I've nearly finished a bottle of wine I was saving for dinner. It's very nice, and I'm enjoying it a lot. It's the last one from a 3 for £10 offer I bought earlier in the week, and it started me thinking...

How much do you spend on things you know are bad for you, but you like to indulge in anyway?

I'm counting booze, fags, cake, chocolate, cocaine and sweets. You know what I mean - anything that would never be included in a healthy life style.

This week, I've spent about:

£10 on wine
£7 on spirits
£10 down the pub
£10 on tobacco
£1 on mints

That's about two grand a year, or 120% of my disposable income spent on killing myself slowly. How about you?

More than I'd like I think...Probably <£500 (I hope)

None at the moment, but my missus is going to run a local pub and we are moving to the flat upstairs. I fear this may change things somewhat!

LOL, my ex (Feeona) is living above a pub with her new bloke. It's actually working out quite profitable for her, because she gets paid for the odd cleaning job. I suspect she spends it all on sugar though

It'd be hard for me to put a figure on it since there's a fair bit of communal spending in our house, round buying with work & freebies in my regular pubs - and if I'm including other vices, well then that just gets stupid. £50-80 a week? It sounds pretty high, but it probably works out to that....

PS: I know for a fact I spent more than £13K in my first of year of uni on vices alone.

I voted for Pie.

I honestly don't think I could come up with a meaningful number without actually measuring my purchases for a year. As an example, I am currently trying really hard to stay away from chocolate and snackfoods, as a result my purchase of those things is sporadic at best, we sometimes buy a bottle of whiskey, usually when we're coming to yours, likewise with beer, cigarillos and "etc"s about the only thing I could guarantee you is that every week I buy (or my Mister buys) 1 pint of beer at our local and a packet of crisps, but that's about £2.50 per week and won't account for everything else we buy throughout a year.

I can go weeks without buying anything I would consider a poison, then buy one thing, or 50 things, it's entirely dependant upon my mood, my hormonal level and what's going on in my life at that time.

Up to £250..... On whisky. Not the cheap crap, but good single malts.

I voted pie because TBH, I would rather not think about it. I don't believe the amount would be that high but I could be wrong.

Probably £1-2k a year

I find that it varies a lot throughout the year. Over summer I tend not to drink as much, because I'm working more and socialising less. Social occasions over here in Bournemouth tend to mean a BBQ or trip to the pub rather than a heavy drinking or smoking session.

Obviously, at the start of the academic year a HUGE amount of money is spent on intoxicating substances, but it tends to trail off towards exams and deadlines at christmas time. Then more coming back after christmas, before a quiet period over exams and deadlines at the end of the year. A couple of weeks of pure intoxication after exams and then back to sunny Bournemouth for a few months of work and sobriety.

To sum it up, I couldn't put a figure on it!!

Definitely less than £500, though I did just spend £18 on a bottle of Polish wodka.

Good job you didn't include take aways on that list or I'd have had to vote for a much higher amount.

I used to spend a fair bit on fags when I was nothing better than a stinking chav, but now tbh I don't really bother with anything. I don't drink and don't smoke as much (well, it's very rare I have a smoke now) so I only spend like a tenner a month or something.

I've put "very little".

That's because we do indulge in a bottle or three of wine over the course of a year now. We used to buy a wine box a week, but I made a decision to stop it after last Christmas.

Other than that, there's the bar of dark chocolate that lives in the fridge but magically disappears a chunk at a time (one a day). I also indulge in mints, but it's not a habit.

In fact, I think I'm fairly good as far as "bad" things are concerned.

I'm surprised no one has yet confessed to buying large quantities of chocolate, cake, biscuits etc. Where are all the Jaffa addicts?!


It depends on the takeaway.

If you're talking deep-fried soggy batter, then it comes under the heading of "anything that would never be included in a healthy life style".

On the other hand, I'm sure if there's anything really unhealthy about the occasional Chinese. The main problem with that is the sodium content, which is of questionable concern anyway.

Right. It's a bank holiday and I've just been paid. I'm off to Sainsbury to raid the wine section. I may get 4 bottles for the sake of redundancy