The Price of a Night Out With the Boys

In many ways, it’s a great relief that the barbecue, or any kind of gathering in a friends back garden, has replaced going to the pub as the standard form of entertainment here in Australia.

Because when you go round a friend’s house, you take a couple of bottles of wine, which will cost anything between $10 and $20. You’d probably take a few six-packs of beer that would cost around $35. Then you’d maybe take a plate of food; say $10 or $15 worth.

All in, let’s call it $65 and that’s going to cover an evening’s entertainment for yourself, your wife and your kids.

Let’s compare that with a boy’s night out.

On Saturday evening, seven of us went to the Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane City to see the “Roar” play Newcastle.

Brisbane RoarLet me break down the cost of the night out.

  • A short taxi ride from the pub where we met to the ground – $6.00
  • The price of a ticket for the football match – $20.00
  • Food: one hotdog; one pie; one kebab with everything – $20.00
  • A dozen beers in various bars afterwards at approximately $7.00 each – $84.00
  • A long taxi ride all the way home – $20.00

Total cost of boys night out = Approx $150.00 each

At current exchange rates, that’s about £100.

Notes:

12 beers may seem a lot, but remember they are only schooners, which as you know from reading my article about lights, mids and heavies, is 425 mL. That’s three quarters of a pint, more or less.

So 9 pints between 6 PM and about 2 o’clock in the morning is quite sensible drinking. But then, we are very sensible boys.

What would that cost in England?

Well, the price of our football tickets compares very well against the price of a ticket at Manchester United. Unfortunately, the quality of football here in Australia does not compare.

So I won’t compare the price of the Brisbane Roar tickets to the £34 it would cost to buy a similar ticket at Manchester United, but instead I would say it’s the equivalent of, say, a “third division” team like Sheffield United in the UK.

There, tickets start at £18 for adults, so $20 for our “Hyundai A-League” tickets isn’t too bad.

Shame about the quality of football though, this was one of the poorest games I’ve ever seen. Brisbane didn’t so much roar, they sort of meowed.

Here are the, ahem, highlights…..

Did Brisbane actually get a shot on target? I don’t think so.

I’m sure that in England the price of hotdogs, pies and kebabs aren’t that much different than here and I’m not really sure how the prices of taxis would compare. But it’s the cost of beer in a pub that makes the difference.

I am told a pint of beer in England is something like £3.60 these days. So 9 pints would come out at £32.40.

That’s equivalent to about $48 in Australia money, making the $84 we paid for our beers here is a massive 75% more expensive!

So, here’s to the barbecue!

A girls’ day out.

Mrs BobinOz and Elizabeth chose not to come to the football, but they had their own girls’ day out on Sunday.

They went to see Mary Poppins…….

Mary Poppins

…..The Supercalifragilistic Musical at Qpac, (Queensland Performing Arts Centre) with some other short and tall girls.

Why?

Here’s a quirky social difference between the UK and Australia:

Australia doesn’t seem to do pantos, or pantomimes to give them their full name. They used to, apparently, but not any more.

For a country that look just loves words that end in “O”, that is strange. Anyway, as Mrs BobinOz could not take Elizabeth to a pantomime before Christmas, she decided to take her to Mary Poppins after.

Tickets, for those keeping score on the cost of entertainment in Australia, were $45.

They had a great time; Elizabeth loved it and even met and got autographs from the two main child stars of the play.

Supercalifragilistic!

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{ 6 comments… add one }
  • simmiz May 15, 2014, 9:51 pm |

    Hei Bob, nice blog.
    We are moving to Adelaide end of June. I got PR though I did not do any research on SA. My agent did all these. My concern is, how is the job market there for IT or accounting person. How is North Adelaide area for living?

    • BobinOz May 16, 2014, 4:35 pm |

      Thanks.

      I’ve only ever been to Adelaide once for a weeks holiday, so I don’t know anything about the job market or the areas. You’ll be better off have a look at my page about Adelaide and reading the comments, then maybe asking your question there.

      Good luck, Bob

  • Ronnie & Greg September 17, 2013, 1:20 am |

    Excellent article!
    We two (Farther & Son) are off to watch the Test Match in Adelaide this winter 2013 and think we count ourselves very lucky to the chance to do so?
    You gave us some idea but we really have little idea what to expect and imagine the price of beer has gone up even more?
    So, what do you reckon if we asked you this….
    ‘How much would you say you would need per day (have 9 nights), accounting for 5 days at the Test Match (Adelaide Oval) ,for two guys who like a drink, take breakfast (most times), a midday snack, and finish off with a basic meal at night and probably finish off sometime around midnight – long day?’
    We have sorted the Hotel, and Tickets out so effectively it’s ‘pin money’
    I’ve tried to get idea of general meal prices. We are real ale drinkers in England but will go with the flow. We fancy a trip one day to some little Germanic corner just down from Adelaide – any ideas?
    Thanks and hope you can throw us a few indicators.
    Cheers, Ronnie & Greg

    • BobinOz September 18, 2013, 12:16 am |

      Hi Ronnie and Greg

      I’ve got to say, Australia really isn’t the place to be drinking all day long, you will need deep pockets. Also at some of these live events that go on all day, they only sell what we call “Mids” – that’s mid-strength beer. Mid-strength is around 3.5% as opposed to a heavy which is around 5%. Basically they don’t want you to get drunk.

      Trouble is, you end up paying around seven dollars for a schooner, which is about three quarters of a pint. On a hot long day you will easily get through double figures of these and still not be drunk. But you’ll be down about a hundred dollars each and won’t really know what you spent it on other than trips to the toilet 🙂

      You can do the maths according to how much your drink, adding about $15 for breakfast, about the same for lunch and maybe $25-$30 for an evening meal, nothing special, add a bit more, and you’re looking at around $200 or more a day each.

      9×$200 and then round it up a bit more again because you want to have a good time, let’s call it three grand? Each 🙂

      Now I’ve never been to a test match, you might be lucky, the beer may be better (stronger) than at other events (I doubt it) or if there is a miracle, you might be able to take your own. But I highly doubt that. You will have more fun drinking in the pubs and out and about.

      As for that Germanic corner close to Adelaide, there is a German town somewhere in the Adelaide Hills, Hahndorf, it is a bit of a tourist attraction. See, every cloud 🙂

      Cheers, Bob

  • Rath Radian March 27, 2012, 2:11 pm |

    Bro, I dread the thought of watching football @ 3 am in Gold Coast were I am most likely going with my Ozzie honey. And screw United, MCFC all the way 🙂

    • BobinOz March 30, 2012, 12:58 pm |

      You can always hit the record button and watch it the next night, nobody talks about English football out here so it’s not like you have to try and avoid the score.

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