I’ve Given Up Booze!

After my recent expert guide to cruise booze, I have done a complete 180 spin over the last three weeks and not touched a drop of the stuff.

As many of you will know by now my wife and I are expecting a son in August, and so in support of her I have decided to kick booze into touch for the foreseeable future.

I recognize that if she needs any emergency trips to the hospital etc, I need to be in good shape to jump in the car and take her, it’s the responsible thing to do.

It’s not been especially hard up to now, although I watch a lot of football down at my local pub, and it’s not easy to stick to, when everyone is enjoying a pint, striding up to the bar and ordering a pint of lime and soda, my soft drink of choice, instead of a beer.

But after a few weeks I’m starting to get used to it, and after initially tearing me apart about it, my friends have actually become fairly understanding about it.

A lot of people say that they feel miles better after just a week off it. Personally I feel no different. I’m by no means a heavy drinker nowadays, I value my health to much with a child on the way, so I think the people that feel better, are the ones that drink to the point of having a hangover every single weekend! I can’t handle hangovers very well, so it suits me not having them!

Hopefully long term there will be a few benefits. Alcohol does your insides no good, especially the liver, which I only have one of, so I’m happy to keep that in tact for longer! But the main thing is the sugar from it that yoou body turns straight into fat, so along with a fairly decent exercise regime, I hope to lose a bit of weight too.

I’m sure in a couple of weeks time I’ll be gagging for a glass of red wine, or a little dram of whisky (my two favourites), so I need your support to stay stronger for longer and stay away from it!

A lot of the problem is actually TV, my two box set binges at the moment are Suits and White Collar. Two US shows where every other scene involves the characters drinking red wine or whisky! Argh it’s a nightmare!

Fortunately though I am getting to the end of the box sets, and with football season ending soon, and baby coming in the summer, I’m confident my aspirations of becoming tee-total could become a reality!

One thing at this early stage that is for sure is that it’s certainly a hell of a lot easier on the pocket! A pint in my local costs between £3 and £4 depending on what you have, and during a match I’ll have an average of 3 pints, so it’s just over a tenner twice a week, plus a bottle of wine at weekend – call it £25 quid a week I was spending roughly, that’s £100, or £1200 a year, just on booze, maybe a touch more if you throw in a few bottles of gin and whisky!

A pint of lime soda is only about £1 average, so that’s £6 a week, no wine, whisky or gin, £24 max per month, so a mere £288 max per year, giving me an extra £900+ over the course of the year. That £900 will certainly come in useful in the next 12 months if I stick to it, which is my intention.

Tips, pointers and thoughts welcome!

Have a great week! Thanks for reading, and as ever, until next time……….