One Year No Booze!

Photo by Posawee Suwannaphati on Pexels.com

Well, who’d have thunk it, I actually did the whole of 2019 with no wine!

Was it hard? Sometimes.

Was it worth it? Yes!

What did I learn? Lots, but mostly that I have way more time than I thought.

Was I treated differently? Sometimes, by surprising people.

Will I continue? Possibly.

That’s a pretty succinct wrap up of 365 long days LOL, so let me expand on this a little….

Was it hard?

Sometimes, yes absolutely.  The first 6 weeks were the toughest though.  Once I was through that it was more about just saying no and waiting out any desire.  The most challenging times… Friday nights, but probably more from a lack of anything else to do than really missing booze.  Mind you there were a couple of days where I’d have killed for  drink when work was driving me nuts.

Interestingly towards the end of the year (Christmas mostly) I was being ask this exact question by a lot of people who seemed genuinely interested and slightly terrified of the answer.

The reality is that not drinking itself is pretty simple.  All you need to do is not drink, it’s one thing.  It’s not like learning a new skill like driving or cooking where you need to master multiple things.

Was It Worth It?

Yep, no question.  I’m lighter mentally, richer financially, calmer, more focused and my eyes are damn white!  LOL.  My bins get put out, I’ve not killed anyone and I’ve made some decisions that will impact the rest of my life this year.  Oh, and Crazy Cat Boy has had major life improvements over the year as well.

What Did I Learn

I drink when I’m bored.  Hands down, no question.  Because I wasn’t doing anything productive with my time I was filling it with drinking instead. And as a kicker, drinking because I was bored only made me boring, a vicious cycle of poor me, I have no life.  Fun stuff hey, what a way to live – NOT! 😉

So, to combat that in 2020 (and freaking beyond), because I’m clearly an all or nuthin’ kind of girl, I finally signed up to start my Masters (note the life changing impact from above para). I’ve been whining about it for close to 10 years and how it’s expensive and I probably won’t get the monetary ROI from it given my age, but stuff it, I want to do it, I’ll enjoy it, it’ll terrify me, and it’ll keep me from pointless drinking – I won’t have time to waste!

Was I Treated Differently?

Not by anyone who matters to me.  However from casual acquaintances and business associates I’ve encountered everything from confusion, slight awe, poorly disguised disdain (screw ’em, they don’t count) and convenience.

The last one is odd, everything from “great you can drive, here’s my keys” to “oh, as you aren’t drinking we’ve decided to put you in the dangerous seat because you are less likely to fall off the platform and hurt yourself”!   The last one was really weird and actually pretty insulting given that it came from one of the event hosts who set up the dangerous situation… almost a we’ve done a risk assessment and decided that you’re the guest who can be most inconvenienced by this!

Will I Continue?

Maybe, I’m still tossing up.  The year has been over for 6 days now and I’ve only once had the urge and that was Saturday afternoon…. the cricket was on TV, Crazy Cat Boy was playing video games and I was…. yep, you guessed it – Bored!  The reality is I’ll continue at least until the end of February as I’ve got a couple of really busy months, including starting my Masters.  Crazy Cat Boy is also toying with the idea of staying permanently on the wagon, which is unexpected, but great for him if he decides to do it.

So, that’s it, my year without wine wrap up.  It’s been a great experience and I’m very pleased I’ve done it.  I’ll do a separate post with the things I didn’t do because I wasn’t drinking in a day or so.

Stay healthy and happy good internet people.

OMG is it really nearly September?

How has this happened good Internet people?  Not only is it nearly September I’ve not written since July!  See, this is what happens when work gets all logistics based instead of creative for me, I lose my drive to write.  Truth be told, I’m losing my drive around a lot of things ATM.

I’m not excersising, I’m eating badly and damn, did I want a drink over the past however many weeks it’s been.  I didn’t of course, but talk about some white knuckling. I’m pretty sure that comes down to the whole not practicing self care thing.  Work is getting at me with massive responsibilities and in my personal life ATM it seems that I’m the only one who can get things done (I’m not, and no one is expecting me to solve all their problems, I’m just having a pity party, so feel free to ignore me LOL).  Top it all off I came home from 3 days away to a mountain of bills, no cat food (which he casually mentioned AFTER the shops had shut and like he was sure I’d solve it – WTF?) and promptly developed a massive cold sore. So I’ve got cranky cats, I’m a cranky wife, I feel like the elephant woman, and I’ve got a dodgy bank balance and it’s only Monday… LOL, what else does the week hold for me I wonder?

So that’s my whinge for the day, thanks for listening everyone.  This weekend is my last “event” for the year, so at least the majority of my travel is over.  I’m leaving you with the image above… If this little toy can attempt such an ambitious job, I’m sure I’ll be fine as well. 😉

Stay healthy and happy all.

 

 

Where’s all this cash come from?

I stared at the computer screen for a while confused, scrolled though the bill pay list on the bank app, looked even more confused, checked that mortgage payments were clearing, nope, no answer there either.

So,where has all this extra cash in the account come from?

We must have missed paying a credit card bill, we are so about to be hit with an interest payment and overdue fee, Doh!  But the thing is, I can’t see where it’s happened.  Everything appears to be paid up and on time.

That was last Friday and it puzzled me all weekend. We lost incoming cash in January due to a job amendment in Crazy Cat Boy’s world, we’ve been going out to dinner and the movies regularly over the past few months, something we don’t normally do… apparently leaving the house gets in the way of slumping on the lounge in front of bad TV chugging back a couple of $25 bottles of wine, so going out wasn’t really on our agenda at all.

Now, we aren’t talking about a retire tomorrow sized amount, just more than enough to make me sit up and look for a problem.  The only thing I can think of is we are seeing the cumulative effect of 6 months of very little (and now no) booze, more organised food planning, me spitting the dummy at my car insurance renewal* and finding a better deal and some other $20 here, $10 there changes.

Now I know we were spending at least $100 on wine a week… Crazy Cat Boy god love him had it pegged at “about” $40 pw for some reason!  But this, coupled with these other small changes have put us in the position to put some more cash into our Vanguard EFT this week.  That’s our long term retirement income stream plan.

So not only will I live longer by laying off the booze I’ll also have the money to!  LOL

*I swear, Insurance is the only service that you buy where you are penalised for long term loyalty! What’s with that?  “Oh, you paid us on time for a service you haven’t used for 6 years, here’s a hefty increase in your premium for the next 12 months” Well I’m not taking it anymore!  Now, if I’d been drinking at the time I’d have ranted and raved and NOT done anything about changing service provider.  I’ve saved $30 per month with a quick Google and online quote.  Not bad for 10 minutes work on a sober Tuesday night.