How much is your drinking really costing you?
We asked our clients.

It started with a client question I thought I could answer in five minutes. I was wrong.

A few sessions in, they asked me what their drinking was actually costing them. Not in units. Not in clinical terms. In real, concrete numbers they could look at and do something with.

I started answering and we kept going. The drink spend was the obvious starting point. But within ten minutes we were somewhere else entirely. The taxis. The takeaways that appear on the way home or the morning after. The gym membership quietly going to waste. The hours at work where the engine is running but nobody is really home.

And then, because this particular client mentioned waking at three in the morning, we got into sleep. That is where things got genuinely surprising.

We kept going. And every time we thought we had the list, something else came up.

The problem with that conversation is that it never ends. Trying to put honest numbers on it in the moment, with no reference point, is almost impossible.

You can estimate. You can guess. But you cannot really see it.

So we decided to build something that would let you see it properly. Working with a handful of clients, we mapped out what people actually wanted to understand about the cost of their drinking. Not what a health campaign thinks they should know. What they genuinely wanted a number for.

The result is the ARC Alcohol Real-Cost Calculator.

It separates home and on-trade consumption, because how people actually drink does not fit into a single box. It accounts for the costs around drinking, not just the drinking itself. It calculates calorie reduction. And it includes a sleep section that gives you a personalised REM figure based on your own consumption level, because the research is clear that the effect of alcohol on sleep is dose-responsive. Someone drinking seven units on a session is losing significantly more REM sleep than someone drinking three.

It also does something almost no other tool does. It lets you model a target that reflects how you actually want to drink, including the possibility of drinking less but spending more per bottle. Because for plenty of people, cutting back does not mean trading down. It means trading up.

One thing worth saying clearly: the calculator runs entirely in your browser. Your figures never leave your device. We collect your email address when you choose to unlock your results, so we can keep you updated from ARC, but the numbers themselves stay on your screen. You can email yourself the results at the end if you want to keep a copy, but the moment you close the tab, they are gone. Nobody at ARC ever sees them.

Three things that tend to shock people

Three things kept coming up. Three things most people had never actually put a number on.

The first was what we ended up calling the orbit costs. The money that clusters around drinking occasions without appearing on any drinks receipt. It is remarkable how quickly it adds up when you actually count it.

The second was calories. Not in a weight-loss framing, just as a number. The raw fact of what alcohol contributes calorically, week on week, and what changes when you reduce. Most people are genuinely surprised.

The third lands hardest. Sleep. Specifically REM sleep, the stage where your brain consolidates memory, regulates mood and restores mental energy. Alcohol suppresses it even at moderate levels, and the figure changes significantly depending on how much you are drinking. The calculator uses your own consumption level rather than a generic average.

And it explains something most people have felt but never had a word for. The anxiety and low mood the morning after a heavier night. It is not a character flaw. It is a neurological response to disrupted sleep. There is even a name for it. Hangxiety.

What struck me most

These three areas, spend, calories, sleep, have something in common. Most people who drink regularly have absorbed them as background noise. The taxi is just a taxi. The slow Wednesday morning is just one of those things. The three o’clock wake is just life.

The calculator puts a number on what that background noise actually costs. And more importantly, what a different version of your drinking life could look like. Not a sober one. Just a more intentional one.

Thirty-two years in the wine trade. I have seen every shape of drinking pattern there is. The calculator is not here to judge any of them. It is here to show you the numbers and let you decide what to do with them.

Try it

It takes about three minutes. You set your own target. Your figures are calculated in your browser and never sent anywhere. Email yourself the results at the end if you want to keep a record.

If what you see makes you want to do something about it, that is exactly what the BAC System is for.