I was just refreshing my spreadsheet for wine budget for 2023 and was curious how much of people’s budget to people allocate for BerserkerDay? Last year was my first year participating and it accounted for roughly 10% of spend. I’ll likely “constrain” my spend to that % for this year too.
0 voters
Budget?
I’m flattered you think I’m the kind of person who sets a “budget” for BerserkerDay and has the self-control to stick to it (or an annual wine budget, for that matter).
The way BD works is that you go in planning to buy 3-6 bottles each from three producers.
Then when it’s over, you have four cases of wine, 10 pounds of steak, caviar, new stemware, a seat at a winemaker dinner you probably can’t even attend, an autographed magnum, and are on three new mailing lists.
Damn that is so close to my plans it scary.
@Chris_Seiber you forgot the 18 bottles of olive oil, sardines, tuna, mussels, and a week at a villa in Spain!
For January, it’s 100%. After that, all purchases are justified to lower the annual percentage spent on BD.
Every year I consider Berserker Day “off budget”.
I think this year I will only buy food.
And Sabelli-Frisch.
And Di Costanzo.
And. Shit. Yeah. I’ll buy them all, again.
The only year I had restraint was the year I totally forgot it, maybe five years ago or so. I was at a wedding out of town, and I realized that had been BD and I had totally spaced.
I’m literally sitting in my seat for the wedding in the minutes before it was going to start, I remembered that day had been BD, and I frantically managed to order one or two things before the wedding started.
So it is possible, you just have to be an absentminded idiot like me to have a chance.
Yes! We call it ‘extra budgetary.’
Recurring expenses should definitely be a separate line item.
January is always a tough spending month coming after Christmas and with lots of mailing list releases. My issue is less money and more storage capacity this year. No space for extra bottles. I will have to buy everything this year very carefully.
That’s what we all tell ourselves. Then the call from Amex comes. “Sir have you spent 1500 dollars on online purchases?”. Then Visa. Then Mastercard. Then Discover. Then the Diners Club you didnt remember even owning. Then second Amex…
I’m a bit surprised at the responses… Maybe it’s that my focus is heavily Old World and the few US producers I still buy don’t participate in BD, but my spending is a little on food and that’s about it. BD is a great event, but it strongly favors people who drink a lot of California wines.
I would be interested in breaking out that <5% category and see for how many people it’s actually 0% or <1%
Zero for me.
That makes you a grouch and Santa will remember. 
I suppose I’ll figure out my allocated budget on Monday 30th 
Last year it represented 24% of my wine expenses.
Zero for me, too. I don’t expect that to change as long as Berserker Day is all about domestic wines. and domestic wineries. Although I did buy a Winecheck on Berserker Day 2012…