Mindful Drinking & Moderation in Midlife: Low No Drinker Podcast

109: Costs of Drinking AF Pt2: £62,899 Burnout

• Denise Hamilton-Mace • Episode 109

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This is part two of my mini-series on the true cost of alcohol-free drinks.

Last week, we pulled back the curtain on the industry economics — from research and development to supermarket shelf space.

This week, I’m shifting the focus to you as the drinker. Yes, an AF pint might cost the same as a full-strength one, but what about the money saved on late-night taxis, hangover takeaways, or rounds of shots?

Beyond that, I dig into the personal costs: lost sleep, low mood, missed workouts, strained relationships, and even burnout. Choosing alcohol-free isn’t just about the price of one drink — it’s about the long-term gains for your financial, emotional and physical health.

0:00 The Cost of Drinking Alcohol-Free pt 2
3:48 Drinking with friends
8:07 Next day costs
10:52 £62,899 in a lifetime
12:54 Personal costs: hangovers & sleep
15:58 Social & emotional costs
16:35 Work life costs & burnout
19:23 Physical costs
20:42 Cost withdrawal vs deposits

Also mentioned:
alcoholchange.org.uk

Best episode to listen to next:
#108: Costs of Drinking AF Pt1: What You’re Really Paying For

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Speaker 1:

So this is part two. Last week, we took a look at the costs of low, no and light drinks from an industry perspective and this week, as promised, I want to have a look at the costs to you as a drinker, because people are still asking why low, no and light drinks cost so much money when there's no alcohol in them. And yes, the industry considerations that I shared last week are the practical and real-term reasons why these drinks cost so much to research, to produce, to manufacture, to distribute, to market. But there's a second set of costs that aren't considered and I think that it's really important that we have a look at the costs to you as the drinker of alcohol-full or alcohol-free drinks and why those costs matter just as much, if not more, than, the money you have to spend from your pocket to buy them.

Speaker 1:

Hello, hello and welcome to the Mindful Drinking and Moderation in Midlife podcast brought to you by Lono Drinker, the leading global magazine for mindful and sober, curious drinkers. My name is Denise Hamilton-Mace and I'm the founder, editor and host of all things Low no Drinker, and I'm here to help you find, understand and enjoy the world of low, no and light alcohol drinks, drinkers and drinking so that you can live a life less intoxicated on your own terms. So, like I said, we're going to look today at the cost, both financial and personal, to you as somebody who chooses alcohol-free or low or no or light alcohol drinks, and why I think that that means that the fact that these drinks cost the same as full strength drinks is perfectly okay. So let's start with the easy stuff. Okay, let's talk financials. We're talking money. I know we're not supposed to, we're British. We don't talk about sex or money, but I'm going to talk about both on this podcast. So, yes, alcohol-free drinks cost the same amount as alcohol-full drinks in a lot of instances on a night out. But let's look at how much you're spending on that night out and how much that is costing you.

Speaker 1:

Now, I was going to do this with some real-life numbers for you, but then I recognised that I, for example, I live in London, and whilst the cost of going out for a few drinks in London might be the same as, say, manchester, it would be very different to somewhere like Burnley or something. And then, of course, I have a lot of people that listen from the States. About half the people that listen to this show are in the States. Hello and welcome. Thank you very much for joining me from across the pond. And I have absolutely no idea what drinks cost over there, because the numbers that I hear, for example, for a cocktail for $28, aren't comparable to what we would pay for a cocktail here in London where you might pay like sort of 12 to 16 quid. So we're going to talk in more general terms and you'll be able to equate this to where you are in space, in terms of where you're actually living. But let's think about the actual costs of going out for a night out and how that compares to the costs for going out for a night out with alcohol-free drinks. So I've just given you a couple of numbers for what a cocktail or you know might cost where you are. Or perhaps a beer. Now a pint of beer in a pub in London now is coming at £5 plus Around is an eye-watering amount of money to spend. It's really expensive to buy these drinks.

Speaker 1:

So I was out on the weekend with some friends I hadn't seen. We've all known each other for about 20 years or so. We hadn't seen each other for a year. So we were all out together and we had a lovely time and there were seven of us and only one other person in the group wasn't drinking, so it was me and my other friend. We were the alcohol free drinks and everyone else was drinking alcohol full. I was drinking bottles of Peroni Zero and he was drinking pints of Lucky Saint. Now, my drink was five pound a bottle, so five pound for half a pint of beer is a lot of money. My friends were drinking various different drinks, and their full strength drinks are also five pounds, or five pound fifty a pint. So right there we're on a par.

Speaker 1:

Now, one of the things that we always say about alcohol free drinks is that we want to feel like we're part of the same adult drinking experience as our friends. Well, I definitely felt like I was part of the same experience when I was spending the same amount of money on my drink then as they were. But after a couple of drinks, there are certain things that change when it comes to how you're spending money on a night out. As they drank more and this is not from a place of judgment, because I love these guys dearly as they drank more, their decision making processes became, let's say, altered and the shots started to come out, and, of course, once one round of shots come out, you know that there's going to be more to follow. Now, me and my other friend, we weren't having any shots, so already there we've saved ourselves some money. They went on after we left the first pub that we were in and they went on to the next venue. Now I didn't want to go out any further. I had lots of work to do the next day, which is also one of the costs that we were in and they went on to the next venue.

Speaker 1:

Now I didn't want to go out any further. I had lots of work to do the next day, which is also one of the costs that we'll talk about, so I decided to go home. My other non-drinking friend actually decided to stay out, so he stayed and went and carried on the evening, which, from the WhatsApp group messages the next day, I believe, went on to about four o'clock in the morning. But the reason why I bring that part up is because, as I wasn't drinking full strength alcohol, when I got to the point where I had decided that I'd had enough for the evening and that I didn't want to drink anymore, I was able to make a clear decision to say do you know what, guys? I've had a great time, I've enjoyed myself with you, I have laughed just like we used to. But I've got to get home, I've got the kids to deal with, I've got work in the morning and I want to have a clear head. So I made that decision and I left. Now my friends decided to stay out. They went to the next venue Because they had been drinking already and their decision making was impaired. They had to pay to get in. That's absolutely fine. It happens sometimes. So they pay to get in, then they pay to have the drinks in the next venue, then they pay to have some more shots in the next venue.

Speaker 1:

As I mentioned, their night out continued to the wee small hours of the morning. So what generally happens after you've been out for a few drinks? Hours of the morning? So what generally happens after you've been out for a few drinks? You then get hungry. So you're spending money on some really unhealthy food choices.

Speaker 1:

Now don't get me wrong. I used to love a kebab when I'd had a few drinks. I guess in the States, for you guys it's more like pizza, because that's on every street corner. For us, late night, it's a kebab shop. So there's the money that you spend on the kebab, and, of course, it's the middle of the night and you've got to get home. Now we're quite lucky in London that we have a really, really good transport system and there are night buses that run across the city and can get you absolutely anywhere. That's if you can figure out where to get the bus from. If you can't, your next best bet it's that Uber. You get in the taxi. So you get in the taxi home and you're spending a bit of money there. Now I'm laughing, not because I'm judging, but because I just remember doing this so many times, and sometimes it was fun, sometimes less so.

Speaker 1:

And then there's the. So you've got the. You spent the money on the pizza or the kebab. You've spent the money on the taxi home, which can be anything from a tenner up to 60 quid, depending on how far away from home you found yourself, wherever it was that you ended up in the last place of the night.

Speaker 1:

And then there's the next day, and this is where the costs to me really kick in. So this is where we start moving away from the financial costs, because the next day there are a few financial costs. You might be looking at painkillers. They don't cost very much money. It's unlikely that you're going to be in the mood to cook yourself a nice healthy dinner, so you're probably getting a takeaway again. So there's another 20 to 40 quid, depending on what's around you and what you're getting.

Speaker 1:

If you were supposed to be going to work that day and you haven't made it in, there's the financial cost of either missing your shift, so you're not getting paid if you're on an hourly rate, or you're just getting a really big bollocking from the boss. If you're on a salary you're supposed to be in. But sticking with the financial costs, you know you've got your takeaway. You've got your painkillers. You generally need to be replenished with liquids but you're not having waters, that. You're buying lots of fizzy drinks which are full of sugar really bad for you.

Speaker 1:

You're online buying these things and whilst you're there, you're making really poor decisions and you're doing some online shopping because you're like, oh, screw it, why I might as well just get that, you know that skincare treatment, because I look terrible and I want to treat myself to something nice. Or, oh, while I'm here, those trainers that I was going to buy. I'm going to go and spend some money on those trainers being sneakers for my American friends who don't know that we call them different things. So there's the impulse shopping on on your post evening out. So there's a lot of financial costs that you take into consideration now, because I left my friends earlier on. I think I went home around about eight o'clock. We had been out since 12 o'clock that afternoon.

Speaker 1:

Um, you know, I really had the cost to contend with of paying for the drinks that I had while I was there and a few packets of crisps or some chips or whatever it was that we were having my other friend who stayed out but wasn't drinking. He had costs as well. You know. He kept going to the next venue so he had to pay to get in. He had to pay for his alcohol-free drinks there, but his cost stopped there as well. From the messages that I received the next day, I can guarantee you that the costs that my other friends were paying kept going.

Speaker 1:

So we've talked about those financial ones and we've all faced those and it is terrible when you wake up the next morning and you look at the bank balance and you're like, oh my God, how did I spend so much money? I don't even remember buying that round of drinks. And if you are somebody who generally tends to drink and do other things, then there are the costs of all the extracurricular purchases that you may have made as well. But then we've got the other costs, the cost that we can't put a financial number on, because it a little bit easier sometimes when you can see the financial costs, when you can make that clear delineation between. This is what I had when I started the night, this is what I have when the night is over.

Speaker 1:

And it's funny, that number, as I said, varies, you know, across the country and across the globe, depending on where you live and your circumstances and what kind of venues you go to. But here in the UK, uk alcohol change uk, which is a huge charity that helps people to um, assess their relationship with alcohol and choose to either change it somewhat or completely. Uh, they put out some research it's a couple of years old now, so I believe it was from 2023 and they said that the average Brit in their adult lifetime, from the age of 18 to the age of I think it was mid-60s somewhere would spend £62,899 on alcohol. £62,899. That is a lot of money and that's your average drinker. I, for one, know that I prided myself on being above average in my drinking qualifications when I was in what I call my professional drinking days, and I can guarantee you that my spend was a lot higher than that. But think about that £62,899. We need to do a loft conversion for the kids at some point in the future, because they share a bedroom and at some point, having one boy and one girl, they're going to want their own space. That would buy us a loft conversion. And if you think about the fact that that's how much you spend on alcohol in a lifetime for an average consumer, it's easy to be able to quantify that and go right wow, okay, well, that's a lot of money. I am now able to see that I don't want to spend that money financially on alcohol and I want to be able to put it aside for something else, be it a lawful conversion, be it a holiday, whatever it is.

Speaker 1:

But there are more costs to choosing to consume alcohol than just the financial. Now, before we start jumping into all of these, I want to caveat this by saying, as you'll know by now, I'm not anti-alcohol. I'm not attempting to make you feel guilty about choosing to drink alcohol. For a mindful drinker, alcohol is still very much a part of the way that they socialize. This is more about you recognizing that all of our actions have consequences, and so when you do choose to imbibe alcohol, know that those consequences come in the form of costs that you might not have been able to budget for in the past. Able to budget for in the past, but now, with this information, I hope that it helps you to be able to take that into the equation when you're deciding if and how much you want to consume.

Speaker 1:

So let's talk about the personal costs to you. There are the obvious ones the hangover. For me, the hangover was what drove me into this space of looking at drinking differently, because I just couldn't afford the 24-hour illness that would ensue after a night out. I put my body through some immense torture when it came to drinking and partying, and so it would take me 24 to 48 hours to get over it. That included being violently ill for the first day many, many times.

Speaker 1:

So there's the cost of the hangover and everything that you have to say no to when you're unable to drag your carcass off the sofa or out of bed. It's the opportunity cost, and we'll talk a bit more about those in a moment. But along with the hangover, you know you're looking at things like the lost sleep, and sleep is so important. You'll hear me bang on about sleep all the time, because for me, everything starts with a good night's sleep and when I don't sleep well, it manifests in everything I do, from my mood, from my patience, to my quality of work, to my ability to concentrate, to my choices around food, around drinking, around taking care of myself. So there's the cost to your sleep, which to me personally, I think is absolutely immense. There's the cost, as I said, to your mood, so your temperament, with your loved ones, with your family, with your partner, with your colleagues at work.

Speaker 1:

It is the cost to your physical health, and I'm not just talking about the hangovers here, and we're not talking about the often cited stat about alcohol and cancer. I'm not a doctor, I'm not here to scare you with health facts that, whilst founded and true, I don't have any experience on. But I'm talking about the more immediate, personable impacts, things like not doing any exercise If you're somebody that works out, it's highly unlikely that you're going to be in the mood to hit the gym or go for a run If you're hanging from the night before even getting up and going outside for a walk I'm a big walker, you know and being able to go out for a walk and make it around the park without feeling like you need to sit down and die for a little while, there's the cost to your friendships. It's the cost of cancelling plans, all those great plans that you made whilst you were out drinking to meet up the next day and go for lunch or I don't know, go and do some sort of activity to catch up just me and you, you know and see what's going on. All of those generally go out the window. And then there's the emotional costs. It is the cost of things like regret and embarrassment and the anxiety depending on what you did or didn't do the night before and what you can or can't remember about what you did or you didn't do the night before.

Speaker 1:

Then we look at work and we look at our productivity. So I mentioned before you know it's whether or not you make it into your shift the next day. There are some shocking numbers I don't have them to hand now, but there's some shocking numbers about the amount of productivity that is lost to alcohol in terms of hangovers and people not coming to work the next day. It is the relationships that you're building with the people that you work with. Do you want to be seen as somebody who can be relied on to turn up for their shift or to turn up to the office to put their best foot forward, to always do their best to forward and enhance the business and the company and the team? Do you want to be seen as a team player or do you want to be seen as that guy or that girl who's hungover again, who's not communicating well, who's not producing work to a high standard? It's the slow start. Maybe you do make it into work, but it takes you a while to get back into the swing of things because you need that extra coffee and another extra coffee and another extra coffee. It's the amount of times you have to redo your work because the work that you did do whilst you weren't feeling great just wasn't up to par, and it's the burnout that that leads to.

Speaker 1:

One of the biggest side effects, I think, of drinking full strength alcohol to a negative degree that people don't talk about is the fact that it leads to burnout. We are in a time, now in midlife, where our work is generally more involved, more complex, has more responsibilities than it did 20 years ago, and being able to deliver that to a high standard requires a lot from us. It requires a lot of attention, a lot of focus, a lot of attention to detail, the ability for executive thinking, for decision making, for fast actions, and if we are doing all of that whilst we are recovering from the night before, then that work is not going to be up to scratch. It doesn't matter who you are, it's just a biological fact. And having to redo work, having to revisit work, having to explain why your work isn't up to par and come up with excuses so that you don't get told off for it just being because you had a hangover this is all part of the things that lead to burnout.

Speaker 1:

And burnout is a very real condition for those of us in midlife who are dealing with high pressure jobs, with dealing with relationships, with dealing with kids and perhaps also elderly parents. There's so much going on that anything that you can do to help you achieve a greater level of quality and productivity in your work life is definitely a bonus to have on your side. Then there's the cost to your physical well-being as well as your mental well-being. So we talked about you know, perhaps you won't be going for that run or you might not be hitting the gym. But there are other things as well.

Speaker 1:

It is the mood swings which I've mentioned before, but that leads to making poor decisions about food and therefore that leads to weight gain, and we all know that in midlife, weight gain is a very real pain in the backside, literally, and it becomes harder to shift weight. It's the inflammation, it's the bad skin. You know, when you get to a certain age in life and your hormones for both men and for women hormones start acting up again like they did when you were a teenager. You know, if you're going through menopause, like I am at the moment, like they did when you were a teenager, you know, if you're going through menopause, like I am at the moment, I get breakouts on my skin, and adding alcohol into that just exacerbates it and makes it worse. Why I would want that, I don't know.

Speaker 1:

Like I said, it's the weight gain that is really hard to shift when you're in midlife, because it's hard to find the motivation, it's hard to get to the gym and once you're there, it is harder for your body to let go of these fats, because it becomes something that we naturally hold on to for longer.

Speaker 1:

Drinking less always leads to you spending less, just because on the individual night that you went out, you might have spent a similar amount of money to what you spent when you were drinking full strength or what your friend were drinking.

Speaker 1:

What I want you to remember is that it is the long term costs to these drinking decisions that are really where you'll start to see the saving come into play and are really going to make the difference to your financial, physical, emotional wallets. You can make as many withdrawals from your fiscal, emotional, physical relationship bank as you want and you can spend those withdrawals over the bar, on alcohol, full drinks, on partying, on having wild nights out, but getting that money back in, getting those deposits back into your account and building up your reserve of physical, emotional and financial strength and well-being, takes a lot longer than it takes for you to just get over that hangover. So remember that choosing alcohol-free isn't just about the cost for that one drink. It's about the long-term gain that you get for choosing a life less intoxicated. That's it for me from this week, if you have found this episode to be insightful, then could you do me a favor and share it with somebody else that you know who might be looking to live a life less intoxicated. Cheers, and I'll catch you next time.

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