Just my luck. I manage to lose my ticket number 583 and still win the prize of a nice £8.75 bottle of Rioja in the jazz club draw, even though I’m supposed to ‘enjoy’ Sober October.
When my wife picked the third ticket out of the hat after no one had claimed the first two tickets, it happened to match my remaining ticket of 584.
Cries of ‘FIX!’ went up when the club crowd thought my wife, who was sitting next to me, had knowingly pulled the matching card out of the hat.
I know how they feel, because trying to avoid the demon potion in this country as I head into my 60s and my industry, journalism, sometimes seems like a solution.
But don’t worry: my intentions in taking on the October challenge to quit drinking alcohol are not pure.
I won’t crow about my clear head or dramatic weight loss because I took on this task purely as a financial exercise.
One in four members of Generation Z is teetotal, twice as many as older Generation X
How much could I save before the budget, what impact would this have on my domestic budget, and could the money set aside provide a retirement boost?
My family will tell you that I’m too mean to be classified as a spender and that I’m too disorganized to be categorized as a saver, but it’s certainly not too late for this old dog to learn a new trick .
I must start with a confession: I haven’t had a completely dry month since the last Labor government, which was swept away in 2010, when the average price of a pint was £2.48. It is now €4.98.
Remarkably, for me at least, that £4.98 barely covers the average UK total spend of £5.94 per week/£23.76 per month on alcoholic drinks by adults, with £3.60 worth consumed at home and £2.34 by 2023, according to government figures.
This represents a 29 per cent drop in alcohol consumption compared to the average total spend of £8.44 in the pandemic year 2020.
These are the kind of numbers that really make me thirsty.
By national standards, my savings of £23.76 would be so meager at the end of the month that I would struggle to get even a decent single malt.
When I told my wife that I was taking on this challenge, she trembled with joy.
In Sober October, participants give up alcohol for a month to improve their health
To make matters worse, I can no longer hide my consumption behind hers. She actually only drinks when we go to sunny places. It makes life so much harder for me, largely a home drinker.
I also have two boomerang kids at home, both back from university, and can’t afford London’s stratospheric rental market.
As much as I love them, stress is part of it, and I can’t even pretend to take the moral high ground with them when it comes to drinks.
Because they both belong to Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2012, they illustrate their age group by both drinking moderately or not at all when they grace the dinner table.
None of my kids like wine, which is my downfall, and they really only drink on a rare night out.
I, on the other hand, belong to Generation X, born between 1965 and 1980, which has a more checkered record when it comes to alcohol.
Among my Generation
One in four members of Generation Z are completely teetotal, which is twice the rate of my generation, according to a survey this year by the charity Drinkaware.
The annual survey also shows a decline in binge drinking, which is defined as drinking more than eight units in one session, around three pints of beer or a bottle of wine, to the lowest levels since data began being collected in 2018.
In 2018 this was 31 percent of adults, but now it is 22 percent.
But this should come as no surprise as Britain reached ‘drinking peak’ in 2004 when consumption reached 9.5 liters of pure alcohol, or the equivalent of 100 bottles of wine, per person per year.
That was three times as much as in the 1950s.
My own consumption has reached the point where I probably drink four to five times most weeks. Half a bottle here, or half a bottle there, from an evening. The damage? Between £3.75 and £5.50 per night.
Alternatively, I might be able to grab a few beers for £4.10.
If you’re tempted to reach for low- or no-alcohol alternatives to save money, think again.
A 70cl bottle of Gordons Gin costs £17 in Tesco, but the non-alcoholic equivalent Seedlip costs £22.
Beer is slightly better: 8 x 500ml Adnams Ghost Ship 0.5 percent costs £11.49 and the alcoholic Double Ghost costs £16.99 for 8 x 500ml.
Adam Luck admits he hasn’t had a completely dry month since the last Labor government, which ended in 2010
But the pandemic put me off low-alcohol beer for life. My family teased me about the piles of empty cans of Brew Nanny State, my non-alcoholic vegan beer, littering the house as I thought about the end of the world.
My approach was to order a pint of lime and lemonade or soft drink to quench my thirst for £1.50 each. And it would stay at one, because there aren’t many people who would go for two pints of lime and lemonade (or something like that).
But I can’t pretend that my month of sobriety was easy and there were plenty of temptations.
One evening I went to meet an old acquaintance at one of London’s fanciest restaurants. I tried to cancel because I couldn’t drink. My contact assured me that we didn’t need to drink, but then asked me if it was okay for him to order a glass. I could barely refuse, through gritted teeth.
But I saved at least £25 on a carafe of house white.
However, our holiday week in Crete was a bit more difficult to bear.
I’m not a good flyer so I would have spent £5.50 for a Black Sheep Ale on the Jet2 flight to calm the nerves.
The next day we went to a fancy taverna for some octopus and I saved at least £12.50 for two white wines.
The next day we settled into a more traditional taverna nearby for a long Sunday seafood lunch. I would have happily sunk two beers and a glass of white wine, so about £9.
On Monday we discovered a bar with a beautiful view over the Venetian harbor. Two large beers would cost you almost £11. I settled for a fresh orange juice at around £3.
On Tuesday and Wednesday I was in charge of a rental car and we got back late, so maybe only a few glasses of white. That would result in a saving of approximately €7.
On Thursday and Friday it was time for that bar at the harbor again. So I think £22 was saved, give or take. Then that flight back would require a stun beer for £5.50.
Even if I grab the occasional soft drink, I still think I’ve saved about £50. My wife occasionally drank a glass of semi-sweet Greek wine, but her damage was minor.
But at the end of the month I really hit the jackpot when I went to a pub wake for a former colleague. When I ordered a pint of soft drink with a slice of lime, I was honestly surprised.
My fellow mourners were only reassured when I told them it was an article. Conservatively I think I saved by paying for two small rounds worth £40.
By the end of the month I had lost 2kg, but my sleep patterns were still chaotic and, I strongly suspect, my blood pressure was no lower.
After my careful calculation, I saved around £180 thanks to Sober October. Imagine if I multiplied those savings over decades. Maybe I could even retire.
Sarah Coles, from investment platform Hargreaves Lansdown, says: ‘Adam’s results show how powerful it can be to eliminate an expensive habit from your life, especially if it’s not benefiting you.
Money expert Sarah Coles says giving up alcohol can give you more time to plan your finances
‘It can work for everything from nights out with people you think you should see, to takeaways that never deliver the fun you expected or subscriptions that don’t give you much value.
‘Quitting alcohol also has the benefit of giving you more clarity, and while you may not want to spend every second planning your future, carving out a little more time for your finances can also pay off.’
If I rolled over that £2,160 I would save for a year in a fixed one-year Isa paying 4.6 per cent, at the end of the year I would have £2,261 – a decent boost of £101.
If I kept it in an easy-access savings account and paid 5 percent, I would have £2,271. But rates are variable on an easy-to-access savings account.
But the biggest boost could come from diverting the money to a pension.
Someone aged 37 and earning £30,000 a year could add £109,000 to their pension pot by the time they retire at 67, says Ms Coles. This assumes a growth of 5 pct. and additional tax relief.
A taxpayer with a higher or alternative rate could also reclaim the extra tax reduction on his tax return, but this will not automatically be transferred to a pension.
Even though I’m not 37, there’s still a lot to be saved by sending that £180 a month into my pension.
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