If you’ve been contemplating ways in which you can save some money each month, you’ve likely thought about how to change your lifestyle to enable to you to spend less money. And while you may have considered cutting off your cable or starting to take public transportation, one area that many people aren’t willing to give up so easily is their alcohol consumption. However, if you truly thought about how much money you spend on drinks each month, and how much money you could end up spending as a result of your drinking, you may realize that there’s a lot of money to be saved here. To show you exactly how, here are three areas where you could save money by embracing sober living.
The Cost Of A Night Out
Depending on the amount of alcohol you drink on a weekly or monthly basis, the amount you could end up saving will vary. But let’s just say, for argument’s sake, that you spend two night out drinking each week. According to Paul Michael, a contributor to WiseBread.com, this likely costs about $160 per week. When you extrapolate that number, it comes out to about $7,000 a year! And this number doesn’t even include what you could be paying for safe transportation, a babysitter, and additional food. And while you may enjoy taking this time for yourself each week, is it really worth $7,000 each year to you?
The Cost of Health Care
Aside from the immediate costs that come from a night of drinking, there are also more long term costs that can be associated with more heavy drinking. According to StopDrinkingExpert.com, prolonged drinking can also be very expensive with regards to the cost of health care. If your drinking causes damage to your liver, you could end up developing cirrhosis or hepatitis, both of which come with a lot of medical attention needed. And if you end up landing yourself in the hospital for alcohol-related illness or injury, that’s a lot of money you could end up paying. Not to mention how your insurance rates can rise as a result of heavy drinking, which makes you a bigger risk for insurance companies to insure.
The Cost of Legal Fees
If you spend a lot of your time drinking and aren’t careful with how you conduct yourself when you’re under the influence of alcohol, you could wind up in legal trouble for countless reasons. And if this happens, Barbara Marquand, a contributor to NerdWallet.com, writes that you could end up having to pay such legal fees as bond, attorney fees, legal fines, mandated alcohol assistance and recovery fees, and much more. While this is often worse case scenario, it still happens to many people who let their drinking get out of control, both physically and financially.
For those who’ve wondered how much their social drinking is really costing them, use the information presented above to help you begin making smarter financial and legal choices regarding your alcohol consumption.
