How much do you really drink?

I only drink when socialising and even then no more than a couple of pints because I’m a lightweight.

It's supposed to be one bottle of wine a week over 2 nights. But when you factor in Christmas, summer cocktails, bank holidays, holidays in general, it definitely averages out as more over the year!

I don't drink in the week though.

One bottle of wine a week, spread over Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

My DH tends to have a beer most evenings with his meal but he doesn’t necessarily drink any more at the weekend if we are home. I don’t drink in the week and will have 1-2 glasses of wine if we are home, more if we are out. Potentially a bottle if we go to a party.

We were on holiday over Christmas/NY so I had a drink everyday but nothing since we’ve been home. Have friends over today so I’ll probably have a few glasses of wine.

I can’t stand feeling hungover any more and wasting the next day! I’m 56 with grown up DC.

I'm 56, DP and I don't drink in the week but will have 2-3 gins on Friday and Saturday night.

When we go on holiday we do tend to drink most days though.

One drink about every 3-4 months! I'm not anti alcohol and very occasionally I just fancy one...usually while I'm cooking. As I drink so rarely even one makes me tipsy so I wouldn't feel comfortable driving on it.

I'd say I binge drunk at uni 20 years ago for a relatively short period. Gave up for health reasons but also I have a general (personal) view that alcohol is something you do when you're younger and then grow up and grow out of. I know that sound judgy and I don't really mean it to sound that way.

My DH on the other hand can go without alcohol for several weeks when he's on a health kick but otherwise drinks to excess and has unhealthy relationship with it. He drinks the amount that people would be utterly shocked at on mumsnet. Pints and pints at a weekend. A few in the week during stressful periods. He doesn't see it as an issue because his peers do as well and his family are drinkers so it's normal. Basically he doesn't share my view.

I no longer drink. I don't need it anymore.
In a previous life, every day until I was rotten.
Never been married but have had relationships with other drinkers in my past.
I'm far happier now, but my relationship with alcohol bares no resemblance to yours.

I’ll have a couple of cocktails on a holiday, but don’t drink otherwise.
I don’t mind alcohol, but early onset Alzheimer’s runs in my family, so I’m aware I likely have a vulnerability to it. The research into the impact of alcohol use on that and later cognitive function is pretty clear. I’m not someone who dislikes alcohol or is pious about my limited drinking, but I really don’t love the idea of increasing my chances of early onset Alzheimer’s. There isn’t much I wouldn’t limit to reduce my chances of that. I don’t think everyone who is tee-total is judgmental, but for some people the long term health impacts do need to be a consideration.

I'm 44, rarely. I had a bottle of wine over the Christmas week and that was the entire amount of alcohol consumed in 2024.

What an odd take. Surely in order to get a complete picture, then it's useful to hear from everyone?

There's nothing attention seeking about answering a question that someone asked.

(And to someone else's point, it always happens on these threads, that people somehow take issue with people that don't drink much. It's very odd. You don't see the people that don't drink much making snarky comments about the ones that drink more. There's nothing competitive about answering the question asked)

I go overboard. I normally do 3-4 bottles of wine on a Saturday night. I have a high tolerance, and a very very problematic relationship with alcohol.

Well, sure, but it's a bit like joining a thread titled "how many cigs do you smoke a day", as a non-smoker, and saying "Oh none, never touched one in my life". Sort of a pointless, slightly attention seeking contribution.

I don’t like wine or beer so spirits for me and I love sweet drinks. Baileys and cocktails being my nemesis. We usually have one night a week where we try and all sit down together and play cards/board games/listen to music or watch something together. I usually just have a couple of drinks on this night.
occasionally I will have a drink on sat or sun night m. Probably drank more than usual recently due to Christmas/new year and having more alcohol in the house

Never really drink, not a teetotaller though. I will have a few drinks on the odd occasion I am out (probably about 4x a year). When I hear people struggling with dry Jan , or when people lose a load of weight 'just by giving up alcohol' - I just can't relate

Too much.
Big drinker through my teens and twenties. Went out several times a week and drank to excess - usually really awful stuff too like cheap cider and lambrini type drinks 🤢
Calmed down when I had my dc but during Covid it got really bad, at one point I was having a bottle of wine most nights of the week. Knocked that on the head but over the last few years it's crept up again. I only really drink at home. Very rarely go out. For me it's just a nice way to relax at the end of the day but I was averaging about 30 units a week which is double the recommended amount so I'm cutting right back to weekends only now. And I'm not having a stockpile of booze in either so if I have a bottle of wine when it's gone, it's gone. No opening another, that's my allowance for the week.
It takes up way too much thought and headspace, sometimes I really just wish I could knock it on the head for good. But the sad fact is, I enjoy the feeling and always have done.

Before I had kids I drink maybe 3 bottles of wine a week - which looking back is huge! But a couple of drinks afyer work in a Thursday , Saturday night out and maybe a client dinner mid week. . After kids very very rarely. And perimenopause has totally knocked my ability to drink - I’m floored by one glass now. I think it’s a phase most people go through, like clubbing or cross fit. You just loose interest…

Now next to nothing. Maybe 3 times a year. Four years ago. Every single weekend. binge drinking. Maybe a litre of vodka a night between two of us. Fri then again on the sat🙃.

2 mini bottles of Prosecco each month except for around 9 days every 7 weeks when I drink 1-3 glasses of Prosecco or one Prosecco and a Bailed every night.

I've been teetotal for 7 years. I might start drinking more when the dcs are older (am still breastfeeding) but it would be one unit up to 5 times a year. It gives me a headache and makes me sleepy so I don't really enjoy it, but it does make me relax a bit more so its nice on occasion. I used to drink a lot more in my 20s when I went out a lot, but most of the time these days I just hang out with DH and don't feel the need for it.

Some weeks nothing at all, others maybe a glass or two of wine on a Friday or saturday evening. Sometimes a G&T. Before a gallstone damaged my pancreas and caused me no end of trouble I would drink a whole box or wine every week. I’d always do some alcohol free days but I’d want a drink on those days. I gave up completely for many years, and now drink very much in moderation, most of the time i’d rather have a cup of tea.

I don’t drink alcohol.

This is mumsnet OP where if you drink more than half a glass of wine a week you're overdoing it. Most people will probably come on to tell you either they don't drink, or they drink 3 times a year or something so I don't think you'll get a wide range of views

This gets trotted out, virtually word for word, every time this question gets asked on MN

I can only presume it comes from people who are actually worried they are drinking more than is sensible or healthy.

At the very least it would seem by people who struggle with the concept that other people might behave differently from them.

I also agree with pp who said we are all likely to know "people like us", so, in the same way you think it is normal to drink at home every night, as everyone you know does, lots of us think it is pretty normal to only drink alcohol at a social occasion - Christmas, parties, weddings, special meal out, etc.

Despite my username.. in the last year I have drank alcohol 3 times

family wedding: 2 glasses champagne
gig: 2 glasses of wine
Christmas Eve, half a measure of baileys in a hot chocolate

I was a daily drinker for years. Used to regularly polish off a bottle of cava each night. Then dropped down to a couple of beers.

Cut way down about 18 months ago and try very hard not to drink 4 days of the week. Sometimes I manage 7 alcohol free days in a row but not as often as I'd like.

It's crept up a bit of the past several months due to work stress but never drink 7 days a week anymore. 5 would be a bad week for me.

I probably have a few occasions each year where I get wasted at social functions. The hangovers are horrific and I'm not able to function for the whole day afterwards so this is a rarity. It used to be a regular occurrence.

I’m completely teetotal now but was never a big drinker before. I’d never drink at home. I’ve lost my tolerance for it since my early twenties and it just makes me feel dizzy now. I have enough trouble with negotiating steps while wearing heels as it is; I don’t need to add dizziness into the mix. DH will occasionally have a shandy or a cider or two at home or spirits if we go out out, but he’s not a regular drinker either. I drink coke, he likes a mocktail.

My friends all drink, ranging from a glass of wine after a tough day, to borderline alcoholism (her description, not mine). I’ll happily go to the pub with any of them.