Is Southampton really the CHEAPEST night out in Britain?

NatWest has released their 2015 Student living index, and Southampton students apparently spend considerably less on a night out than most other Universities.

According to the survey, which asked a total of 2,486 students living in the UK, Southampton students spend, on average, just £6.66 a week on a night out. apart from Exeter, we are officially the cheapest University for nights out. You stingy bastards!

A 100% accurate graph

In order to confirm this statistic we decided to compare the cheapest expenditures that you are likely to come across on a typical night out with other Universities from around the country.

Cheapest pint of lager

Now we all know you can get a pint of piss (Fosters), in Jesters for 60p on a Monday night.

But if you want a proper pint of beer, that isn’t in a plastic cup, the cheapest place to go is most likely The Stags. With a pint of Stella Artois 4% clocking in at £2.40 the bar is set.

However, we spoke to Matt Kennedy and Ruaidhri Austin, two students from universities in Brighton, who schooled us on cheap beer.

A pint of beer is £1.25 and a pint of Strongbow is £1.50 at the Pavillion Tavern on Monday to Thursday.

So already it’s looking like Southampton is losing the cheapest beer competition.

However, it’s not all bad for Southampton beer drinkers. Alex Traher, a physics student from the University of Surrey who told us:

Literally, it’s Guildford so cheapest for everything is spoons, otherwise it’s about £5 a pint.

So as long as you don’t mind going to a grotty, characterless Wetherspoon’s then you have to fork out a lot more than us for a pint in Guildford.

Cheapest double Vodka and mixer

Now it’s our time to shine. Surely no one will be able to beat the worryingly cheap £1 doubles of Sobar Tuesday’s. That’s not to mention the £1.50 triples and £2 quads.

Home of the £1.50 triple

We spoke to Niamh Murphy, a Biomedical Science student at Manchester who told us how at some clubs you could get double vodka’s for as cheap as £2.

However, most of the people we spoke to told us that at their university vodka doubles cost between £3-5 which seems more typical. Southampton has thereby clearly won this category, thanks to Sobar.

Quad blue anyone?

Cheapest pre drinks

Pre drinks is an extremely important part of the night when you’re trying to be cheap. It is the one opportunity you have to get absolutely lampshaded before your squad rolls out. So, if done properly, it can save you a lot of money.

Pre-drinks winner

The most economical place to stock up for pres in Southampton has got to be Beers and Bottles in Portswood. The 2 bottles of wine for £5 deal certainly gives you more alcohol for your money than anywhere else.

Niamh told us how in Manchester they have something similar.

For pre drinks you can go to New Zealand wines and get 2 bottles of wine for £5. Or Sainsbury’s basics vodka for £6.

So Manchester seems to be able to hold its own against the might of Southampton’s cheap pre drinks. Despite this, they came 4th on NatWest’s survey for spending the most on a night out.

Most of the other people we spoke to said that they get their pre drinks from Sainsbury’s or Tesco’s where, depending on the deals they have on, can be around £10-20.

Cheapest entry

This can vary significantly depending on where you go on which night. For instance, it is £5 entry to Jesters on a Monday and Sobar on a Tuesday.

This is just as expensive as the more inner city clubs such as Switch on a Friday or Oceana and Cafe Parfait. So unless you want to go to a club on a non promotional night it seems we have to pay a lot for entry.

Ruaidhri from Brighton told us how there are some cheap nights down there:

Secret discotheque (Thursday nights) at the Haunt is pretty cheap entry (£2 if you screenshot their snap chat!) most other places are around £4/5

Also according to Niamh:

Cheapest entry to club is 99p factory on a Thursday before 12.

So it appears that the NatWest survey is absolute bollocks (shock horror). Unless you are a lightweight, adore Sobar Tuesday’s, and are willing to suck a bouncer off for free entry, you are going to find it extremely hard to have a night out for £6.66 in Southampton.

On a fairly generous average student night out, consisting of pres, two pints and two triples, an average outing in Southampton would add up to at least £16.60 . The same night out in Manchester would be around £15.99, while at Surrey could be as much as £28.50. If you take a trip along the coast to Brighton you’re going to be looking at around £21.50.

By looking at other universities it seems to all even out. Other Unis are cheaper in other areas. Not to mention the inevitable loose change spent on essential drunk chips or the cab home. To have a good night in Southampton you are going to be looking at spending a minimum of £15-20.

Greece 19 July 2015 at 7:16 PM

60p pint of fosters?! What happened to 50p? What the fuck are those cheeky cunts trying to pull?!

Reply

FluieeeJuly 19th, 2015 at 9:14 PM

Camerons britain

You’re shit. 19 July 2015 at 7:32 PM

Oh yeah, just copy the Wessex Scene’s article a couple days after they publish and change the headline. Another example of shocking journalism from the Tab.

PutinJuly 19th, 2015 at 7:46 PM

Just because someone writes about the same survey doesn’t mean they are copying the WS. This article is a completely different angle from what they wrote.

noJuly 19th, 2015 at 8:39 PM

Wessex Scene wrote an article about student life??

NoJuly 19th, 2015 at 9:54 PM

You’re clearly a tab edior, anyone that reads the scene knows it’s 99% about student life

Um 19 July 2015 at 7:41 PM

An AVERAGE of £6.60 per week because you don’t go out every single week of the entire year you absolute fucking imbecile.

Blah 19 July 2015 at 7:51 PM

Its an average. Southampton has a lot of international students, with a big proportion of them coming from countries where alcohol is either illegal, heavily regulated or just not a big deal.

Lurn 2 reed. 19 July 2015 at 7:56 PM

The survey doesn’t say it’s the cheapest night out. It says we spend the SECOND least on alcohol, learn to read. Lots of people go out and don’t drink, and the survey only surveyed 25 unis, sort it out

Southampton students 19 July 2015 at 8:10 PM

It’s good to know deposits the get soton tab has new writers the articles they’re write are just as awful, keeping the tradition.

What? 19 July 2015 at 8:53 PM

Neglecting the fact that the stated figure is an average — not everyone goes out every week, some people don’t go out at all — and that many clubs offer free or cheaper entry before certain times (and many students have cards for Oceana, Sobar, Jesters etc. for free/cheaper entry), the NatWest survey has two separate graphs for alcohol expenditure and going out expenditure. The figure, therefore, does not include predrink costs.

How about you put a little more effort into your next article?

(Also, how come we are ignoring Jesters’ cheap drink prices, after asking students at other unis for their respective town’s cheapest pint?)

Check your privilege. 19 July 2015 at 9:10 PM

“Unless you are a lightweight, adore Sobar Tuesday’s, and are willing to suck a bouncer off for free entry, you are going to find it extremely hard to have a night out for £6.66 in Southampton.”

Yeah lets just make sexual assault a joke, top work Tab, top fucking work.

errrmJuly 19th, 2015 at 9:17 PM

How is “willing to suck off a bouncer” a joke about sexual assault???? The word “willing” is right there. that’s clearly consensual even in this totally hypothetical situation…

I used post as 'God' but then someone else stole my username and I'm evidently unable to think of a good alternativeJuly 19th, 2015 at 9:26 PM

Pretty sure that if you’re ‘willing to’ do something then it isn’t assault… (Provided you’re capable of consent and not pressured into it, of course.)

If you really, really want to get on your high horse about something, get on your high horse about the fact that you’re basically trivialising actual assaults by comparing them to something which (while obviously inappropriate) would not be an assault.

NoJuly 20th, 2015 at 11:19 AM

It’s still coercion, taking advantage of someone drunk etc.
It’s not something to make light of

I used post as ‘God’ but then someone else stole my username and I’m evidently unable to think of a good alternative 19 July 2015 at 9:31 PM