By Mary Madigan

Copyright news

The days of shouting rounds are going down the drain as cost-of-living pressures continue to suck the fun out of our lives.

If you’re unfamiliar with the premise, ‘shouting’ is just going round for round when buying drinks, one person will buy a round of drinks, another person will buy the next and so on.

It should work out fairly, but often someone does end up spending more because, eventually, there’s got to be last drinks, right?

It is incredibly common and you used to be hard-pressed to go into a pub and not see someone heading back to their friends and juggling four beers because it was their turn to pay.

The Aussie tradition is waning, though, because of the rising cost of alcohol, with the price rising by six per cent in the last year.

I’ve noticed how, now, when you offer to buy a round of drinks, you can be met with an awkward pause because people are already calculating how much it will cost them to return the favour.

Let’s face it, considering a glass of house wine can cost between $12 and $15, a single round for you and three friends is a $60 event – and that is if no one is demanding bubbly.

This is resulting in more and more pub goers preferring to just pay for their own drinks because they can’t afford to be generous.

Saying, “next round on me”, is borderline becoming a social taboo, at least in my inner city bubble, but how widespread is the issue?

To find out how people really feel about shouting in 2025, I decided to badger my co-workers for answers.

Is shouting a pub round in 2025 dead?

Well, if you ask my co-workers, it is certainly on life support.

Claudia Coy, social media producer and someone who is always an office vibe, didn’t hold back.

“No one shouts anymore!” she declared.

Then the panic set in.

“Do they? Are my friends just bad?” she asked.

After her panic subsided, she drew her own firm conclusion.

“I don’t feel like anyone is shouting anyone anything,” she said.

It was a similar story from news.com.au’s Audience Editor and family man, Andrew McMurtry.

“If it is not dead it is definitely dying a slow death,” he informed me gravely.

“Yeah, it costs way too much.”

The theme continued.

Lifestyle writer and all-round office sweetheart, Claudia Poposki, admitted that you won’t catch her shouting.

“I would actively avoid going to the pub with a big group of people if I thought I was going to have to shout,” she said.

“A glass of wine is like $13 or $14.”

“It adds up really quickly.”

News.com.au’s resident podcast king, Andrew Bucklow, said he does still shout but he is upset by the prices.

“A shout nowadays is about $100, which ruins you,” he said.

Does he have any workarounds for this issue? Well, no, he is a presenter, not an economist.

“It would be cheaper to have less friends,” he suggested.

Ally Foster, the Wealth and Culture editor at news.com.au, is a keen observer of culture – so, what the hell is going on?

Well, she has noticed that people are more “reluctant” to shout during the cost of living crisis.

“I still do it personally, but I’m very cautious about who I do it with,” she said.

It became depressingly clear that Aussies still want to shout at each other, but it is becoming a luxury and not a given in 2025.

Financial expert Graham Cooke is not surprised that Aussies are feeling the pinch right now and not wanting to shout each other drinks.

“The cost of living pressure in Australia is still very high, as is inflation in some areas. Alcohol and tobacco are the products facing the highest price rises,” he said.

“This is why the pub shout in Australia may remain dead for a long time. It’s becoming too expensive for many Aussies to say ‘This one’s on me’.”

At this point, Mr Cooke recommended “mixing up with water every other round” because it is healthier for “your liver and wallet”.

The humble pub shout is far from the only thing being impacted by rising costs.

House prices have risen by 4.5 per cent this year, and rent has increased by 5 per cent.

Financial comparison website Finder found that 35 per cent of homeowners are struggling to pay their mortgages.

Renters are faring even worse, with over 45 per cent admitting that they’re struggling to cover their rents.

If that was not confronting enough, Finder recently surveyed over 1000 Aussies and found 45 per cent are cutting back on non-essential items and 43 per cent are reducing their spending.

None of these choices exactly scream, “The next round is on me!”