it feels expensive in isolation.

• £40 here
• £25 there
• £20 when tired
• “Just one bad morning”

But financially literate people know this truth:

Leakage compounds faster than discipline.

This isn’t about irresponsibility.

It’s about invisible accumulation.

SECTION 7: What £8,000 Actually Represents

Without moralising:

£8,000 is:

• a serious emergency fund
• debt elimination
• long-term investment capital
• optionality
• reduced financial anxiety

Or simply:

• margin

Margin is what most people are missing.

SECTION 8: The Point (Important)

This post is not asking you to stop drinking.

It’s asking you to stop not knowing.

Financial clarity doesn’t demand action.

It changes the quality of future decisions.

Once the numbers are visible, habits lose their camouflage.

And that’s usually when real choice begins.