If You Added Up All The Money You've Spent On Drinking, and Drinking Related Stuff In Your Life, How Much Are We Talking?

I was at a wedding in beautiful pure Michigan this past weekend (shout out Paul and Michele) and this topic came up amongst my friend group. Not that we have nothing better to talk about, but one of my buddies brought up a good point. He said this was his 5th wedding so far this year, and that he still had 3 more on the books. He said between traveling for them all, the wedding gift, and everything else that goes into them he's in the hole a shit ton of money. He followed this up by saying he doesn't mind because it centers around drinking and that's basically all he has to live for these days now that he lives in the suburbs and has kids. Not to make him sound miserable or that he leads a bleak life (quite the opposite, he has a great job, beautiful kids, awesome house, a sometimes cool wife, etc.) 

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He just said that all week long during the days he looks forward to getting home and getting to crack a cold beer on his porch while his kids play in the yard before dinner. 

Then it's counting down the days til the weekend when he can really indulge and work his way through a whole case over the course of the weekend.

He said weddings were the peak for him because it allowed him and his wife to leave the kids at home, get sitters or have their parents come watch them, get away from them, and get some alone time to, you guessed it, really get fucked up. (Which leads to drunken married people sex I assume?)

He said he'd gladly spend double his wedding budget this year to keep the party going.

(forgotten dance floor filler)

I thought that was insanity, and the sound of a broken man but he assured me he's not, and some of my other friends backed him up in saying for them it was golfing. And they spend far more money on playing when it's basically just an excuse to get out of the house and get fucked up for a few hours with the boys.

This lead us down a rabbit hole and the realization that we've essentially all been going through the stages of life, dropping absurd amounts of money on activities and events related to and centered around drinking. 

High school dances, house parties, summer vacations, every single thing about college, and all the adult shit that follows post collegiate life.

This inevitably lead to discussing how many thousands of dollars had been spent by each of us on such.

Some of my friends swore their number had to be in the 6 figures easily. Others called that "horseshit" and said a number in the 4 figures ($1,000- $9,999) was much more realistic. I found the whole thing interesting and one of those questions I find myself confronting more and more in life that I'd rather not know the answer to. 

The conversation spilled over into our group chat this week while some of my friends returned to their corporate jobs and used their time on the clock to put together some excel spreadsheet bullshit and factor out equations. 

I decided to put it up on twitter to gauge other people's opinions and was impressed with some people's points and questions. 

- no I don't think you can and should include court case related expenses and DUI shit because then you're automatically talking $10,000 - $100,000+ easily.

- if you're the father of the bride, or the bride and/or groom footing the bill for the wedding yourself, you're easily talking big money

- a few guys on twitter made it sound like $400 a week on alcohol or going out was absolute fucking insanity

- we discussed this topic in depth at a dive bar in central Michigan called Sandcastle where we drank for hours and hours and hours and our groups tab was like $50 bucks. It was incredible. I guess being used to getting raped in the city on beer and liquor prices for years numbs you to the fact that in the burbs and less urban places you can still drink very cheap. This obviously factors in and skews the argument.

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- most of the votes coming in online say five figures which I think is a fair estimate for the majority of people. 

What do you think? How much we talking?