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Calum Wilson
Calum says he buys “a lot less rounds” since moving to London
A “blow out night” for Calum is £100 to £120, but he keeps such extravagant occasions to just once a month.
Normally, it’s £20 to £30, he says.
Calum’s typical spend is well below the £70.56 most Britons spend on average when they go out, a survey suggests.
The figure is based on a survey of 2,300 people by night club and bar operator The Deltic Group, which says people are now spending almost a fifth more on going out than they were last year.
The rise was largely driven by people spending more on “pre-drinks” and transport, the survey found.
It also identified a shift in what people are doing for fun. While the pub is still where almost a quarter of people spend most of their going out money it’s slipped slightly in popularity from last year.
Meanwhile, the number of people spending most of their entertainment budget at the cinema has increased, rising to 16% up from 13% last year.
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Deltic
How do you budget for a night out?
- Charlotte – “When a cocktail in Leeds cost £11, then you go to Wetherspoons and can get four bottles of larger for £10 it’s hard to budget.”
- Georgina – “If it’s a Saturday evening then I really try to budget £50 with no food. But depending on where you go, that can be blown. Now I have Apple Pay on my phone, I just end up using that, even if I’m really strict and only take cash and no card. I would say it can easily end up being £100. Then if you add a meal…”
- Keith – “Cannot afford to go out, period. As a contractor… wasting money on a night out, is no longer an option, save it, as you don’t know where the next meal will come from.”
- Josh – “I budget until I forget the budget, then spend as much as I like.”
- Christian – “I have a separate bank account for my going out budget. I basically transfer a certain fixed amount to it every month and pay every night out from this money. Once its empty it means I can’t go out until my next paycheck.”
- Gareth – “I budget and only take cash out with me; which becomes my limit.”
- Anita – “I try not to go out on weekdays. I spend most of my money on rent, groceries, bills, travel and clothes.”
*Based on a selection of LinkedIn responses to a request by the BBC
Calum – who works in an administration role for the University of Westminster – says drinks with mates is still how he prefers to spend a night out, but since he moved to London from the North East nine months ago, inevitably this has got pricier.
“As you can probably guess I now try and budget on the weekend and tend to buy a lot less rounds, especially when in a group,” he says.
The 27-year-old is saving up to buy a house, but says it’s also “a flexible travel fund if I get bored of city living and the £5 pints”.
He admits how careful he is on budgeting depends entirely on his mood.
“If I’m sad (I went through quite a bad breakup this year), the beer (and money) flows quickly. Likewise if I’m quite happy I tend to forget my budgets and spend spend spend.”
The research behind the Deltic Night Index survey was conducted by third party survey consultant, Censuswide, which used a a nationally representative sample from its panel of 69,000 members.