One of the black eyes on my record as a frugal person is alcohol. Not only did my consumption of alcohol increase as I became more frugal, but in fact my alcohol consumption was largely motivated by frugality, and even helped me get through frugality.
The reason I suffered my second financial crisis was due to traveling and living large abroad. Think Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, etc. That is a very expensive pastime, airline travel, hotels, taxis, drinks, and everything else, and this is what led to my second financial down fall. This is how I started drinking and eventually I "discovered" that I could simply buy beer and largely recreate the lifestyle I enjoyed for a tiny fraction of the price.
I associated alcohol with happiness and partying, I never drank to drown my sorrows. I never drank when I was angry or depressed. Not by choice, I just didn't have thirst when I was upset about something.
So eventually I started drinking frequently, the whole rationale was to enjoy myself for cheaper than going out. A $10 case of beer would be almost as good as spending the weekend at some night club in Brazil, and a hell of a lot cheaper.
And there you have it. Staying at home and drinking quite honestly saved me tons of money. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not recommending alcohol as a solution for anything by any stretch of the imagination. Becoming a rich drunk would be much worse than being sober and broke. But, I think there is a certain irony in how I used alcohol as a cheap fix, instead of resorting to other, more expensive methods to calm my nerves - such as shopping sprees, or going on huge vacations.
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Saturday, January 19, 2008
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3 comments:
If you (+ any friends) drink a bottle of beer a day or more you might check into home brewing (requires about $100 in startup costs). You probably wont beat the prices of cheap swill, but you can make much better tasting beer for the same price as the cheap swill.
You're right! Bringing a few beers over to a friend's house has been the best way for me to unwind sometimes...and it's so cheap, it's amazing. It helps to have friends that don't always want to be going out or anything, too. Good topic.
I agree with the homebrew comment - I am currently churning out delicious beer for $AU3/bottle including the cost of bottles and the setup for the homebrew kit. Tastes better, more satisfying cause I made it myself and I don't have to spend time/money buying shit beer.
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