Excited to get the part where my finances are recovered from being a drunken mess. How long did it take before ya’ll started noticing you had extra money lying around from not drinking?
13 Likes
Can’t answer the question but only because I’m in the same boat !
2 Likes
For real, we even have the same sobriety date.
Do we?! That’s awesome!
We both also like yoga haha
It took about a year before I payed down things. I found I had to make a budget and stick to it. The faster you take care of all the cr@p and bad decisions… the faster you can build a nest egg. I also needed to talk to a financial adviser because I came to realize I had no clue how to handle money. I had to learn.
3 Likes
I got sober at the beginning of covid while I was laid off. My first substitute for drinking was shopping honestly and I went in the wrong direction financially. I had made an agreement with myself that I was going to just focus on the worst thing first and deal with the rest later.
Alcohol 5/31/20. Nicotine 10/19/20. Twizzlers 6/7/22. Amazon, TBD 
I did reel it in a lot. I refinanced my house and rolled a lot of debt into the refi because property values went up. I realize fully that I was very fortunate to be able to do that. I also realize I never would have if I hadn’t entered recovery. So I guess I’m not a very good barometer of this, but I can tell you with absolute certainty that I am better off now than I was when I was drunk, and I’m better off now than I would be if I were still drinking.
2 Likes
I think that it's different for everyone. With 5 years clean, I should really have more money saved. It's ongoing and I'm really working on it. If I was still using/drinking I'd be on the street or dead. So I'm happy with where I am today, but I'm still on the way to being where I want to be. Thank-you for the great question!
1 Like
instantly for me. i used to spend 600-800 a week on dope. now i don’t. for 51 days.
2 Likes
I was easily spending $30 a day when I was drinking heavily. I noticed within the first couple of weeks that I had some extra cash in my pocket. Also, when my girlfriend & I go out for dinner, we’re always super amazed at how little we spend avoiding booze. Keep it up, I promise it’s so worth it!
I don’t know if you’ll have extra money, but your money will go towards what it supposed to. I have extra money now but it’s been years. But you are not going to have debt collectors calling, You won’t be paying minimums And you will have clean clothes and food in your stomach. At least that’s how it worked for me. But within a year you should definitely notice a difference even if it’s not big
2 Likes
At 5 years my score was still at 500. Just didn’t have any credit at all. Took 2 years to get to 700 then bought a house a year later.
1 Like
The first couple of months, that's also when I first started making financial amends before I knew what those were
1 Like
I second all of this!!!
The moment I stopped I had extra cash on hand. I wasn’t wasting it on booze and other party favors! Now it depends on how financially upside down you are that will determine how long it takes to dig out of debt
If I’m honest, about 3 months later I could see a better financial situation. Extra eating out cost around 100 a month, drinking cost around 90 a week, considering 50 on weekends, 40 throughout the week. Probably purchased 50 dollars of wasteful purchases online every month. 400 a month on top of changing employment is really going a long way, even in these tougher economic times. I’d encourage anyone reading this to invest in yourself, get that counselor, do several days of supervised detox if needed. Sobriety has most definitely made me less afraid of the economy and that situation; whereas drinking lead to tons of uncomfortable fear…..which only lead me to drink more over something I can’t control.
1 Like
Immediately
I spend about the same. Now it's on fun stuff and good food.
Immediately after my wife was in ICU I hound AA and she was unable to return to work so we went from living paycheck to paycheck and she was able to qualify for SSDI and I started drawing Social Security. Then retirement came later as did an inheritance when my mother died. I’ve never had this much money or security and didn’t think I would.
I joined * not hound AA.