The numbers
What going out actually costs
Not a budgeting lecture. Just the arithmetic of a normal week, and an honest account of where the money in a $17 cocktail goes.
Your number
Set your own week. The calculator uses typical 2026 menu prices for each city, before tax and tip, against IRL member prices of $3 a latte, $6 lunch, $4 a cocktail and $8 dinner, plus the $49 membership.
Where the money in a bar bill goes
The liquid in a $17 cocktail costs the bar roughly $3 to $4. Cost of goods usually runs somewhere between a fifth and a quarter of menu price, and the rest is not margin. It is rent, wages, payroll tax, insurance, utilities, licences, breakage, card processing, and enough cushion to survive a slow month. Restaurants routinely operate on single-digit net margins while charging five times cost.
So the mark-up is not a scam, it is a structure. When a room can only be paid for by selling things to the people sitting in it, the things have to carry the room. Change how the room is paid for and the prices change with it.
| A $17 cocktail | Roughly |
|---|---|
| Spirits, mixers, garnish, ice | $3-4 |
| Rent on the space it was made in | $2-3 |
| Wages and payroll costs | $4-5 |
| Utilities, insurance, licences, breakage, card fees | $2-3 |
| Tax, before tip | $1-2 |
| What is left over | $1-2 |
Indicative allocation for a typical urban bar, not an audited P&L. The point is the ratio: the drink itself is the smallest line.
The same week in three cities
Five weekday coffees, two lunches out, four drinks and one dinner out. Nothing in that list is a treat, and it still clears seven hundred dollars a month everywhere we are opening.
| City | Normal monthly | At IRL | Saved / year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seattle | $732 | $270 | $5,543 |
| San Francisco | $801 | $270 | $6,375 |
| Los Angeles | $766 | $270 | $5,959 |
Menu prices only. Tax and tip apply to the second column and not to the membership, so the real-world gap is larger.
Join the waitlist
Pick your neighborhood
Join the waitlist and tell us where you want a club. We open a neighborhood once enough people nearby are on the list.
One quick thing —
You are on the list.
Memberships open in pairs (or more). People referred together join together, and bigger groups move up the list.
$49/month when we open. No card now. Leaving the waitlist is one click.
What actually reduces it
There are only four honest levers. Go out less, which costs you the thing the money was buying. Drink at home, which is cheaper and lonelier. Hunt happy hours, which works but turns every evening into logistics. Or change the mark-up.
The fourth is the only one that does not require giving something up, and it needs a different structure rather than better discipline. A membership that covers the room lets the menu run at cost plus ten percent, which is how $4 cocktails and $2 coffee are possible at all. That argument in full is on how it works.
Questions
- How much does the average person spend going out per month?
- A normal week of five weekday coffees, two lunches out, four drinks and one dinner out comes to roughly $732 a month in Seattle, $801 in San Francisco and $766 in Los Angeles at 2026 menu prices, before tax and tip. Rideshare, delivery fees and weekend spending push the real figure higher.
- Why are drinks so expensive?
- Because the drink has to pay for the room. Ingredients are typically only a fifth to a quarter of menu price; the rest covers rent, wages, payroll taxes, insurance, utilities, licences and card processing. Bars and restaurants commonly run single-digit net margins despite marking drinks up four or five times.
- How much is a cocktail in Seattle, SF and LA?
- In 2026 a standard cocktail runs about $17 in Seattle, $19 in San Francisco and $18 in Los Angeles before tax and tip, with the better bars higher. A pint is $9 to $10 and a latte is around $7 in all three cities.
- What is the cheapest way to go out regularly?
- Pick places within walking distance so transport does not double the bill, go on weeknights, and use happy-hour windows deliberately rather than hopefully. Structurally, the only approach that lowers the price rather than the frequency is somewhere that does not fund its rent out of the menu.
- Does a club membership save money?
- Usually not, because most clubs charge a membership and then full retail prices inside, so your evening costs the same plus dues. It only saves money when the membership replaces the mark-up. At IRL the $49 fee covers the room and the menu runs at cost plus 10%, which is about $500 a month against the same basket bought normally.