AIBU to think student DS spending £50 on his nights out is ridiculous?

[OwlBabiesAreCute]

Maybe my age but I used to go out with £5 - into a club for free, couple of halves of lager, 10 fags. Admittedly a good few years ago!

DS (2nd year of uni SE England) says he cannot go out with less than £50 for drinks in the pub, then admission and drinks in a club. And possibly an Uber home after.

He does have a job but is saving that money for when he goes back to uni.

AIBU to think this is not a typical amount that uni students / teens spend on a night out?

YABU - £50 is a normal amount and you have no idea of the true cost of a night out

YANBU - he's a student with limited income and should therefore limit nights out / spending

I mean these a really two different questions.
Yes, YABU to expect a night out on a fiver 🤣 It's not 1980 anymore and even then, two halves is hardly a night out. £50 is actually pretty cheap for a night out these days including club entry, drinks and taxi home. I'd like to know where your son goes because where I live you'd be looking at a minimum of £80 for that!
That said, whether he SHOULD be spending the money on socialising and non-essentials is a matter of circumstances. You are in no way obliged to pay for him to go out and obviously if he has limited means, then stuff like nights out are usually the first sacrifice to make. But if he goes out every so often, is funding it himself from his summer job and it won't significantly have an adverse effect on his studies or your family finances then why does it matter? He's young. Let him live a little while he can

Jesus I'd take 50 on a home town night out up north in 2006 and spend the lot.

He's in the south east during a period of extreme inflation. It's probably a tenner a pint down there at least

£50 is a pretty cheap night out and I don't live in a major city. I spent £40 the other week and I wasn't drinking because I was driving home.

My take is that drinking isn't such a mandatory regular thing.
He's young, what does he have to drink for?

Does he have a crippling mortgage, a shitty boss, children of his own that are still figuring out what is a reasonable thing to do?
Oh, he has school, where they sit you down and spoonfeed you information and then give you questions that have already been answered - just read the book! :D

I'd give him his allowance as a monthly sum and say: "Here's your for the month. If you drink that money, which is the stupid thing to do, it's up to you. If you are wise, will make this money go very far in giving you a life that a very small % on this planet have"

Haha £50? When I was at uni years ago I used to spend hundreds a week on nights out. The amount of nights out planned by uni during freshers and then all the seasonal stuff, socials and inbetweens.

best experience and fun I had , that’s one of the draws of uni is the night life. Surely it’s nothing to do with you how much he spends . If he blows it all it’s his own fault and will have to get a job . Lessons can be learned

Yes £50 for a night out with a club sounds totally normal. You can't even get a pint for £5 in a lot of pubs now, have you not bought a drink at all yourself in the last 5 years? You also can't buy packs of 10 ciggies, and a pack of 20 costs £20.

Honestly don't be the parent who completely lacks any understanding of money because 'in my day it was a fiver for a night out' it just makes you sound daft and your kids will stop being honest with you about what they are spending.

Your living in the dark ages as to the true cost of a night out especially in the south east. £50 is reasonable quite cheap for London, but at the same time he needs to live within his means if that means he can only go out once or twice a month he needs to manage that or earn more to pay for the nights out

This is an interesting take! It implies people only drink to get away from their problems, rather than to have fun. I'm not sure I think you're wrong, but it's an unusual way of looking at it.

That said, by mid twenties I'd gone of drinking - I tend to feel hungover before I even feel particularly buzzed now so there's just no point. I had a LOT of fun drinking in my early twenties.

I want to click both because £50 is average if not cheap for a night out any where now… I also think if he wants to go on these nights out then it shouldn’t always fall on you.. fair enough if ya want to treat him every now and then to it but he shouldn’t expect it every week… that’s just the impression I’m getting

Same for me tbh, student nights were usually free or VERY cheap if you booked in advance, maybe £3.

YY to pres, either a huge group at someone's house and you bring a bottle each, or you have a smaller group of 5 or so and you contribute £5-10 each to buy a few bottles of wine or spirits & mixers that we would drink on the train and in the queue to enter the club lol.

We'd not buy many drinks inside, since we were already pretty lit from the pres maybe 1 or 2 and then all take a bus back home or plan a taxi back to one persons house to save costs.

All in all, we could have a gooooood night for £15-20, and i've done nights for £10 or less if we didn't take a taxi back.

I guess a lot also depends on how drunk you "need" to get. I only liked to get moderately tipsy, so ended up not drinking much alcohol in general, but if you're planning to get off your face then it likely takes a lot more,e specially when you take tolerance into account.

Hell I was spending this in the 90’s. The main thing you can do is help him to budget - I wasn’t a student (I was student age though), couldn’t get a credit card and so if I didn’t have money I couldn’t spend it. This meant I had to miss out sometimes on what I’m sure would have been great nights out - I survived!!!

When I was younger used to go into town with £30, now 29 and spend £50-£150 depending on where I go. Drinks are £5-£10 each it’s ridiculous

Unless you’re spending all night in a local spoons £50 isn’t a lot

@ContinuousProcrastination maybe in places
where there's no bus service/shit bus service/bus service stops early?

The last bus home to my village from the nearest town with a pub is 4.30 in the afternoon for example. Not much use to students partying.

60p drinks? Where - 2002?

@orangegato I'm very far north and it's not cheap here either. And I think the OP said they are in the south so more £££. I think he's doing ok on that amount.

10 ish years ago I remember a night costing £20-£30

It did depend on if it was a special night out on a Saturday night which was more expensive. Student nights in clubs in towns and the SU were cheaper.

Was lucky enough to live pretty central so no taxis were needed.

You know, people also drink because drinking is fun!

I drink because drinking is fun. I have a great life and I'm not trying to escape anything by having a few beers!

When was the last time you went out? I think £50 is at the lower end especially if has to pay admission and an Uber out of that.

Yet if you look at the data and surveys and information out there unless he is in London where almost 50 is normal the normal student night out costs 20 to 30

50 is very cheap. I used to spend about 80 from 2003-2011 including a taxi and this was up north

I last went out about a month ago. (I'm not counting theatre/arena concerts just local going out for a drink/to a club/gig).

Average spend £30

If on average a pint of milk costs £1 and you regularly pay £3 would you really tell people your milk is cheap ?

Is pretending that £50 a night is normal for students in face of evidence to the contrary a way of saving face - you know you are extravagant and want to normalise it? Or ?

I know @kelsaycobbles

No way were typical students spending £50/80/100 on nights out 10 or 20 years ago and I'll be surprised if many of them are doing it today.

It's like people claiming that £50k is 'very cheap' for a car because that's what a Tesla costs, completely ignoring the fact that most people are driving around in cars that cost £10/20k or often less than that.

I'm 22 and I think that's pretty normal - as long as he's not struggling financially or going into his overdraft etc I think it's fine, it's part of the uni experience for lots (me included during my undergrad days). We've all got something we spend our disposable income on. I'm a comic collector and have spent much more than £50 on some 1st appearance comics.

Lol op , you must be from the very dark ages. 50 doesn't go very far at all, if he's in London that's just a meal and a few drinks. A quick google of todays prices would have told you this anyway