Maybe It Really IS About Price . . . .

UPDATED thirty seconds after posting:

I wrote this, posted it, and also asked on Facebook if anyone had a price for a six of Budweiser (or similar beer). Turns out a six of Bud isn't much cheaper. Perhaps a dollar. So maybe I should simply stop drinking. Or . . . go back to vodka. Because THERE'S a cheap drink . . . .

The original post:

So here’s a thought: Maybe people stick with the “basic” beer because it's what they can afford.

To whit:

As a rule, a six of craft beer runs me $8.00. That’s for New Belgium (“on sale”) or Sam Adams (also “on sale.”) Add in the 7% tax plus five cents per bottle for deposit (and I toss the bottles in the city recycling bin because it’s not worth my time to sort through them and figure out which store they came from so that I know which store to return them to). So an $8 six-pack costs me $9.00. Yes, sometimes I’ll find a six of, say, New Belgium, going for $7.00. But mostly a craft six starts at $8 plus tax and deposit.

That’s $1.50 a bottle. I drink two a day, for $3.00 a day. Times seven equals: $21.00 a week, or $84.00 a month.

The Random Photo Series 2014

I’ll be honest: Until recently, I'd not given much thought to how much I was spending on beer. But now that my income has vanished, well . . . . 

Yes, thanks to my husband, I have a roof over my head and food to eat. But I otherwise have zero income (except my pension/IRA savings, which I’m about to cash in so I can live on it). So . . . $84.00 a month on beer, eh?

And again, that $8.00 is for, say, New Belgium on sale. Or Sam Adams on sale. Nothing fancy. Good beer, but . . . . 

Budweiser is sounding better and better. Maybe the popularity of “factory” beer is more about money than it is about “taste.”