How much do Dry January participants save in a month without booze? It depends on what they drink.

Anya Chuyko-Yuhasz had a “really exciting” January last year.

She was one of the millions of U.S. adults who took part in Dry January, a challenge in which people cut out alcohol for 30 days. A month without alcohol has been shown to have a wide array of health benefits, including better sleep, weight loss, and increased energy, as well as lower blood pressure and cholesterol.

“I had a really great time doing it last year,” said Chuyko-Yuhasz, a 29-year-old city employee living in Roxborough. “It honestly brought so many benefits — mental health, physical health, everything else. It makes me feel so much better.”

One surprise benefit, she said: saving money.

“Whenever I’m out at bars, I’ll be drinking beers and that adds up very fast,” she said. “At the end of the night, I’ll spend $70 on like five beers and I’m like, ‘This is really annoying.’”

She and other Dry January participants said they save money during the challenge, though not always as much as they expect due to the increasing price of high-quality booze-free beverages.

Still, Chuyko-Yuhasz is doing it again this year, joining many other Philadelphians who recently cut out or cut back on their drinking — some as part of the increasingly popular Dry January alternative, Damp January, which encourages mindful drinking.

Several local residents who have stopped drinking said they expect to save as much $300 in a month. One sobriety coach told CNBC she has saved more than $48,000 since she stopped drinking eight years ago.

Just how much money a consumer could save by doing an alcohol sabbatical depends on how much their drinking habits currently cost them.

It also depends on what they substitute for a beer, wine, or cocktail.

“There are so many more options now that it’s easier to not be drinking and find something you love,” said Jesse Andreozzi, a zero-proof menu consultant for local restaurants and a brand ambassador for booze-free craft cocktail brand, Curious Elixirs. “Ten years ago, if you wanted a nonalcoholic beer your options were O’Doul’s or O’Doul’s.”

As an increasing number of Gen Zers and millennials opt not to drink, the no- and low-alcohol industry has taken off, providing nondrinkers with more choices than ever before.

Some restaurants and bars now have zero-proof cocktail menus — some crafted with nonalcoholic spirits that mimic different liquors — making it easier for customers to order a nonalcoholic beverage without drawing attention to their sobriety.

People who don’t want to be tempted can visit the region’s zero-proof bars and bottle shops, such as Volstead in Manayunk, Gem Life + Bar in Pitman, Mercantile 1888 in Collingswood, and Wallace Dry Goods, which opened its brick-and-mortar store in Ardmore earlier this month. A touring sober festival called Dry Vibes, complete with a DJed after-party, is coming to the city on Jan. 20.

All these high-quality, tastes-like-the-real-thing choices come at a cost, however.

Nonalcoholic beer, wine, and liquor can cost as much as its alcoholic counterparts. And while zero-proof cocktails are typically priced lower than alcoholic beverages, the nonalcoholic options can still cost between $8 and $15 apiece.

“When you’re looking at an ounce-to-ounce comparison, a lot of time it’s more expensive,” Robin Cummiskey said of the zero-proof spirits she sells at her new bottle shop, Wallace Dry Goods. Zero-proof spirits require more ingredients, and often involve an expensive process in which the product is distilled with alcohol, then reverse-distilled to remove it. “We as a society have to learn to value our beverages not on ABV, but on the quality of ingredients used to make them, as you do with food.”

A robust booze-free cocktail list has been a boon to some Philadelphia bar and restaurant owners, making them extra money year round.

“It’s a response to our customers and our own health choices,” said Kelsey Bush, chef/owner of Bloomsday Cafe, who drinks at most once a week. When nondrinkers see that they can order a Green Meadow Farm Shrub or a Virgin Mojito at her Society Hill wine cafe, “they like that they don’t have to ask for something special.”

Bar Hygge general manager Jacqlyn Boerstler has been growing the zero-proof cocktail list at the Fairmount mainstay for the last three years.

It started with a single juice-based mocktail in 2021. Now the list includes seven drinks, some with playful monikers like Nada Colada and Mock Toddy, others with unassuming names like Gnome Spritz and Amateur Jazz. All but one are creations crafted with liquor alternatives, and they go for $10 each based on market value of the ingredients.

“To wrap your head around spending $10 on a beverage that doesn’t have alcohol, especially in the beginning, was foreign to me,” she said. But customers don’t seem to mind. It “might stop them from having two, but from what we saw in the past year, I don’t think that’s an issue for anyone who’s going out to a bar and socializing.”

Bar Hygge recorded about $30,000 in sales from zero-proof cocktails in 2023, Boerstler said, a huge jump from 2021, when they sold only about $1,000 worth the entire year. While the 2023 figure represents only a fraction — about 5% to 6% — of overall sales, Boerstler said she sees room for more growth: On Thursday, Bar Hygge was part of Zero Proof Go’s first-ever Happy Hour for All bar crawl, which highlighted sober-inclusive bars on social media.

“The people who don’t drink do have disposable incomes,” said Andreozzi, the zero-proof menu consultant who is also affiliated with Zero Proof Go. “They’re more than willing to fork over the $12 for a good cocktail.”

Restaurants “leave a lot of money on the table by not having these options,” he added. “These are people who would have otherwise ordered a soda.”

For some sober consumers, a tasty booze-free cocktail or beer is well worth the price.

Some say it makes them feel less awkward in social settings in which they used to drink. They still save money, too, since many say they usually order fewer drinks than they did when they were drinking alcohol.

When Jessica Lipkin did Dry January for the first time last year, she missed the social-lubricant effect that a cocktail can have.

“Having a little bit of alcohol can loosen me up a bit and make socializing a little easier and more comfortable,” said Lipkin, a 30-year-old Fishtown resident. “But I found holding a drink, even if it’s a mocktail, is kind of a placebo effect.”

She learned that just one or two nonalcoholic cocktails in social settings would take the edge off. But she was surprised by the cost.

“That would only save me a few bucks” compared to an alcoholic cocktail, she said.

The trade-off was worth it, though. After a few weeks of sobriety, she felt so good physically and mentally that she ended up extending the challenge for about six months, said Lipkin, an online community manager who runs @partysaferwithjess, which highlights nightlife safety and has more than 106,000 TikTok followers. Lipkin plans to follow the same blueprint this year.

While she saved money overall, she said it wasn’t as much as she expected.

“I wouldn’t say I saw a huge financial impact,” she said. “Where I saw the most impact was going out to dinner. If I was going out to dinner, I would have a couple drinks and that could really rack up the bill, especially if you were going to a fine dining restaurant, where cocktails could be $15 to $20.”