How much do you drink? Honestly!

[Starlight1984]

And yes, yes I know there is an "alcohol support" section of MN but this isn't for help or advice or anything other than curiosity!

Just been reading on another thread about what people do and don't do which others would find unusual and a LOT of the posts include people saying they don't drink alcohol which I find insane as pretty much everyone I know drinks to some degree!

Anyway I'll start, I don't (or try not to!) drink from Mon - Thurs but on average will have a bottle of wine on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings. So 3 x bottles of wine a week. I know it's above the guidelines of "normal" drinking and know I need to cut down but it's something I genuinely enjoy. DH is the same. We never get drunk. We just slowly drink 3-4 glasses over the course of the evening (from about 6pm to 11ish) whilst making dinner, sitting down to eat, watching a film / reading a book... It's just something that helps us to unwind after a busy week!

So for AIBU

YABU - No thanks, would rather have a cup of tea.
YANBU - Pour me a large one!

I don't like soft drinks either. I usually drink tea up until 9pm, then at 9pm I like a glass of wine in front of the TV. I might have a 2nd if I feel like it.

On a Friday I definitely have 2 glasses, occasionally 3.

I think you are getting very selective answers, most people who know they drink too much are not prepared to admit it. If you think of a bottle of wine as 6 units even the ones admitting to three bottles of a wine a week are only just over guidelines.

I was going to ask how old you are OP? Just because in my 20s and 30s I was drinking regularly- prob only 2 nights out of 7 were alcohol free and I was easily drinking 3 bottles of wine a week
Now in my 40s I rarely bother. We went on holiday a couple of weeks ago and we both defo drank a LOT more than normal and did not feel good afterwards, it really bought home the reasons we rarely (outside of celebrations) drink, we were saying that the last time we had a drink before October was a bottle of prosecco on my birthday in July, its funny but we hadnt really thought of it or wanted it

I think most of the drinking is done by a relatively small section of society. So it can be true that everyone you know drinks a fair bit (if you are a drinker then you are more likely to have friends who are drinkers, for obvious reasons) but also that most people don't think much.

I've just asked Chat GPT -

Around 20% of the adult population drinks almost 70% of all the alcohol sold in the UK.
The heaviest-drinking 4% of adults account for over 30% of all the alcohol consumed.
Conversely, around 30% of adults either don’t drink at all or drink very little, meaning the “average” per-capita figure can be misleading.

I drink very seldom….I know several people who are teetotal.

Honestly! Nearly a bottle a night - so probs 5 a week. Lots of people I know the same but you won’t hear that on here .

I've thought in the past I was lucky not to get bad hangovers but now I think it's a curse because (as you say) I'd probably drink a lot less if I did!

Thank you. And yes, I suppose that's why I posted. I thought if I was honest then others would be!

A bottle of wine is actually about 10 units I believe though?!

About two bottles of wine a week, and I have 3 alcohol free nights. I've cut down thus far, and honestly have no plans to cut down further right now- I just enjoy it too much.

I sometimes have an alcohol free month. I've just started a low carb diet, and often have a few weeks off the booze when I do that, but honestly? Right now I don't want to. I will switch to vodka and diet tonic though.

Probably 4-5 units a week.

I only drink - and then just one glass - on high days and (some) holidays. It averages out, according to my quick calculation on the back of a beer mat, at about 2 glasses a month.

I'm not really a regular weekly drinker at all. I do like a glass or two of wine if I am out for a meal and am not driving or if we are having a special meal at home but that isn't more often than every 6-8 weeks. Often it is much less frequently than that.

Only time I drink a little more is at Christmas when we go away for a few days on a Hotel package/ meet up with family over the Christmas season. But even then it isn't a lot.

I'm in my early 40s 😊

From about 17/18 to late 20s I drank far too much. Lots of nights out and boozy holidays with the girls.

But then in my early - mid 30s I drank far less than I do now! I did live alone for quite a while though and never really had the inclination to drink on my own. So I'll blame DH for being a bad influence on me 😉

I drink when I’m out. So Saturday that looked like 2 pints of bitter and 5 double gnts. Went out with my husband on Tuesday and had 3 pints of bitter. Might go out on Saturday might not.

we go out to a lot of gigs and weekends away which means day drinking. I drink guiness by the pint not sure how many I have in a day but reckon that counts as food.

i suppose I’m a binge drinker but don’t much care. I’m 56 and loving life at the moment lots of very loud music dancing and drinking.

I've been tea-total for 28 months now, but I was quite a big drinker. About 4-5 drinks a day (G&Ts, or glasses of wine, beers, etc.) every single day. Spread over a few hours, and I wasn't drunk, but definitely had a problem. Deciding to stay sober has been the best decision of my life.

But where did AI get it's info? Doctor's know most people lie about how much they drink. Many people answering a survey will put down what they want people to think about their drinking not the actual truth. If you don't actually measure what you drink you may not even realise how much it is, home measures tend to be glug, glug, glug not 25cl.

Thank you 😊

I drink fairly regularly but not huge quantities. There’s no way I’d drink a bottle of wine in a night! Half a bottle would be my limit and I’d consider that excessive and would probably be tipsy.

I buy a bottle of wine sometimes with the weekly shopping and my attitude is “when it’s gone, it’s gone” so if I drink it all in two days then great, but there’s no more coming that week. I’ll sometimes have a glass of wine after work/out on a Friday night also. I am a very occasional drinker of spirits and beers. But no real pattern to how often I drink.

Nothing at all for a few years. Peri menopause seems to have made me completely intolerant to any alcohol.

Before that, I’ve had times where I’d drink every Friday and Saturday and times where I’ve only had a drink a few times a year.

The NHS website says that a bottle of wine at 13.5% ABV is 10 units.

So 3 bottles would be 30 units, more than double the recommended weekly amount.

Hey OP - Im currently on soberoctober to have a reset after summer when I was drinking most days with the lovely weather, being on holiday etc. What I aim for is to only drink on Friday and Saturday - and the other days are alcohol free. I then have about 1.5 -2 bottles over this time.

I have gone through 3 bottles over a weekend like you, one a night, and to cut this down I told our Sunday as a drinking day. I also "enjoyed" the bottle a night, like you over the same time period, but it is way over the units we are allowed.

I might allow myself up to 1.5 bottles of wine over Friday and Saturday night when I end this month of abstinence .

Nothing. I've had about three alcoholic drinks in my whole life - I hate the taste and hate the idea of it affecting my behaviour. And find drunk people frightening.

Also, I'd rather spend money on other stuff.

Most of my friends drink very little/nothing too, although most drank a fair bit at uni.

Yes, good point. As you say, survey answers don't account for all the alcohol bought (people under report) so it's scaled up. It's not perfect but probably not too far off

A summary from Chat GPT about how it's worked out;

🔹 1. National surveys of drinking behaviour

• The Office for National Statistics (ONS) and the Health Survey for England regularly ask large, representative samples of adults about their alcohol use.
• People report:
• How often they drink
• How many units on a typical day
• Frequency of heavy/binge sessions
• From this, statisticians estimate weekly and yearly consumption per person.

🔹 2. Combining with sales data

• HMRC and market research (e.g. Nielsen, CGA) track alcohol sales by volume (beer, wine, spirits).
• Comparing survey data (what people say they drink) with sales data (what’s actually sold) helps check for under-reporting (which is common).
• Typically, surveys account for only ~60% of the alcohol actually sold, so analysts apply scaling factors.

I used to drink a lot, binge drinking mostly, most nights I would be a bottle down and weekend with cocktails and shots, and wine with dinner on a sunday afternoon. It was part of my whole life and personality. But since having kids it's got less and less and now I am early 40s and drink a couple of times a year. I don't drink on a weekday or weekend in a usual week. Literally only special occassions, like a birthday party.

Honestly. 0. I grew up with an alcoholic parent 🤷‍♂️