Most students pay less than $15 for a six pack of beer. If the beer is consumed within a few hours, that’s more than enough to raise a blood alcohol level to more than .08 percent— the legal limit for committing a DUI in all 50 states. If less than the age of 21 in North Carolina, there is a zero tolerance policy. The cost to get arrested for a DUI is less than $15, but what about the financial cost of dealing with a DUI arrest?

Because laws vary in each state, it’s impossible to give an exact amount of how much a DUI can cost. It has been widely reported, however, that the national average is about $10,000, according to OneDUI.org. 

NC has strict impaired-driving laws. Let’s pretend that you are one of the 5,591 people arrested in Wake County in 2013 for impaired driving. Let’s say this DUI is your first offense, that you are fortunate enough not to have hit anyone or caused property damage and that there were no aggravating factors. In North Carolina, you’d be paying anywhere from $6,890 to $9,290, the average DUI cost in North Carolina, according to the NC Department of Motor Vehicles. 

There are many financial elements related to drunk driving that people do not consider. Drunk driving related fees include court costs, attorney fees, bail fees, driving under the influence education programs, car towing or impounding, increased insurance rates, plus potential additional costs if damage to property or to another person has occurred. In North Carolina, the average fee for a DUI attorney alone is $2,500.

Even further, these fees and estimates do not factor in loss of income. Sitting in jail, doing community service, court appearances and remedial services can take weeks of time away from your job, that is, if you get to keep your job. Along with facing criminal penalties and fines, a person arrested for a DUI faces the possibility of losing one’s job. Almost all employers in North Carolina provide employment contracts under which conviction of a DUI is grounds for termination. If you are facing DUI charges, you can forget about that source of income to help you pay for your mistake. 

“But I am not even drunk! I am only driving three blocks down the road. I am totally fine.” 

It does not matter that you are driving less than a mile to the local Cookout, and it does not matter that you don’t even feel drunk. Since the 1960s, the North Carolina Supreme Court has made it clear that impaired driving requires the state to prove the person was “appreciably” or “noticeably” impaired. The state does not need to prove that the person was falling-down drunk, or even “materially” impaired. All that needs to be proven is blood alcohol level. 

So, if you do not have a sober friend to drive you, take a cab. “But I can’t afford a cab.” Oh, but you can afford the cost of a DUI? An Uber ride in Raleigh-Durham costs 0.18 cents per minute plus 0.85 cents per mile (when prices are not surged). 0.18 cents per minute is nothing in comparison to what you will be paying if you find yourself pulled over or at a checkpoint.

Call an Uber. Call a taxi. Call a safe ride. Call a sober friend. If your roommate does not want to get out of bed, consider offering him or her the minimum $6,890 you could potentially be paying for a DUI arrest. 

Drunk driving is 100 percent avoidable. If you find yourself hung-over, thousands of dollars in debt, unemployed and without license, you have no one to blame but yourself.