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

My 1st thought was "wow! only £50 !" I barely drink & would have spent £50 12 years ago.

£5? Was it the Swinging Sixties?

Clearly the OP desperately needs to go out for a night out to bring them up to date with current prices.

When I was a student in the late 1990s a big night out at the student union (subsidised entry and drinks) would be at least £10 - £15. A big night in town would be more like £20 - £25.

He’s choosing expensive places. Grubby student clubs are £1 entry and £2.50 triples. I’d be absolutely paralytic for under a tenner.

Pubs at £6 a pint? No.

Umm. Have you gone out at all in the last two decades? Clubs for £1? That wasn't even the case when I was a student in 1998!

We'll typically spend £100 for the two of us but that will include dinner. My DD's however wouldn't usually spend that much as they would eat at home (unless I'm paying!)

Even if we just go to our local it's £4 a pint (cheap!) and a free band Fridays and Saturdays ... full of local youngsters, mixed aged crowd. So £25 a head (no travel or dinner)

We went to a local tap room on Sunday for a few drinks and spent about £30 for the two of us, and that was just a few pints and a bag of crisps on a Sunday afternoon.

It's much more ridiculous to think that your "night out for a fiver" memories from the Stone Age can possibly still apply in 2023.

It's not the 90's! I went to uni in 2002 and could go out on less than £10 we had £1 a drink nights, it was £2 admission and we walked there and back, also pre drank, lots! I can't go out on less than £50 now that's not even getting drunk, just a few casual drinks. It's probably £5 plus admission, £10 taxi and then £6 a pint (probably more in the SE), 5 drinks in an entire night isn't a boozy student night I remember, then food on the way home, that's easily £50.

It depends where you were. It definitely was where I was - student night was a quid to get in.

I was a student 10/11 years ago and spending £60/£80 on a nightout was pretty standard around where I live, taxis, drinks, entry fees and a chippy on the way home...

We're do you live! In London I can spend less than that if not eating.

I left uni 7 years ago in an expensive southern city and I’d go out on nights out with a £20 note. Two of three of the cheap student drinks deals, chips from the kebab shop and a taxi one way but walk 30 minutes the other. We used to pre-drink a lot though and would all bring cash only to purposely limit our spending. We wouldn’t go out on weekends because no student drinks deals then
i agree that I wouldn’t be expecting a budget conscious student to be consistently spending £50, even taking into account recent giant inflation. There’s ways to have a good night out for a student without splashing the cash.

You're married to Walter White, yo?

Nice username 😂

Exactly. Just because you can spend £50/£100/£200 when you go out, it doesn't mean that you have to or that it's simply not possible to go out for less, as many are implying.

If he's working because he's 'saving for university' but he's not actually saving any money because he's spending it on having big nights out then that's on him.

But if you end up bankrolling his education which includes him 'needing' £50 nights out swanning around in taxis, then more fool you.

Whatever happened to students working in bars and clubs because it meant you could socialise while earning money instead of spending it?

OP, how do you even know how much he's spending? If he's volunteering this info then he is a bit foolish, but it's nothing to do with you. If and when he runs out of money, then he'll have to deal with it - it'scall part of the learning experience. Meanwhile, let him enjoy his time as a student - best years of his life, before responsibility kicks in.

If you multiply your £5 by the RPI for the number of years since you had your nights out (about 40 from the sound of it!) you would probably get to more than £50.

Everything is so expensive these days!

I used to go out as a student in the 00s for £10-20 but entry was often free, drinks super cheap (eg £1). Those days have gone.

For this reason nowadays I usually go to friends houses, or just a couple of drinks in a pub. I couldn't afford a proper night out with children.

You must be a fair age if you could have a night out for £5 in your youth.

I'm 49 when I was at uni I needed £20 for a night out.

With inflation I think it would be hard to get a night out now for less than £40 and £50 is not unrealistic.

How much was 10 cigarettes or half a pint back then ? I think that 20 cigarettes is rapidly approaching £15 now and 2 drinks for a whole night is more frugal than usual unless a night out was 2 hours.

I think £50 for a proper night out is frugal, I can spend that in a couple of hours in a normal pub in the afternoon!

Even walking past a pub seems to cost me a twenty.

That sounds like a pretty typical cost for a night out when I was at uni in the early 2000s. So I think YABU.

I haven't been out properly in a good 5 years but even then £50 would just about cover the night, most of the time it cost more and that's when drinks were a lot cheaper and I could get a taxi home for £4.50- I recently got a taxi home as didn't have my car and the same journey cost me £9! So actually if he's managing a night out on £50 I think he's doing really well x

You need to bring yourself into 2023 not 20/30 years ago!!

£50 isn’t a lot now a days especially as most drinks cost around £5-£9, that’s before admission which can be anything from £1 to £20 and taxi fare home, but I agree if he’s trying to save up he might have to give up some of those nights out.