How to Save Money on Alcohol

You should always have a budget when it comes to a party. It is important to stick to that budget. Sometimes that strict budget can affect the types of alcohol that you can buy. The best place to buy hard alcohol and chasers for a party (not beer) is Costco. If you don’t have a Costco near your campus, then I feel really sorry for you, but there should be an equivalent discount warehouse center (Sam's Club, etc). Someone in your frat should have a Costco membership card, and if they don’t then it’s always a good investment to buy one. 

Costco has the lowest prices when it comes to buying handles of alcohol. They don’t have sales, but there prices are always low. Some supermarkets might be able to match the Costco price during a supermarket sale, but those prices will increase later. Costco’s prices very rarely change. The two types of vodka that I suggest purchasing for all of your parties would be Smirnoff Vodka and Skyy Vodka. The first can be purchased for $14.99 or $17.99, depending on your geographical area. The latter can be bought for $19.99 or $20.99, depending on your area. In the supermarket or liquor store, there is at least a $5 increase per bottle for both brands. When you are buying multiple bottles, the savings will really pay off.

Now if you don't have a Costco near you, you are probably stuck with just the liquor stores in your neighborhood. Unfortunately you will probably have to deal with a smaller selection and stock--in addition to higher prices. One good way to get lower prices is to speak with the owner of the liquor store about getting a discount if you buy in bulk. If you tell him that you will be buying about X amound of handles and 30 packs of beer per week, he will probably be inclined to give you a discount in order to guarantee your business. You can probably push for at least 10%, but you might be able to get 20% off, especially in these difficult economic times.

How Much Alcohol Should You Buy?

Once you know what types of alcohol you wish to purchase, you will need to know how much to purchase. One handle (1.75 Liters) of vodka will serve about 10 people. I’m not saying that it will get 10 people drunk, but 10 people will get to all have at least one mixed drink and one shot. So for your smaller events at your frat house, you will usually purchase seven handles. Now you might be thinking that seven handles isn’t enough, but you are forgetting about the beer…

When buying beer, you are presented with two choices: keg or cans. If you own your own tap (that means you don’t have to pay to rent one), then buying a keg is less expensive than purchasing cheap 30 packs of beer. While there is no exact science when measuring the difference between the amount of beer in a keg and in the corresponding amount of cans, you have to assume a few things. There is a lot of foam in a keg, and this makes it very difficult to measure how many cups of beer you can pour out of a keg. A solution, though expensive, is to invest in a kegerator, which uses CO2 to get rid of the foam. Also when comparing the two vessels of beer, you have to buy 12 oz beer cups in order to have the same amount as a 12 oz beer can/bottle. The common red Dixie plastic cups are actually 16 oz in size.

So if you want to maximize your keg, I suggest purchasing the 12 oz cups, rather than the large 16 oz red ones. Now the bad part of getting a keg is that if the tap is broken, there is no other way to get the beer out. That means you are out of a lot of alcohol for the party. No one likes a party when the alcohol runs out unexpectedly. Also, having a keg is technically an easy piece of evidence for Police to use if they accuse you of supplying alcohol to minors. So the lower cost of the keg also comes with more risks and potential problems.

On the other hand, cans of beer provide a nice convenience. For one thing, there is no waiting around for the beer to come out of the keg. Also, there is very little or no foam that comes out of an unshaken beer can. You will 99.9% of the time be able to drink the beer from the can, instead of having the possibility of your keg tap breaking. Beer cans also provide the convenience of making it very difficult for Police to accuse you of supplying them. “After all, officer, we had a BYOB party. I guess the girls just put the beer cans in their purses.” A great excuse, indeed! Remember that the equivalent quantity of beer in cans will take up more surface area than the same beer from a keg. Therefore, make sure you have plenty of room to store the 30-packs of beer.

If you are buying the beer in conjunction with the seven handles of vodka, you should buy approximately four to five 30 packs. Since beer is the secondary alcohol choice, you don’t have to buy as much. However, if you are doing an event that revolves around beer, such as a beer pong or flip cup tournament, then you should buy 1 ½ to 2 times the amount beer.

Now that you have some vodka and beer, you will need some chasers to go along with that. The good thing about chasers is that they are cheaper than the alcohol. The bad news is that for each handle of alcohol, you will need at least one to two gallons of juice or two to four liters of soda. Chasers can add up in the long run. Also, chasers are wasted a lot as people tend to fill up their cups with a lot of chaser in correlation to the amount of alcohol in the cup. 

The basic chasers that you should always have are: orange juice, cranberry juice, coke/diet coke, and soda water/tonic. You make a variety of drinks with these chasers and vodka. Also, you can always find these chasers bottles in large quantities, which will save you money. If you are worried about overspending when it comes to buying chasers, I will explain some easy ways to save money.