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How much are our lifestyles costing us?

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If you’re someone who sets new year’s resolutions, you’re either well under way and succeeding, or just completely you’ve given up. According to Harper’s Bazaar, in 2017 the fourth most popular resolution people set was to curb their spending and save more. Switching your energy providers and bank accounts are a good way to do so, but why not try saving by looking a little closer to home?

If you look at your lifestyle, you may be surprised at how much your coffee on your way to work and Friday drinks may be adding up to. Crunching the numbers is plastic champagne flute retailer, Inn Supplies; so, just how much is your lifestyle costing you?

Alcohol

According to the Opinions and Lifestyle survey, in Britain 29 million people over the age of 16 drank alcohol in the UK. While the UK clearly has a thirst for alcohol, how we’re drinking it is changing. One YouGov study has found that in 2017, 15% of British adults preferred to drink alcohol at home. The country is clearly split between pub and home drinkers, with the latter growing in popularity as the number of pubs declines.

In the UK has been voted the most popular drink with 35.6% of voters choosing it. Closely followed by wine at 32.9% and spirits at 21.6%. 17% of Brits head to the pub 26 times a year (once every fortnight), research by Ritz Crisp & Thin shows — so how much is this habit costing us?

On average, the cost of one pint of lager is £3.58. Assuming three drinks per visit, each trip to the pub will cost £10.74 on drinks alone. Over the course of the year, this would rack up £279.24 — a cost that could be even greater if you were to increase the frequency of visits or the number of pints consumed.

This is also similar for the wine drinkers. As of November 2017, the average price for a small glass of wine was £3.74. Assuming two glasses of wine per each of the 26 yearly visits, and this will set you back £194.48.

Having a drink in the house could lead to considerable money savings. June 2017’s industry figures show that a bottle of wine costs £5.56. With roughly just over four 175ml glasses in each bottle, the associated cost per glass of drinking wine at home shrinks to £1.39 — representing a £2.35 saving.

Likewise, consider too that you can pick up a crate of lager for roughly the same price as one visit to the pub, based on our calculations.

You may not want to stop heading to the pub altogether but enjoying a soft drink from the bar could be a good option. These are often considerably cheaper than their alcoholic alternatives. For example, a diluted juice drink can cost under a pound, while a cola or lemonade costs approximately £2.20 — £1.38 less than the average cost of a pint.

Coffee

The coffee culture in Britain is a big business right now. The UK’s coffee shop market was worth £3.4 billion in 2016, up 37% from £2.4 billion in 2011. What’s more, in the next five years experts predict that the market will grow by a further 29% to reach a worth of £4.3 billion.

The incredible growth of Britain’s coffee shops is fuelled by our willingness to shell out on hot drinks. Research carried out on behalf of MyVoucherCodes has found that we visit a coffee shop three times a week on average — or 152 times a year.

Using Costa Coffee to compare price, which is the chain with the highest number of outlets in the UK, the average cost for a medium latte is £2.45. Based on the number of times we’re likely to visit annually, this means our caffeine addiction is costing us £382.20 per year. If you were to pop into your local coffee store five days a week — once for each of your morning commutes — you’d be spending a huge £637!

You may be surprised as we compare how much you’d save if you made your coffee at home. According to Douwe Egberts, a pack of its 250g ground coffee will make approximately 30 cups of coffee. Assuming that a 1kg bag will cost around £15 (according to Amazon prices correct as of December 2017), this would deliver a price per cup of around 13p.

Obviously there will also be the cost for milk, sugar, water and energy costs. However, even if this price was to rise to 50p per cup — which is an unlikely high — you could still slash the cost of three coffees per week to £78.

Smoking

Stopping smoking is another popular resolution made by people in January. In the UK, a packet of 20 cigarettes costs £10.40. For a 20-a-day smoker, this gives a weekly cost of £72.80, a monthly cost of £291.20 and a yearly cost of £3,494!

If you are a smoker, the NHS’ Smokefree service features a handy online calculator so you can work out exactly how much you could stand to save should you stop smoking.

So now you can see just how much your lifestyle is costing you. If you are looking to live a healthier life and save money then reducing your alcohol intake and stopping smoking is a great place to start.

Of course, you still need to enjoy yourself! However, now you know roughly how much you’re paying out annually on these lifestyle habits, perhaps you’ll be able to make better decisions on everything from your post-work pint to early-morning coffee.