I don't know what cheap is to you; I'll drink nothing but water before I drink piss like natty light, personally.
TL,DR: apple pie moonshine, mimosas, infused liquor.
Apple pie moonshine. You need a gallon of apple cider, a gallon of apple juice, a bottle of everclear 190 proof, sugar, and cinnamon sticks. This is a good recipe. I put it in mason jars while it's still hot, usually it seals the lids but that's not really important. You can drink it warm or cold. I prefer drinking it chilled after letting it age for a few months, it gets smoother with time, but you can drink it right away and it's still quite good. The last jar I drank was about 6 months old, and it was the best alcoholic drink I've ever had. Alcohol content is like a strong wine, it's not as strong as people say but it's very easy to drink a lot. I'll go through a quart myself when I have guests over for dinner no problem. Total cost for the 9 quarts is maybe $33, which is like buying eleven $3 bottles of wine. This is the best bang for my buck I've found so far, but it gets old drinking the same thing all the time.
I'm a big fan of mimosas. Find a cheap sparkling white wine you like for around $7-8, mix equal parts with orange juice, voila. I add grenadine to mine. Figure 1.5 liters for $12, pretty decent. I think I settled on Cook's Extra Dry for my mimosa recipe. Of course there are dozens of variations mixing different combinations of juices and champagne. The downside to mimosas is when you open a 750ml bottle of sparkling wine, you're committed to drinking a whole pitcher worth of mimosas within a few hours or the wine will go flat and taste disgusting. So, it's best as a social drink unless you want to down 1.5 liters of mimosa in 3 hours by yourself. With a champagne stopper you can keep the carbonation in, but don't expect to keep an open bottle of sparkling wine for more than 24 hours.
You can make a quart of cinnamon whiskey for cheap. Buy a fifth of shitty whiskey, white granular sugar and a few cinnamon sticks. Make a syrup by adding a cup of sugar to a cup of water in a pot and heating it until the sugar is all dissolved. Add the whiskey to the pot with 2-3 cinnamon sticks and heat it all up, but don't get close to boiling. Stir it for awhile until it's well mixed, then let it cool off and store it in a mason jar. It's great warm on winter days, but it's a cheap way to get hammered too. Adding the syrup and cinnamon masks the flavor of the cheap-ass whiskey. I usually use whiskey in the $12-13 fifth range. There are lots of other infused liquor recipes that help turn cheap swill into decent tasting stuff.
FYI, cinnamon sticks are way cheaper if you buy them bulk from someplace like Penzeys. Same with most other spices. The spices you buy in little jars at the supermarket are retarded expensive. But of course, buying more than you need is just a waste because spices do have a limited shelf life.
Anyway, hopefully this will give you some ideas. Cheap drinks don't have to come in 30 packs or plastic bottles.
I don't have any cheap beer recommendations because cheap beer is, IMO, less appetizing than horse piss.
TL,DR: apple pie moonshine, mimosas, infused liquor.
Apple pie moonshine. You need a gallon of apple cider, a gallon of apple juice, a bottle of everclear 190 proof, sugar, and cinnamon sticks. This is a good recipe. I put it in mason jars while it's still hot, usually it seals the lids but that's not really important. You can drink it warm or cold. I prefer drinking it chilled after letting it age for a few months, it gets smoother with time, but you can drink it right away and it's still quite good. The last jar I drank was about 6 months old, and it was the best alcoholic drink I've ever had. Alcohol content is like a strong wine, it's not as strong as people say but it's very easy to drink a lot. I'll go through a quart myself when I have guests over for dinner no problem. Total cost for the 9 quarts is maybe $33, which is like buying eleven $3 bottles of wine. This is the best bang for my buck I've found so far, but it gets old drinking the same thing all the time.
I'm a big fan of mimosas. Find a cheap sparkling white wine you like for around $7-8, mix equal parts with orange juice, voila. I add grenadine to mine. Figure 1.5 liters for $12, pretty decent. I think I settled on Cook's Extra Dry for my mimosa recipe. Of course there are dozens of variations mixing different combinations of juices and champagne. The downside to mimosas is when you open a 750ml bottle of sparkling wine, you're committed to drinking a whole pitcher worth of mimosas within a few hours or the wine will go flat and taste disgusting. So, it's best as a social drink unless you want to down 1.5 liters of mimosa in 3 hours by yourself. With a champagne stopper you can keep the carbonation in, but don't expect to keep an open bottle of sparkling wine for more than 24 hours.
You can make a quart of cinnamon whiskey for cheap. Buy a fifth of shitty whiskey, white granular sugar and a few cinnamon sticks. Make a syrup by adding a cup of sugar to a cup of water in a pot and heating it until the sugar is all dissolved. Add the whiskey to the pot with 2-3 cinnamon sticks and heat it all up, but don't get close to boiling. Stir it for awhile until it's well mixed, then let it cool off and store it in a mason jar. It's great warm on winter days, but it's a cheap way to get hammered too. Adding the syrup and cinnamon masks the flavor of the cheap-ass whiskey. I usually use whiskey in the $12-13 fifth range. There are lots of other infused liquor recipes that help turn cheap swill into decent tasting stuff.
FYI, cinnamon sticks are way cheaper if you buy them bulk from someplace like Penzeys. Same with most other spices. The spices you buy in little jars at the supermarket are retarded expensive. But of course, buying more than you need is just a waste because spices do have a limited shelf life.
Anyway, hopefully this will give you some ideas. Cheap drinks don't have to come in 30 packs or plastic bottles.
I don't have any cheap beer recommendations because cheap beer is, IMO, less appetizing than horse piss.