Browsing “Cheap Series”

If you were to create a Venn diagram where one circle was labeled “cheap” and the other labeled “awesome”, the middle point where they cross over could be labeled “Vancouver on the Cheap”. In other words, this is a weekly series on things to do and places to go in Vancouver that fall into that magical category of being both cheap and awesome. Got a cheap-living tip you’d like to share? Send it in!

I’ve featured Xua Xua Productions‘ Show and Tell before, and I’m featuring it again, because it’s an awesome event and it is still incredibly cheap. Next Tuesday, May 14th – doors are at 7:30pm and the show begins at 8pm sharp, is another round of show and tell for grown ups.

Vancouver gets a bad rap sometimes for being an unfriendly city. We know deep down that’s not the case – we care about each other and what’s going on in our lives, and its events like this that highlight that fact. Friends and strangers gather to share a little piece of their story, to ask each other questions, and get to know each other more in a positive way. It’s super friendly, super laid-back, and a lot of fun.

It’s also CHEAP because entry is by donation and you can get drinks for only $4. This event is held in a super-cozy chocolate shop (Cocoanymph), and so audiences are very small. Pre-registration is a definite must (do it here). They accept donations as little as $1 to register for a ticket, so really, this is a community event for everyone.

Show and Tell
Tuesday, May 14th at 7:30
Tickets here.

PS: In other Cheap News this weekend, the Firehall Arts Centre is hosting its annual event, BC Buds, a by-donation weekend festival of boundary-pushing theatre. And don’t forget about the Eastside Flea tomorrow!

If you were to create a Venn diagram where one circle was labeled “cheap” and the other labeled “awesome”, the middle point where they cross over could be labeled “Vancouver on the Cheap”. In other words, this is a weekly series on things to do and places to go in Vancouver that fall into that magical category of being both cheap and awesome. Got a cheap-living tip you’d like to share? Send it in!

Most cheapskates in Vancouver already know about the Vancouver Flea Market – that giant warehouse at Terminal Ave. Now there’s a new flea market in town and it’s got a totally different vibe. It’s The Eastside Flea Market.

Once a month at The WISE Hall, The Eastside Flea Market bills itself as “a community flea market”, and chatting with the founders I really got the feeling they meant it. It’s a sort of mix between one of these fancy craft fairs and a giant warehouse filled with goods (some of which may not be that good).

It’s cheap on two counts: entrance is a recommended donation of $1 (score one against those craft fairs!), and naturally, because it’s a flea market, the products are cheaper. Now, because they have a range of vendors and a lot of vintage, hand crafted-type stuff, some things are pricier, but no one can expect to afford everything when they go shopping, and that’s half the fun of a flea market!

It’s also worth noting, that since this flea market is composed of local vendors, most items will also be either second hand/vintage, hand-made, or recycled in some way, which means you get exemption from the ethical cheapskate’s dilemma: cheap and probably made with zero ethics, or expensive and ethical. It seems like the majority of products you find here will fall into that magical category of cheap (or at least affordable) and ethical. Beautiful!

Here’s the result of my quick Q&A with Jill and Linda, founders and operators of the market.

How did the Eastside Flea Market begin?

The concept for The Eastside Flea began when we were inspired by the success of the Brooklyn Flea in New York, and the growing popularity of modern, community-based flea markets across North America. The operators of the Brooklyn Flea saw New York City’s cultural community take a hit with the closure of several Manhattan local markets in 2008. Since then, they have grown the Brooklyn Flea into an inclusive community event providing economic stimulus to the vendors, entrepreneurs, and local businesses. There are clear similarities between their story and the current impact development is having on Vancouver’s Arts and Cultural communities. Shortly after the closing of the Waldorf was announced, we were hanging out one Sunday afternoon and talking
about my longtime vision for a Vancouver market that was based loosely on the Brooklyn Flea – something that could be a destination for everyone in the community. We decided to go for it and started planning right then and there!

What are you hoping to achieve with the market?

We really want the Eastside Flea to be a place where people can find great stuff for a great price, and have a great time! There aren’t a lot of affordable options for people to not only vend and sell their wares, but for friends and families to come check out with breaking the bank. The atmosphere of the Flea is fun, easygoing and neighbourly – we want everyone to enjoy themselves!

What kind of vendors will people see?

We really try to have a good mix of vendors at each market, so one Flea is never the same as the one before – vintage clothing, antique and collectibles, craftsmen items (leather and wood work), handmade goods such as soaps and scents, bicycles, and anything else really you’d expect at a community Flea Market.

To quote one of our vendors: “We’ve got everything man, at The Eastside Flea man!”

How cheap are we talking here with the products?

Prices range from less the $1 to about $150, where most vendors are in the $10-$20 area. If some vendors plan to sell at a higher price point, we encourage them to include some lower priced items as well, so people can really check out every booth!

What are you looking for in your vendors?

In the vendors as a whole, we look for diversity – the best thing about a flea market is the anticipation of never knowing what’s going to be there, so we really want to make sure it’s a room to wander. On a more individual basis, we look for vendors who really care about their goods, and the flea market experience in general. It’s nice to be surrounded by people who are also invested in community events and thankfully we’ve managed to find a lot of those.

What should people be sure to do or check out when they come down?

Jill: The Flowers for Food donation flower stand and the Pakora truck outside!

Linda: We have a used bicycle vendor for the first time next week which I’m really stoked on, and we also have a couple youth-run vintage clothing vendors that are giving teens a chance to learn entrepreneurial skills, with goods that are priced to sell!

Anything else you want people to know about the Eastside Flea Market?

We think a lot of people don’t realize how easy it is to set up a table and sell some of their extra stuff hanging around the house. At our first market, one of the busiest booths was two ladies who shared a booth, cleaned out their storage locker and were just selling old tools, lamps, extension cords, you name it! The added element of garage sale tables really let’s everyone participate.

Also, don’t be afraid to haggle on the price! Many of our vendors expect customers to try and get a deal, so don’t be turned off if the sticker price isn’t what you’d like to pay – make them a reasonable offer and you might just get what you want.

The Eastside Flea Market
Saturday, May 11th, 9am-3:30pm
The WISE Hall

If you were to create a Venn diagram where one circle was labeled “cheap” and the other labeled “awesome”, the middle point where they cross over could be labeled “Vancouver on the Cheap”. In other words, this is a weekly series on things to do and places to go in Vancouver that fall into that magical category of being both cheap and awesome. Got a cheap-living tip you’d like to share? Send it in!

Alright folks, I honestly never thought I’d be writing a Vancouver on the Cheap post about a Donnelly pub, but all my preconceived notions were smacked aside the other day when I was walking down Broadway and saw this sign in front of The Academic:

There are two things to notice here: $7 weekend brunch AND $8 daily lunch special. I snapped a photo of the sign so I wouldn’t forget this deal, and then quickly made plan for an afternoon meetup on the patio to investigate further.

I went on a Thursday afternoon, so the weekend brunch was out, and I was too late for lunch, so that deal was out too. It was a sunny afternoon and I was sitting on a patio, so I wanted a beer. I asked about specials and lo and behold, $2 “sliders” were available. What’s a slider, you ask? It’s an itty-bitty 10-oz. beer. Normally I would scoff at the 10 oz. beer, but do a little math: two sliders and you’ve got a proper pint, and you’ve only paid $4! Deal. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

If you were to create a Venn diagram where one circle was labeled “cheap” and the other labeled “awesome”, the middle point where they cross over could be labeled “Vancouver on the Cheap”. In other words, this is a weekly series on things to do and places to go in Vancouver that fall into that magical category of being both cheap and awesome.

I’ve already featured a couple of cheap sushi places on here, because cheap sushi is plentiful in Vancouver and truly one of the best ways to get a meal and save some cash (as long as you don’t get too carried away, of course). It’s time, however, to forget everything you thought you knew about cheap sushi. This is the kicker.

Sakuranbo Sushi. It’s on South Granville. WAY South Granville – at Granville and 64th. Far away, right? So worth the trek, no matter what part of Vancouver you live in. They have a menu of 5 items for $7.99! Really, really, I’m not kidding, really. 5 items. 8 bucks. It’s a steal!

Here’s the other shocker: we saw the price, we saw the list, and we made the natural assumption that we would be getting little mini-sized versions of everything.

Not so.
…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

If you were to create a Venn diagram where one circle was labeled “cheap” and the other labeled “awesome”, the middle point where they cross over could be labeled “Vancouver on the Cheap”. In other words, this is a weekly series on things to do and places to go in Vancouver that fall into that magical category of being both cheap and awesome. Got a cheap-living tip you’d like to share? Send it in!

Being that I am a curmudgeon when it comes to paying full price for things (usually the sale price is what I think things should cost in the first place), my friends have to put up with a lot of “do you remember when this only cost a dollar?”-type comments. One that never stops getting me going is the movies. Because I still have vivid memories of my Mom giving me $5 to go to the movies with my friend and that would cover my admission and my popcorn!

No more, now going to the movies is a full-on, $20 minimum-type affair (if you require popcorn, which I do.) Unless! (And there is an unless!) Unless, you go on cheap night. You see, they tried to take cheap night away some time ago, but then everyone got so angry at paying admission costs that were almost the same as live theatre, they had to bring it back.

A quick round-up of your cheap movie options in Vancouver:

The Rio Theatre: Cheap Date Monday & Tuesdays and Midnight Specials

Not only did it win its infamous battle to sell alcohol, play live music, and movies, but it’s got some great prices to go with the really cool events. When it comes to movies, they play first run Hollywood blockbusters as well as the occasional indie or cult classic. Their regular ticket price is $12, but on Mondays and Tuesdays you can get in for a mere $6. Then there’s the Friday night midnight showings of cult classics for $8, with $1 off if you come in costume! These aren’t every single Friday, so don’t just show up and hedge your bets. Check the schedule, keeping in mind that as an independently run single-theatre house they don’t always know what’s going on too far in advance.

To add to the deals, if you pay $10 to get a lifetime membership, you get $2 off movies and free popcorn and pop refills.

Cineplex – Cheap Tuesdays

Not to be left out, movie giant Cineplex also has cheap Tuesdays, or as they call them “Cineplex Tuesdays“. According to the website you get an unspecified discount off their regular price tickets. Going to Les Misérables on Tuesday night my roommate and I got our tickets for $8 – a totally worthwhile investment. Plus, if you have a Scene Card (free!), you get 10% off your tickets every time, including on Tuesdays. Plus discounted snacks and points towards free movies down the line. Pretty worthwhile, if you are okay with trading in some of your privacy (we all know that these membership rewards programs only exist so they can track your purchases and market to you more effectively) for a deal. I know I am.

Sadly I pre-wrote this post a while ago when Festival Cinemas was its own entity. Now it’s a part of the Cineplex conglomerate, which could be okay since they’ve promised to keep showing the same kinds of movies, but it does mean that they don’t get their own shout out for the cheap movie nights. On the upside, Cineplex’s cheap Tuesday price is actually cheaper than Festival Cinemas’ was, so there’s always that!

Also worth noting is The Church at the Hollywood. Remember that gorgeous old Hollywood Theatre on Broadway and Balaclava that closed many years back? Well, now it’s run by a church that has completely maintained the space and occasionally holds cultural events, including screening classic films, by donation! They aren’t regular events, so you’ve got to check the community page on their website to keep abreast of what’s going on.

If you were to create a Venn diagram where one circle was labeled “cheap” and the other labeled “awesome”, the middle point where they cross over could be labeled “Vancouver on the Cheap”. In other words, this is a weekly series on things to do and places to go in Vancouver that fall into that magical category of being both cheap and awesome. Got a cheap-living tip you’d like to share? Send it in!

Every once and a while, it’s nice to get have someone else help you get a little more beautiful, right? Not that we aren’t all unique snowflakes, each beautiful in our own way, but that doesn’t mean we don’t occasionally want to step it up a bit. Spa treatments, including manicures, pedicures, waxing, tinting, and facials: these are what I’m talking about. I wouldn’t do any of these things on a regular basis, but they can be nice treats! Sadly, they also tend to be pricey treats.

Well, there is a solution, and luckily that solution isn’t melting sugar on your stove and trying to rip it off your leg with a piece of scrap fabric you found in a pile under your bed. Instead, that solution is John Casablanca’s Body Spa.

First of all, yes, I am recommending you have students wax, pluck, tint, and paint your precious body. And just to prove I’m serious about this, I went for it: I went in for a 1/2 leg wax and an eyelash tint. That’s right, I had a student rip hair out of my body and put dye right around my eyes. Why? Because, dear reader, I care about you, and I couldn’t truly recommend getting students to give you spa treatments if I’d wussed out with a manicure (they are far too easily reversible and thus elicit almost no pain or regret). I risked hair follicle and, let’s be honest, my powers of sight, to see if getting beauty treatments from students is really worth it. Spoiler alert: it is!

The procedure felt almost identical to being in an honest-to-goodness spa, with a few notable exceptions:

1) It took longer. This was the main drawback: I was there for 1.5 hours for my two treatments, and we had to rush at the end. If you don’t have a lot of time, this might not be the best bet for you, especially since they seem to only be open during regular working hours.

2) There was an instructor checking in every once and a while. This is a good thing, but of course, doesn’t happen in a fancy spa.

3) The environment was a little more institutional, a little less zen. They did still have private, curtained-off areas for treatments, so you definitely had privacy (minus the instructor check-ins), just no soft colours and untreated wood finishes to add to that calm-factor. Really though, all the equipment and products were also right up there with anything I’ve seen in my limited spa experience, they just didn’t have the fancy-pants decor and pleasant fragrances floating through the air at all times.

4) Perhaps because my esthetician was a student, I felt much more comfortable asking questions than I might in a normal spa. Since I’d never had an eyelash tint done before, I did have some questions in the process, but she knew what she was talking about and answered them all, explaining everything as we went. I certainly felt like I was in good hands.

5) The price! A 1/2 leg wax is $12, and I’ve never seen it for less than $20 anywhere else. The lash tint is $11, and again, a little research tells me that’s generally at least $18-20 as well. Other prices are great as well: manicures are $14, a mani/pedi combo is $32, facials are $30, the list goes on.

The nail area at John Casablanca’s.

Now, I’ll admit that these prices are higher than my general philosophy of $10 or less for Vancouver on the Cheap posts. The reason this makes the cut is because spa treatments are totally voluntary bonuses on every day life, and this really is the cheapest deal you’ll find if you’re not into doing it yourself.

If you’re concerned about putting yourself in the hands of students, I can confidently say that you needn’t fret. They practice on themselves and each other first to make sure they know what they’re doing, are really knowledgable about the procedures (maybe even more so, since all the detailed knowledge is fresh in their minds, as opposed to long-forgotten with bad habits picked up after years on the job), and are very careful. I really felt well taken care of, and the only major difference was the time spent on basic procedures – that’s what tips you off that these are students, not professionals.

The only other thing to keep in mind is that they don’t offer all services all the time. It’s not until a class has learned a service that it’s offered, so if you have something a little more “deluxe” that you’re after, you may not be able to get it whenever you want.

Check out the John Casablanca’s website for more details on pricing and scheduling an appointment. (Heads up: the website’s flash so I can’t link directly to the spa page. Click “Menu”, “Body Spa”, then the cover of the magazine, and “Spa Menu” to find the info you’re looking for. And yes, this is why flash websites are the worst.)

John Casablanca’s Body Spa
220 Cambie Street

NOTE! Vancouver on the Cheap will be on a temporary hiatus for the next month-and-some, making a triumphant return on Friday, April 5th. Thanks for your understanding, and feel free to keep sending me any cheap-living tips you’ve got between now and then.