Do you ever find yourself in a gripe about not having any cash, despite having just been paid? Maybe it’s time to cut down on the booze…

Guzzling your cash

Payday: no matter when you get paid, each weekend means that the big city centres will be jam packed full of people who want a night out in order to celebrate their bank balance getting a boost and spending like there is no tomorrow…

…but soon after the extravagant weekend, you’ll hear people moaning about there being “too much month at the end of the money” and living off ramen noodles for the next three weeks.

Does the big booze blowout seem worth it then?

It’s good to let your hair down and go out and celebrate, but it’s also important to think about your budget, which is why it might help to total up the cost of how much money you’re potentially spending each year…

Let's think about a typical night out...

You’ll probably have a few drinks at a friends’ house before all jumping into a taxi to a nightclub… so you all chip in about five pounds.

Then it’s straight into the nightclub, where you’ll probably end up spending £3 to £5 to get in… and maybe extra for checking your coats and bags into the cloakroom.

From then on it’s all about the drink – let say you splash fifteen quid on drink – before you grab your coat, make your way out and probably be tempted into getting a chippy or a kebab for a few more quid before throwing another five pounds on a taxi home.

So totalling that up, let’s say you spend an average of £35 on a night out… and go out twice a month.

That’s £70 a month… and a massive £840 a year - not including trips to the pub, or having a few drinks at a friend’s house.

Cancer charity Macmillan found that the average British person spend a whopping £49,581 on booze in their lifetime.

Either way it all adds up!

What could you buy with that? We figured it out:

• One and a half iPhone 6’s.
• 10 years worth of Netflix subscriptions.
• 6 years and two months of Deezer premium subscription (including your free month with Young Scot rewards!) 
• You could go see roughly 125 films at Cineworld using your Young Scot card discount
• You could get 3 years and 8 months worth of gym membership (on average!)
• With flybe you could fly from Glasgow to Malaga (and back!) four times
• 77 trips to Deep Sea World with your 20% Young Scot discount.

Either way, you could be missing out on a lot thanks to booze eating away at your budget – perhaps it’s time to think before throwing all your cash at drink! 

Want to find out more about alcohol? Check out Choices for Life