How much money would you spend on a night out?

[Ihateandilove]

just curious really
have a night out planned and don’t think I’ve been ‘out out’ since Covid (bearing in mind I did get pregnant and have a 2.5 year old plus recent relationship break up

whats a normal amount of money for a 40yo to spend on going into London and getting cocktails on a Friday evening?! (I already feel old and scared I’ll be surrounded by students half my age so please no comments I should be staying at home with my child!)

Depends if I’m Ubering it home, then that’s a separate cost £60 usually

Everything else, I’ll put aside £200
I only like Mayfair though.

or let whoever is taking me out pay.

Including dinner and an uber home? At least £100 without dinner.

I'd probably spend £20-30 tops on drinks but I don't drink cocktails or go into London! That would be £20 for the train and probably £15 a cocktail-it depends how many you are likely to drink!!

where in London are you planning to go?
students will kill the vibe.

London and for a rare treat night - maybe to £100 max. Or if there’s restaurant food and you also need a taxi, then double? But I’d only do that with folk I really want to hang out with and not as a regular thing.

Last time I went out, last month, just over £900 for 4 of us 😬
Cocktails and a meal.
Trust me, thats not normal, I nearly had a fit when I added it up the next morning.
Northern city.

In London easily £200.

I go out in London all the time and have never spent close to that! Are you on the blow?

I am happy with a bottle of wine in a nice pub though and a pizza on the way home 🤣 to be honest there’s not a lot of cost difference these days wherever you go. I can spend the same on a night out in Norwich or Manchester or London. Probably £50- £60ish but I do pre drink at home.

I hate going anywhere fancy. And no night out is worth £200 to me.

So it really depends on where you’re off out to, OP.

Such a variety!
so planning to tube in and back (thanks weekend night service!)
going out with a uni mate so we will be sharing rounds
starting in Leicester Square and seeing where the night takes us! 🤞🏽

it’s mental though because some of the replies are what I’d spend on a weekend away not one night.. I think reality of cost of living increase is going to bite me in the ass this weekend

£30 train
£40 if having dinner
£12 on one virgin cocktail, then tap water because I don't drink alcohol or fizzy pop and begrudge the prices.

Ah see that’s the one thing I won’t do, enter into rounds. Someone always wants a cocktail at £15, someone else is on the double Tanquary and tonic at £17, but they’ve left early to get the last train without returning the favour, someone else a £9 glass of Prosecco that’s gone In two swings. I’ll stick with my own bottle of wine thank you please. (Obviously I do not expect anyone to buy me drinks either!) but buying rounds is like setting your money on fire and watching it fly out the window. You very rarely get back what you put in.

So mine would probably come in at £14 tube there and back to zone 1
£25 bottle of wine in pub
£15 pizza to scoff in privacy of my own home in front of MAFS with the rest of the wine I already have in fridge.

I did say I wasn’t fancy.

Wow - I just spent that amount on 6 days in France!!!

I don’t think I’ve been on a night out since 2008. £200 probably if including food, easily.

Love that OP has specifically asked how much you'd expect to spend on a night out including a few cocktails and we've got people turning up on here so that they can tell everyone they don't drink or don't go out or only want to go to Mayfair, or they've just been to France. Love the use of "on the blow" too, takes me right back to 1998... I hope Mumsnet never changes.

The night you're describing, OP - I'd budget £120-150 for drinks, depending how many you're going for. maybe another £50 if you do dinner. Round Leicester Square is going to get expensive quickly so make sure you choose well! You'll be hard pushed to get a round of cocktails under £30 anywhere that will also be good quality - you'll get better service and better drinks if you head away a bit, maybe up towards Fitzrovia.

The students won't be out in Leicester Square on a Friday night en masse. They will be out mid-week and in cheaper venues. Leicester Square tends to be full of people who have travelled in. Personally I think it's expensive and crazy busy and there are better places to go, but maybe that's my skewed perception from being a student on a budget.

I'm not a big drinker. I'd spend £30ish if just drinks, £50ish with food. I think Leicester Square will hit your wallet harder than that though.

The W by china town is better or the Londoner hotel

Leicester Square is run down now

Yeah, I haven’t been out there since I was a student myself. I think there was a club called Strawberry Moon or some such. Probably free entry before 11 and deals on cheap alcopops and Aftershock shots.

Definitely full of the out of towners or tourists now though. I usually do a nice pub in Farringdon (easy to get home) or Old Street way. Camden before I moved too far south.

£100

DS just had an out out night, he spent £70 on drinks, an uber was £80 between 4 and dinner was around £50 a head. This was Leeds.

The last time I had a night out out in Leicester Square was almost 30 years ago and a drink was a fiver way back then. I was chatting to a Londoner just today and he was saying a cocktail in central London was £20 now.

This is why it’s important to go out with like-minded people. In my social group, we always do rounds because we don’t begrudge our friends having a drink that’s $3 more expensive than ours, and we don’t mind paying $10 extra when a restaurant bill is split equally because to us that’s better and simpler than the agonising process of working out who had what then making sure we’ve added enough for tax and tip so the waitress doesn’t lose out. Besides it usually all comes out in the wash, as they say, and if it doesn’t that’s the price of socialising with friends.

I miss paying £20 for a cocktail. Try going out out in the US! Especially east coast and west coast. I’m literally typing this from a standard pub/bar in a non-major city (Seattle) and it’s $10.99 for a pint, excluding tax and tip.

I live in Edinburgh and don’t go out a great deal anymore as it would cost about £100 for some cocktails and maybe a bit extra including taxi home. That’s not going on anywhere after but maybe enjoying late licence pub. Cocktails are about £12 in a nice bar in Edinburgh. If a meal as well I’d take closer to £200, it’s crazy. I remember the good old days, about 20 years ago mind you when it was a £1 a drink in a nightclub before midnight and the night bus home. You had enough left from £20 to get some cheesy chips. I hope you have a good night out and enjoy, you deserve it! X

A meal can be easily be £50 , plus drinks on top.

I live in the Bristol area now and grew up locally but have lived all over, never further north than Manchester though sadly, I’d love to visit Edinburgh! In Manchester (2005ish) BF and I used to go to the Gay Village, into a bar/club,get lines of cocktail shots (like B52’s in a shot glass etc) and you’d get them 5 for £5! Then there was a club downstairs with fabulous people and after we’d swing back home to the Stockport border via Rusholme (The Curry Mile) and a takeaway. Best nights ever, about £50 for us as a pair, all in including taxi!

The good old days and no video footage on nights out either 🤪 I’m going back 25 years now to when I was 18 and used to buy 8 vodka and red bulls for £8 and dance around them for the rest of the night long before spiking was a thing. I worry for my daughter on nights out. We had the best time in the 90’s and 00’s definitely and loved a B52 as well! X