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The evidence on a month off is genuinely good: better sleep, more energy and lower blood pressure show up within weeks, and Dry January participants drink less six months later on average. The alcohol-free aisle has quietly become drinkable: budget a little of the saving there and the month gets much easier. If cutting down feels harder than expected, that's worth a conversation with your GP: and if you drink heavily every day, seek medical advice BEFORE stopping suddenly.
What The Dry January Savings Calculator Works Out
- Saved in January: drinks per week x price per drink x 31/7. Ten drinks a week at the mixed home-and-pub average of GBP 4.50 is nearly GBP 200 for the month, a spend most people have never totalled because it arrives in fivers and card taps rather than invoices.
- Calories skipped: drinks x calories per drink over the month, with a rough body-weight equivalent at 3,500 calories a pound. The same ten drinks carry 8,000-plus January calories, which is why the month shows up on the scales before anywhere else.
- If it stuck all year: the weekly spend multiplied by 52. At ten drinks a week that is about GBP 2,300 a year, the number that makes the month off a reset of defaults rather than a parenthesis.
- Custom price per drink (advanced): override the three presets with your real average, for example GBP 6.50 a pint in a city pub or GBP 1.50 a can of supermarket lager.
- Units per drink (advanced): a pint of 5% lager is 2.8 units, a 175ml glass of wine 2.3 and a single spirit 1. The card shows units skipped and how your normal week compares with the 14-unit low-risk guideline.
- Extra spend on drinking nights (advanced): taxis, late-night food and the rounds you buy others often cost as much as the drinks. Adding a weekly figure shows the true cost of the habit and the full saving from a month off.
- Alcohol-free replacements (advanced): budgeting GBP 10 or so a week on the much-improved 0% aisle makes the month easier; the net saving card deducts it so the figure is honest.
- Cut-down after January (advanced): Dry January participants drink less six months later on average, and even those who did not complete the month drink less afterwards. Enter a percentage and the card shows the yearly saving from that lasting change.
- Days in the dry month (advanced): switch to 30 or 28 days for a different month, or keep 31 for January or Sober October. The calculator's sums address the ordinary drinker's habit, not dependence: heavy daily drinkers should consult a GP before stopping abruptly, because alcohol withdrawal is one of the few medically serious withdrawals.
Campaign and evidence: Alcohol Change UK.