A cocktail-fuelled evening normally means tottering in heels into various pretentious establishments to part with a week’s wages on over-priced vodka served in a vessel no bigger than an egg cup.

Let’s celebrate Friday evening and curb those costs by making ourselves one (or a couple) of these cheap and easy cocktails…

Rosé Cooler

Ingredients:

• ½ cup of ice
• ½ glass of cheap rosé wine
• Lemonade or sparkling water
• Slice of lime

Fill a large glass with ice. The fill the glass half full with rosé wine and top up with lemonade or sparkling water. Garnish with a slice of lime.

Bulldog

Ingredients:

• Shot of gin
• 1 splash orange juice
• Ginger ale

Pour the gin into a tall glass. Top up the remainder of the glass with ginger ale before adding a splash of orange juice.

OR to make a Leap Frog substitute the juice of half a lemon for the splash of orange juice.

Frog in a Blender

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of ice
• Shot of vodka
• Cranberry juice
• 2 slices of lime

Nice and simple. Just bung all of the ingredients into the blender. Blend away on a high setting for around 5 seconds. For the best taste, make sure that the consistency isn’t completely smooth. Pour over ice and enjoy!

710 V&Ps

Ingredients:

• Shot of vodka
• Pink lemonade
• Splash of Sprite

Pour the vodka shot into a tall glass. Add the pink lemonade and top off with a splash of Sprite for this twist on an old English classic.

Polish Iced Tea

Ingredients:

• Shot of vodka
• Iced tea

Neither as potent (nor as expensive) as its Long Island cousin, Polish Iced Tea is very enjoyable nonetheless. Pour the shot of vodka into a large glass and top up with iced tea. Any iced tea flavour will do, but lemon is a personal favourite.

Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri

Ingredients:

• ½ cup of ice
• Shot of rum
• Splash of lemon juice
• 4 strawberries
• 1 tsp sugar

Bung all of the ingredients into a cocktail shaker. No cocktail shaker? Well a blender will do. Shake away and pour into a champagne glass.

Pink on the Inside

Ingredients:

• ½ cup of ice
• Shot of rum
• 1 scoop sherbet
• ½ cup of lemonade

For anyone with a sweet tooth. Place all of the ingredients in a blender. Blend until the consistency is nice and smooth then pour into a tall glass.

Coco Colada

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of ice
• Pineapple juice
• Coconut milk

For those who’d rather not wake up feeling a little bleary eyed tomorrow, to make this non-alcoholic cocktail throw the ice and two parts of pineapple juice to one part of coconut milk into a blender. Blend until the consistency is smooth then pour into a Martini glass.

Any other cheap cocktail ideas I should know about? Get in touch! In the meantime happy drinking everyone!

{Photo: Quinn.anya}