This week Partying

1 Cut-price clothes: it’s never been easier to buy your party frocks for less with the amount of second-hand shops offering top quality designer clothes at bargain basement prices increasing rapidly as people try to off-load ill-advised purchases and find alternatives for less. There’s the Swap Shop in Temple Bar, which allows people to trade in their old clothes for new (to them) ones, and Wear It Again on Baggot Street, which sells a range of high-end clothes for half nothing, to name just two.

2 Champagne alternatives: back in the day when we somewhat foolishly convinced ourselves that we were the untouchable gods of capitalism, overpriced champagne flowed like water at Christmas parties. Not any more, this year it’s all about the much cheaper – and sometimes nicer – spumante and cava. A good quality bottle of either can almost certainly be found in your local off-licence or supermarket for less than €10.

3 Designated driving: one of the best ways to party on the cheap is to become the designated driver. It costs virtually nothing and you wake up the following morning with a head clear of hangovers and horrors.

4 Babysitting co-operative: babysitters command rates of around €10 an hour in most parts of the country which can add hundreds to the Christmas party bill for people with young children. Try and organise a babysitter co-op among your friends and family. You babysit for nothing for a couple of nights and in return get a couple of nights out yourself on the cheap.

5 Afternoon sessions: arrange to meet up with friends and family in the afternoons as opposed to the evenings. The restaurants cost less, the bars will be less full and you will be less inclined to get intolerably drunk.