You are probably looking to save a few bucks here and there and maybe even a few pounds right? Well, you can tackle both by riding your bike or buying a yoga mat, but this post is about saving money on a body-fat increasing activity - drinking alcohol.
The average Canadian, depending on the province, spends over $700 a year on alcohol. That's a crude statistic that simply measures total alcohol spending and divides it by the number of people. You reader, are likely one of the people driving up that average, I'd guess the average alcohol consuming millennial spends two to three times that amount to be sure.
So what can you do to bring that down? Short of absence, here are a couple ideas of what I've done lately.
Drink more club sodas at pubs. Even if you're going to have a beer, order a second fancy and bubbly drink for $2, the club soda, and enjoy its zero calorie but thirst quenching goodness. The alternative? Likely a second beer and some nasty pub carb snack that likely equate to an extra $15 spent per pub visit.
Go to the ubrew store and make wine. For my third time I went to the WineKitz on Admirals Walk and made wine. $150 and five weeks gives me over 30 bottles of wonderful wine that ages and improves with time to taste just as good as any store bought bottle. I even took my kids and showed them how the process works. Savings: $5-10 per bottle or $160-$320.
Turn apple juice into apple cider. I followed the directions of my hero Mr Money Moustache and bought a 2.89L bottle of organic apple juice for $13 and, while at the ubrew store, bought some yeast and a cork and airlock. The result? 30 second of work and ten days of waiting later, I have tasty apple cider! Total cost is about $4 per wine-bottle equivalent.
Those are my three big ideas. A third might be to go to the actual brewery and buy from the source using growlers, but those save pennies compared to a liquor store purchase.
What about you? Have you found any great experiential ideas that add value to the experience or innovative ways to save money?
The average Canadian, depending on the province, spends over $700 a year on alcohol. That's a crude statistic that simply measures total alcohol spending and divides it by the number of people. You reader, are likely one of the people driving up that average, I'd guess the average alcohol consuming millennial spends two to three times that amount to be sure.
So what can you do to bring that down? Short of absence, here are a couple ideas of what I've done lately.
Drink more club sodas at pubs. Even if you're going to have a beer, order a second fancy and bubbly drink for $2, the club soda, and enjoy its zero calorie but thirst quenching goodness. The alternative? Likely a second beer and some nasty pub carb snack that likely equate to an extra $15 spent per pub visit.
Go to the ubrew store and make wine. For my third time I went to the WineKitz on Admirals Walk and made wine. $150 and five weeks gives me over 30 bottles of wonderful wine that ages and improves with time to taste just as good as any store bought bottle. I even took my kids and showed them how the process works. Savings: $5-10 per bottle or $160-$320.
Turn apple juice into apple cider. I followed the directions of my hero Mr Money Moustache and bought a 2.89L bottle of organic apple juice for $13 and, while at the ubrew store, bought some yeast and a cork and airlock. The result? 30 second of work and ten days of waiting later, I have tasty apple cider! Total cost is about $4 per wine-bottle equivalent.
Those are my three big ideas. A third might be to go to the actual brewery and buy from the source using growlers, but those save pennies compared to a liquor store purchase.
What about you? Have you found any great experiential ideas that add value to the experience or innovative ways to save money?