So if you'll serve I'll be on my way
May. 23rd, 2005 11:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ventaIn recent months, I've been trying to save money a little. The nasty downside of this is that I've had to spend less. Spending less means I can't buy myself a new album just because I fancy it, or something new to wear just because I see it in a shop.
As a result, I've been trying to find new, low-budget ways to entertain myself. Just in case anyone else is in a similar situation, I present:
So far, my top recommendation is something that probably won't come as a surprise to many: if you buy them the week they're released, a 7" single costs (in general) just 99p. It's some time since I rediscovered the delights of vinyl, and it's taken me a little longer to remember about singles. Obviously, this option is no Fun if you don't have easy access to a record player.
So, what do you get for your 99p ? Well, a 7" plastic disc and around two songs, or course. Which is, of course, a reasonably good deal in itself. It's cheaper than you'd get from iTunes, and you get to satisfy the sneaky capitalist streak most people have which makes them enjoy handing over money in exchange for a new and shiny object.
A couple of weeks ago, I bought the Hard-Fi single Tied Up Too Tight. I got a single I liked. I got an extremely bright yellow 7". I got a cover ofThe White Stripes' Seven Nation Army on the flip side. That's a pretty good deal for 99p.
More recently, I bought The Secret Machines' The Road Leads Where It's Led. As I often do, I'd remembered the name Secret Machines and filed it for further checking without actually remembering anything about them - including what the song sounded like. So, I slid the record out when I got home and was immediately surprised to find that one side of it was blank - completely smooth black plastic. Which left me with the dilemma of what speed to play it at - there were no markings, so I opted for 45.
... and I heard a quite fast, high-pitched song which centered around the lyric "...blowing all the other kids away". It seemed interesting enough. Later, it dawned on me that fast and highpitched = should have been played at 33, so had another go. The one lyric I remembered was nowhere to be heard. I tried again, listening carefully. Nope, played at 33 there was only one song on the record, and it didn't contain that line. I began to make signs against witchcraft.
A fourth or fifth attempt suddenly revealed the truth - both the single and the B-side are on the same side of the record, on concentric grooves. When you put the needle down, it's pure chance which song you hear. An interesting idea, though The Secret Machines have probably annoyed DJs up and down the land. However, you've got to admit they provide a lot of Fun for under a quid.
If you're like me, you get through a lot of books. This means either keeping the likes of Borders in business practically single-handed, or parasiting off friends who do that. I'm increasingly disappointed in the second-hand bookshops round Oxford; they seem to me to be too expensive to have the fun of browsing and buying things on the off-chance. 2/3 of the original price may be reasonable for a paperback in good nick, but it's not what I want from a second-hand bookshop.
My solution to this is to browse the odd rack or shelf of second hand books to be found in most charity shops. Not Oxfam - their books are always pricey - but most others seem to aim low in the hopes of shifting stock. The racks are usually full of dubious out-of-date non-fiction, or Cookson-esque sagas aimed at the blue-rinse brigade. However, all is not lost. For around 70-80p you can usually get yourself a charity shop whodunnit, which is ideal. Whodunnits are, in general, inherently disposable items. Most are fairly inferior, and are something you'd only want to read once. So read 'em, give 'em back; you get your Fun and they don't even need to take up any space on your shelves at home. If you have discovered one of the odd gems, then hurrah, a great book for 80p - and you should tell me about it, too :)
If you're of the frivolous and slightly vain persuasion, then somewhere like Superdrug will provide you with one or two individual sachets of face mask or similar visage-enhacing goop. Even fairly luxurious brands are often under a quid when sold in bite-sized quantities.
Admittedly, that sort of thing is unlikely to be to everyone's taste, but if it appeals, then why not ? They come in all kinds of varities, with professed different properties, different life-affiriming claims and different random fruit extracts. And even if you're not particularly into pampering yourself - you've got to admit that a licence to smear mud all over your face is definitely Fun.
For well under 99p you can buy a picture postcard of your local area (or somewhere more exotic) and a stamp, and send someone a postcard. If the idea of posting daft things, silly limericks or just a quick sketch of your day doesn't sound like Fun, then think of the long-term investments. If you write to someone, they might write back - and hey, three weeks later you get an entirely unexpected slice of Fun dropping through your door.
Similarly, most landlines will let you (especially on a weekend) have a fair old chat for 99p or under. So call someone you wouldn't ordinarily call for a chat - phone your mum, tell her what you've been up to and listen to what she's been doing. Phone a friend you haven't seen in months, or call an elderly relative who'd love to hear from you.
If you live near an amusement arcade (of the seaside kind, not the Noble's kind) you can have up-to-98p fun by changing your money into tuppences and playing on the tuppeny falls. Actually, if you live in London, the Trocadero has a reasonable variety of tuppeny games. You can spin 50p's worth of tuppences into really quite a long playing time on a set of tuppeny falls, and get a bizarre sense of achievement when you manage to win 14p back in one go. I believe![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
keris and I once managed to kill over an hour in this way (while waiting for a train) with just 50p each.
Since it currently isn't the season, and I don't live near a specialist shop, I've not been able to track down how much a packet of small sparklers would cost. I suspect it might be under a pound (looking at prices online for large sparklers and extrapolating). And really, everyone with even an ounce of sense loves sparklers. Combine with a friend or two and some form of hot drink, and you've got a guaranteed half hour or so of Fun in the garden. A daylight (and even cheaper) alternative is a bottle of bubble mix.
Once you start considering food, there are a whole range of Fun things to be had. I'll stick with just listing one for now: about 70-80p will buy you a bag of chocolate buttons and a couple of bananas, allowing you to make chocolatey baked bananas. Slit your banana (in its skin) lengthwise, but don't cut completely in half. Stuff with buttons, wrap in foil, and bake in a hottish oven for 10-15 minutes. This is, of course, much, much more Fun if you have somewhere you can build a small fire and cook them in the ashes round the edge.
Does anyone have suggestions to add ? Here are the criteria I was applying to what was a suitable candidate to appear in the 99p Fun Guide:
As a result, I've been trying to find new, low-budget ways to entertain myself. Just in case anyone else is in a similar situation, I present:
Elizabeth's Guide to 99p Fun
So far, my top recommendation is something that probably won't come as a surprise to many: if you buy them the week they're released, a 7" single costs (in general) just 99p. It's some time since I rediscovered the delights of vinyl, and it's taken me a little longer to remember about singles. Obviously, this option is no Fun if you don't have easy access to a record player.
So, what do you get for your 99p ? Well, a 7" plastic disc and around two songs, or course. Which is, of course, a reasonably good deal in itself. It's cheaper than you'd get from iTunes, and you get to satisfy the sneaky capitalist streak most people have which makes them enjoy handing over money in exchange for a new and shiny object.
A couple of weeks ago, I bought the Hard-Fi single Tied Up Too Tight. I got a single I liked. I got an extremely bright yellow 7". I got a cover ofThe White Stripes' Seven Nation Army on the flip side. That's a pretty good deal for 99p.
More recently, I bought The Secret Machines' The Road Leads Where It's Led. As I often do, I'd remembered the name Secret Machines and filed it for further checking without actually remembering anything about them - including what the song sounded like. So, I slid the record out when I got home and was immediately surprised to find that one side of it was blank - completely smooth black plastic. Which left me with the dilemma of what speed to play it at - there were no markings, so I opted for 45.
... and I heard a quite fast, high-pitched song which centered around the lyric "...blowing all the other kids away". It seemed interesting enough. Later, it dawned on me that fast and highpitched = should have been played at 33, so had another go. The one lyric I remembered was nowhere to be heard. I tried again, listening carefully. Nope, played at 33 there was only one song on the record, and it didn't contain that line. I began to make signs against witchcraft.
A fourth or fifth attempt suddenly revealed the truth - both the single and the B-side are on the same side of the record, on concentric grooves. When you put the needle down, it's pure chance which song you hear. An interesting idea, though The Secret Machines have probably annoyed DJs up and down the land. However, you've got to admit they provide a lot of Fun for under a quid.
If you're like me, you get through a lot of books. This means either keeping the likes of Borders in business practically single-handed, or parasiting off friends who do that. I'm increasingly disappointed in the second-hand bookshops round Oxford; they seem to me to be too expensive to have the fun of browsing and buying things on the off-chance. 2/3 of the original price may be reasonable for a paperback in good nick, but it's not what I want from a second-hand bookshop.
My solution to this is to browse the odd rack or shelf of second hand books to be found in most charity shops. Not Oxfam - their books are always pricey - but most others seem to aim low in the hopes of shifting stock. The racks are usually full of dubious out-of-date non-fiction, or Cookson-esque sagas aimed at the blue-rinse brigade. However, all is not lost. For around 70-80p you can usually get yourself a charity shop whodunnit, which is ideal. Whodunnits are, in general, inherently disposable items. Most are fairly inferior, and are something you'd only want to read once. So read 'em, give 'em back; you get your Fun and they don't even need to take up any space on your shelves at home. If you have discovered one of the odd gems, then hurrah, a great book for 80p - and you should tell me about it, too :)
If you're of the frivolous and slightly vain persuasion, then somewhere like Superdrug will provide you with one or two individual sachets of face mask or similar visage-enhacing goop. Even fairly luxurious brands are often under a quid when sold in bite-sized quantities.
Admittedly, that sort of thing is unlikely to be to everyone's taste, but if it appeals, then why not ? They come in all kinds of varities, with professed different properties, different life-affiriming claims and different random fruit extracts. And even if you're not particularly into pampering yourself - you've got to admit that a licence to smear mud all over your face is definitely Fun.
For well under 99p you can buy a picture postcard of your local area (or somewhere more exotic) and a stamp, and send someone a postcard. If the idea of posting daft things, silly limericks or just a quick sketch of your day doesn't sound like Fun, then think of the long-term investments. If you write to someone, they might write back - and hey, three weeks later you get an entirely unexpected slice of Fun dropping through your door.
Similarly, most landlines will let you (especially on a weekend) have a fair old chat for 99p or under. So call someone you wouldn't ordinarily call for a chat - phone your mum, tell her what you've been up to and listen to what she's been doing. Phone a friend you haven't seen in months, or call an elderly relative who'd love to hear from you.
If you live near an amusement arcade (of the seaside kind, not the Noble's kind) you can have up-to-98p fun by changing your money into tuppences and playing on the tuppeny falls. Actually, if you live in London, the Trocadero has a reasonable variety of tuppeny games. You can spin 50p's worth of tuppences into really quite a long playing time on a set of tuppeny falls, and get a bizarre sense of achievement when you manage to win 14p back in one go. I believe
keris and I once managed to kill over an hour in this way (while waiting for a train) with just 50p each. Since it currently isn't the season, and I don't live near a specialist shop, I've not been able to track down how much a packet of small sparklers would cost. I suspect it might be under a pound (looking at prices online for large sparklers and extrapolating). And really, everyone with even an ounce of sense loves sparklers. Combine with a friend or two and some form of hot drink, and you've got a guaranteed half hour or so of Fun in the garden. A daylight (and even cheaper) alternative is a bottle of bubble mix.
Once you start considering food, there are a whole range of Fun things to be had. I'll stick with just listing one for now: about 70-80p will buy you a bag of chocolate buttons and a couple of bananas, allowing you to make chocolatey baked bananas. Slit your banana (in its skin) lengthwise, but don't cut completely in half. Stuff with buttons, wrap in foil, and bake in a hottish oven for 10-15 minutes. This is, of course, much, much more Fun if you have somewhere you can build a small fire and cook them in the ashes round the edge.
Does anyone have suggestions to add ? Here are the criteria I was applying to what was a suitable candidate to appear in the 99p Fun Guide:
- Must be Fun :)
- Must cost 1p or more, but no more than 99p
Yes, there are loads of things which don't cost money. And many of them are also Fun. But that's a different category of thing - Shouldn't require an initial outlay of more than 99p either
So no having Fun twice for £1.50 ;) - Shouldn't require another person
A lot of my things would be more Fun with company, but don't actually rely on it.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-05-23 11:01 pm (UTC)Wow, neat trick. Wish I'd thought of it!
Since you can play vinyl, it is now obvious what I should send you in return for the mix CD you sent me (appreciated, by the way): the EP I was involved in producing when I was 17. I'm still not entirely embarrassed by it.
I wonder what the best way of posting 7" vinyl is...
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 08:40 am (UTC)-give it to me at E-J's party (if you're going) and I'll send it through a chain of goths, although this will take far longer.
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 10:12 am (UTC)I'll give first class post a go and see if they manage not to break it in a standard 7"-wide envelope. (If they do it's not a disaster - I still have nearly 100 copies...)
no subject
Date: 2005-05-24 06:13 pm (UTC)Hmm... since the mix CD was in return for the magazines you sent me, I can see us getting trapped in a spiralling wotsit of gratitude at this rate :)
Still... I'd be intrigued to hear it. You're quite a multitalented chap, aren't you ?
no subject
Date: 2005-05-25 01:16 am (UTC)You may not think that after you've heard it...
Making it was fun. We had recorded the tracks earlier in the year (for an album which I might still have somewhere on tape); James then found out that we could get vinyl made for not too much money! The catch was that they wanted the master copy to be on DAT, and in 1991 DAT was the mysterious new tape technology that nobody had yet (instead of being, as it is now, the mysterious old tape technology that nobody ever actually used).
We eventually managed to find a friend-of-a-friend who had a portable DAT recorder that we were able to borrow for a weekend; I borrowed the four-track tape deck from school so that we could make a new mix from our four-track master. Everything was going fine - we had finished, and just wanted to listen / copy one last time to check that it was all ok.
It failed to play.
DAT is a helical scan system (like VHS) and when these go wrong they tend to do nasty things to the tape. Our nice DAT master was crinkled regularly along its entire length. We had to throw it away (actually, I put it away in a drawer and still have it somewhere) and do it all again, much more quickly.
Musicians have it easy these days with digital recording and mixing. When I were a lad...
By Jove it's not Kingmaker!
Date: 2005-05-26 09:46 pm (UTC)Isn't the postal system great ? This arrived yesterday morning in, which delighted me.
I haven't listened properly yet because the phono channel on my amp has decided it wants to keep dropping out (and my laptop battery's died, and the front's fallen off the DVD player, and my car's packed in, and I've just had to jury rig the cistern back together... it's a good week so far).
Thank you - and for the tale of making it. More detailed report when I've bludgeoned the amp into submission :)
Re: By Jove it's not Kingmaker!
Date: 2005-05-27 01:56 am (UTC)Ooh, lucky you.
We have our own take on The Wedding Present too, which I do actually have as a .ogg (by virtue of it being included on a 1998 CD of Wedding Present covers). That's another story, but suffice it to say jAmES is an excellent publicist.