How much money can dry January save you?

As Brits woke up with a sore head on New Year's Day, some didn’t take much convincing to opt for a sober month.

Dry January fits in the calendar nicely after a December spent at long lunches and festivities, establishing a clean slate for those forging ahead with New Year’s resolutions, or just a good excuse to skip the pub in favour of being tucked in bed trying to stay warm.

Even if it isn’t the main reason, a month without drinking can also ease the pressure on the wallet, which may be feeling a bit light after the holiday season. But how much of a difference can cutting out booze really make to your budget?

Depending on your lifestyle, it could be significant. According to research firm IWSR, the average UK adult has 10.2 drinks each week, and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) says the average pint of lager costs £4.80 at the pub. Based on those figures, you could be racking up a beer bill of more than £195 each month.

Of course, this number will vary widely depending on each person’s drinking habits, lifestyle, and location. Having drinks at home is much more affordable, at just around £1.50 per pint according to the ONS, which by these calculations would mean £61.60 each month. But most of us often opt for a social drink, upping the cost. Not to mention, those who enjoy a cocktail, nice glass of wine or whiskey could be facing a much higher bill.

Drinking also comes with associated costs, like a taxi home and a snack to round off the night. And the more drinks we have, the looser we can become with the purse strings.

To see what the effect could be for you, you can look at old statements and calculate what has been spent at the pub. To get a full picture, you could also factor in transport or other associated costs that you wouldn’t have had without drinking. This will be harder to do for those who drink primarily at home, with beverages mixed in with groceries, but you could put together a rough estimate based on the price of your tipple of choice and how much you drink.

That those going cold turkey for the month could put that saved money towards something else could be additional motivation. If a Brit last January had opted for a dry month and put the money in the UK’s FTSE 100 instead, they could have turned £195 into about £245 before fees by the end of the year.* 

If someone had kept up their sobriety and investing each month through the year, they’d end with £2,646 before fees by investing that money in the FTSE 100.* That could be more than enough to fund an extra holiday, for example.

To follow the FTSE 100, you’d need to purchase a tracker fund which will charge a small fee, often around 0.1% to 0.5%, leading to a slightly smaller return on your investment than the index.

Many of us aren’t quite ready to give up drinking completely in the name of a larger investment budget. But, just having a sober week each month could mean £50 of savings for some, a healthy start to monthly investments. Or, for those who get carried away on a night out, setting a limit on how much you can spend that night, either through an account or by paying with cash (if your local accepts it) could help moderate spending.

Significant costs associated with going out aren’t a new development. A survey by the Night Time Industry Association found that 68% of those aged between 18 and 30 cited the economic climate for why they were going out less.

However, not spending money on drinks doesn’t automatically protect it from other expenditures. By placing that money into savings or investments when you first receive it, instead of waiting to see what’s left over at the end of the month, you might be able to see the benefits of a boozeless month not just for your personal health, but for your personal wealth too.

*Calculations by AJ Bell based on market data from FE Fundinfo from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025, not including fees.