Socialise on a shoestring, get free massages, and become fiscally fit. Orla O'Sullivanadvises on living it up on the cheap
DINE OUT FOR A SONG
First, to food. Most people know Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud by reputation. You might assume that Guilbaud's and other top spots are just too expensive to try. Actually, three of the restaurants rated among Dublin's top five by critics Tom Doorley and Trevor White offer special menus for €35. Guilbaud's and L'Ecrivain have a weekday set lunch at that price, for two courses.
Another budget dining option, especially for those under too much pressure at lunchtime, is the three-course dinner at Chapter One, which the Bridgestone Guide 2007 rates as Ireland's most romantic restaurant. Chapter One's pre-theatre menu (€32.50) recently featured entrées such as roast rabbit with butternut squash risotto and gremolata. Last orders are taken at 6.30pm.
TO DRINK (CHEAPLY), OR NOT TO DRINK
Booze often undoes a budget outing. One way to avoid battling with your self-restraint is to go to events where alcohol is not the priority. Lyric FM's Blue of the Night show hosts occasional free listener concerts; a recent one in Dublin's Sugar Club featured hot newcomer Julie Feeney.
At the salsa nights attended by Dublin tax specialist Carmel Coen in the Garda Club on Harrington Street, Dublin 8, hardly anyone drinks. "They're so thirsty they just drink the water lined up on the bar." For €9.50 Coen gets her exercise done, and a great buzz from a salsa class at 7pm, followed by dancing till late. The €5 tango nights in Samsara on Dawson Street, Dublin 2 also cater to those who'd like to buy two cocktails for the price of one (www.Dublintango.8m.com).
BURN THE BLUBBER NOT THE CASH
Burn your blubber in the Markiewicz fitness centre and pool near Dublin's Tara Street train station for a flat fee of €5 per swim or workout. Or drop into classes at the Aungier Street's YMCA, where they cost from €5, or €25 a month, while you gauge whether you'll stick with your resolve to slim down and firm up.
BUDGET BEAUTY
Training schools, such as the VEC Senior College, Dún Laoghaire, need people to hone their skills on. I've been coated in cosmetic chocolate, massaged with hot stones, had my eyelashes tinted and my face revived. All for free, provided you're available to attend during the day. Once-off is okay for some treatments, while others, including electrolysis, require commitment to a course of treatments. Hairdressing schools often offer similarly discounted services.
HAVE AN ART ATTACK
If your thoughts on self-improvement are more cerebral than corporeal, you might be drawn to art-house films in the Irish Film Institute. Having membership of the IFI offers big savings. For €20 a year, you get to see 12 free films (worth €96) and 10 per cent off all other films for you and up to three friends. "For anyone who sees more than three films a year, the membership pays for itself," says IFI marketing manager Hugo Jellett.
Frequent movie goers can make unlimited visits to the 17 screening rooms of CineWorld cinemas (formerly UGC), for €17.50 a month. A single CineWorld ticket costs €9.20. Manager John Roberts says just over a quarter of customers avail of the deal. And tickets purchased online for the Savoy or Santry Omniplex in Dublin are €5, about half price, in an ongoing promotion.
PRACTICAL THEATRICS
Some beg off the theatre on claims that it's too expensive, but seats at previews start at €10 at Andrews Lane and Project Arts Centre in Dublin.
More typical preview prices are around half the normal ticket price. For €16.50, I've had the double pleasure of seeing John Hurt and Law and Order's Christopher Meloni in person, and been moved to tears by Eamon Morrissey in The Year of the Hiker at the Gaiety.
More recently, at one of the Abbey's free events, you could have heard Oscar-winning Moonstruck playwright John Patrick Shanley discuss his recent Tony- and Pulitzer-winning play, Doubt. The Abbey has some seats for €15 for all performances, not just previews. Seniors can get into Gate productions for free on Mondays, in the event that not all seats are sold by 7.30pm.
KIDS GO FREE, OR ALMOST
If you have children to entertain on the cheap, follow the lead from Susan Caldwell, a Dublin mother burdened by a hefty mortgage, who has to be creative in entertaining her two children on a budget. "The Hugh Lane Gallery has free sketching classes for kids, while the libraries all have free activities," she says. "We entertain a family of four for €10 in a kids' club deal in Movies At Dundrum," she says. Parents and children get in to early screenings for €2.50 each.
MIND THE PENNIES
Don't undo the good of your bargain hunting by transgressions such as paying booking fees, which at The Gaiety, for example, run to about €4.50 per ticket.
Equally, salsa dancer Carmel Coen laughs as she remembers how her first night of cheap dancing cost her five times her admission price in clamping charges. As with Cinderella, she did not make her midnight deadline.
On daytime runs, the cost of safe parking can be cut by availing of offers of an hour's free parking in some shopping centres, sometimes found on the back of supermarket receipts.
STAYING IN IS THE NEW GOING OUT
Increasingly people bulk-buy their wine, or check out sites such as www.cheapbooze.ie, to keep their drinks cabinet stocked in preparation for entertaining at home at a fraction of the cost of going out.
Stock up for ethnic dinner parties by shopping at Asian food stores, where staples such as rice and vegetables cost much less than in supermarkets.
AND FINALLY
If you're hibernating, buy discounted books at Chapters on Parnell Street, Dublin 1, where John McGahern's memoir is €6.99 versus €11.45 elsewhere, or buy cut-price home entertainment from sites such as www.cd.wow.com.
And don't touch that phone without thinking of the cost. Favour landlines, always call mobiles from mobiles, and suss out a discounted plan with your service provider. On average, we spend over €350 per person per year on mobile calls and almost €500 per household landlines, so talk ain't cheap.
Finally, we won't add to the chorus saying ditch your daily cappuccino, because where's the fun in a totally frill-free life? Just buy your coffee at Butlers Irish chocolate shops and cafes, where a basic, but rich black costing €2.20 includes a praline worth 50 cent. Oh, and did we say that the 10th one is free?