How much money do you or dp spend on a night out?

[minion246]

Just that really.... dp wants to go out with some of his work mates but he is now saying we haven't got enough money so was in a bit of a sulk. I've asked him how much he wants to take out and he said over £100!!! We don't go out often as I have children. I think over £100 is a lot of money and thought £50 was more reasonable.

North-West @19lottie82 - just outside the Lakes!

Some of these prices are insane. No wonder people don't feel rich on £70k if their idea of normal drinks prices are £16 each and nights out cost £100 plus.

We'd probably spend £40-50 on a meal for two or a similar amount on a big night out drinking for the pair of us.

But we don't drink wine, spirits or cocktails in the UK because they're so overpriced and you can't taste the alcohol in the cocktails so £8 for an ice filled soft drink no thank you.

Idiotic sulking aside -

I agree with Darbs76 about the rounds thing.

Also, takeaway and taxis can add a bit.

£100 would be a lot for me but not something I would say is hard to do. I'd personally top out at about £70 but if I was incapable of being sensible (i.e. very drunk) I can see a few more rounds taking me over £100. This was in Edinburgh. Dublin is even more pricey.

He's a dad FGS and an adult. If he wants to go out with his mates and have a good time, then he can do that with less money, if he takes a slightly more mature attitude.

Yes, when you're a parent FFS, you should know that you're not allowed to have a rare night out anymore!! If you're going to make one drink last all night, then that's OK. Or maybe stretch to two or three if you're feeling flush (woh there, steady on.....) The OP said herself that they rarely go out. I could understand if he was at the pubs most weekends, but a one off with his mates?! Not so much. If you're having a night out, I can easily see how it could creep up. £50 could easily get spent, so I understand why he wants to take out more to be on the safe side. Drinks, taxis, kebab etc

£3 for a large glass of wine? WHERE???

Around £3.50 for a large glass of wine in most places here. (Yorkshire.)

There's a big difference between making one drink stretch all night though and spending £100+.

A fiver is at the top end for a pint, so even ten pints, which is a ridiculously large amount is £50 plus a tenner for a taxi and even a tenner for food is still 'only' £70, which should be more than enough to have a good time.

The OP says they can't afford over £100 on one single night out. Should they get into debt or go without essentials so the DH can have a ridiculously extravagent night out?

Yorkshire is a very large diverse county. I don't think I've been anywhere for a long time where £3.50 will buy a large (250 ml) glass of wine. £6 seems more like the norm and getting a whole bottle for less than £15 is below average.

You do get the odd deal like Prosecco Friday where you can get a bottle of Prosecco for £10/12 before 7 pm but unless you hunt out the deals, house wine is usually more like £6 a glass.

I'm in backforgoods camp.
No wonder we can afford to go out so much, we spend around £20 locally, that usually includes watching a band. I have a couple and DH 3-4 pints. If we go further afield and not driving then an extra tenner for transport.
Meal £50 ish.
Out with a friend about £7-8, which is more a chatty catch up.
DH goes to gigs or for drinks with mates and probably takes £50 which includes food. Good (after midnight) transport from nearest two cities means buses are about £5 return.

Men can spend serious money on a night out!

I would say £50 is reasonable (for 1 person)

Last time DH and I went out we spent £40 on a hotel room, £35 on dinner with a drink and another £15 on drinks then £10 for wine and cider to drink in the hotel room. So £100 for a whole night. It was great!

nobody on this thread is factoring in the babysitter, which for us is ALWAYS the most expensive part of a night out. £50 last night because we were out straight from work so v long hours

The OP says they can't afford over £100 on one single night out. Should they get into debt or go without essentials so the DH can have a ridiculously extravagent night out

No, of course they shouldn't. If you honestly can't afford it, then you have the night out you can afford.
Meet them in the pub later, or just have a few drinks and forgo the shots.
I'm just saying I can easily see how you can spend £100 on a proper night out.If you can't afford it though, you don't go or you budget what you can spend.

Maybe they don't have DCs that need babysitting Katy. We don't. Or maybe when one partner goes out and the other stays at home with the DCs.

It would depend where I was going and how I was getting there. Local pub in walking distance I'd probably take £30. Pub in town with a taxi each way would easily be double that (£30 would only get 5 or 6 drinks plus the taxi is about £12 each way).

Dh and I haven't been for a nice meal out with drinks and taxis for a few years now because it can easily cost £150. We go to the local curry place where we can take our own booze!

It's the rounds that seem to add up e.g. one round and most of your cash is gone always think if people are buying rounds it's polite to ask for a cheaper drink eg half pint rather than a dbl vodka and coke!

DH and I meeting up with friends for a couple of drinks in an afternoon with the kids in tow - £25 or so.

Night out on my own with female friends - £60.

DH and I going out for dinner and then cocktails/wine afterwards - £200 or so.

(Rare these days) but both of us on an all day/evening/night session at the pub - £200. So your DP could actually be close to that if he also gets a taxi and goes to a club.

Totally depends what it is and depends where you go.

Depends where we go

We often go to the Italian here, lovely little independent place and a meal for me & dh with 2 courses each & a bottle of wine is about £120

If we go for drinks in the village pub, a glass of nice white wine is £5.75, pint of ale they stock from a local micro brewery that dh has is £4.50.

If we go in to London we can spend anything from £100 to £500+ once we've had taxi or train to London, meal, cocktails, maybe a club.

If I go out with girls, again it can be anything from £100-£500+ with everything like cocktilas etc

No babysitting costs for us as mil has the dc when we go out

No babysitting costs here as dc are all teenagers so can be left.

We very rarely go out on our own and when we go out together it's a special night so we spend £120 or so (we only ever go to our very fave restaurant which is dear but worth it!).

Boring old 40-something's that we are!

Joking aside, I'm actually amazed how much people think is 'normal' to spend on a night out.

Obviously if you have £££ of 'spare money' every month then why not, but, as a parenting site, I'd have thought a lot of posters would be having to budget more carefully.

I'm not being a wet blanket or anything - each to their own, after all, I'm just stunned there are not more people who can walk to somewhere nearby, or who take turns to drive to somewhere, and then have perhaps 3 drinks (which, in my world = £10 tops), a nice catch up with mates, and go home again.

Even when I was young free and single and had no commitments, I'd balk at some of the prices so many seem to think are very normal, and now we've come out of the 'poverty and exhaustion' than being parents of young dc is, and we have no babysittting costs and are probably both near the top of our salary ranges, and actually have more than enough cash to cover these amounts, sitting in our bank account, I'd be at the idea of expecting to spend £100 - £250 on an ordinary evening out (so, not counting buying tickets for your favourite band or something).

In last couple of months, I've been to 2 x 30th, a 40th - all 3 in different local halls / social clubs, I've been to a 50th (in someone's house, so different), I've been to a night in a local pub to see a band, and never spent more than a tenner a head, but managed to have a good time on all occasions.

Are there really only 2 of us on MN that can do this ????

My workings for a typical night out where I live (generally expensive European capital)

2x cocktails @ €8.50 each
3 x glasses of wine @ €5.00 each

Dinner: €30

Uber home: €30 (though 50% of the time I just take public transport which costs me nothing)

= €92

I just wouldn't go to high end places for a full night out, only as a one off treat, and in the cheaper/mid range places where I do go I wouldn't drink cocktails all night long as it gets so expensive. If I had a more expensive dinner, I'd cut out the cab home and definitely get public transport.

BackforGood although I'd want more than £10 available, I don't believe the sums flying about this thread are remotely normal. We've had a family (of 5) weekend in Berlin for a bit under £500, I can't fathom how any night out could be worth that even if you do have spare money. It's just so unnecessary, if what people mean is they spend £500 on a one night drinking binge (rather than on a nice hotel, lovely dinner, breakfast or brunch perhaps somewhere special, theatre tickets or a gig/ concert, taxis etc for two people - which isn't what the op is talking about).

I think it's turned into a competitive luxury thread (probably by the same people crying that they aren't rich and couldn't possibly afford to pay more taxes because their incomes barely meet their basic needs on other threads over the last few days - no, not necessarily the same ones I know, I haven't checked!).

Backforgood great if you can do that, that is your choice and also your circumstances which clearly mean drinks aren't very expensive and you can walk to a pub. For some posters who live in expensive urban areas that's not possible. A glass of wine was £7 in the part of Manchester that we used to live in. A few after work drinks would inevitably be the best part of 40 quid.

However, as you say in your post, if you have spare money then good for you. And it's about choice. I choose to spend what I do because I want to and because I can. I always spend within my means and if DH and I feel we can do that that's up to us.

Now I live in a cheaper, more rural area, I could go to a pub and just spend a tenner on drinks all night, but I actually don't want to.

At least half of these responses are stealth boasts about nights out with their partner. So utterly irrelevant to the OP's question.