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No Nonsense nuptials part 1

November 9, 2009

It’s a bleary Monday morning, the birds are coughing in the trees and I face the dual dilemmas of planning a No Nonsense wedding and writing about it. To be honest, I’m not sure which task is more intimidating :p.

Photo owned by karindalziel (cc)

Well, since it’s a No Nonsense wedding, the theme here is going to be affordability without sacrificing quality. (I was so pushing for a Doctor Who theme, I mean David Tennant is finishing up, he’d so be free for an appearance! But my fiancé was having none of it…. huh… girls)

I’ve been searching high and low for resources to help me in this endeavour and have found some interesting sites. The best by my estimation has to be The Frugal Bride. While it’s a Canadian site, it is packed full of hints tips and resources to help your wedding go smoothly and without expense. I was thoroughly impressed.

There are also a myriad of lists containing money saving tips for your big day, such as this one at about.com.

For our part we’re trying to keep it simple. We’re going to have a civil ceremony at a hotel, and then the reception in the same hotel. No moving people from a church to a reception, no decorating a church. None of the expenses that come with a church wedding. Of course, Civil weddings don’t suit everyone. We had decided on a civil ceremony long before we thought about saving money, it just happened to suit all our needs.

The wedding party will also be fairly small. Two of my closest friends on my side, her oldest friend and sister on her side. The Guest list….. Well… that’s a monster for another slay. But we’ve taken the first step and we’re on track so far. Will I crack under the pressure? Will my fiancé kill me? Am I going to finish every post with a series of questions?

The answers to none of these questions and more are on the way!

Yours,

The Prudent Groom

Next Time ….. The Venue

Posted in About us, Humour, Saving money | 3 Comments »

The No Nonsense wedding!

November 2, 2009

Observant readers will have noted that I became engaged earlier in the year. About 3 months later (after the shock had worn off), I sat down and began thinking about the wedding. I know some people might think it too soon, but I’ve never been one to sit and wait.

Photo owned by Helga’s Lobster Stew (cc)

So I’m having a wedding….

… Next Year …

… In May.

That’s a little scary… isn’t it? And more than one person has pointed out that this is the worst time economically to have a wedding, but I’m determined (love can do that to you… fear too… might be a correlation there). So here it goes, a No Nonsense wedding. Can I have my big day without a big budget?

Follow me dear readers as I tread that perilous line between a happy bride and a happy bank balance. As I plan out the money saving, bouquet waving, Aisle paving No Nonsense nuptials.

Yours,

The Prudent Groom

Posted in About us, Humour, Saving money | 9 Comments »

Money saving extremes

July 10, 2009

We’re all for saving money here at nononsense, but even we were surprised at some of the extreme measures people will take.

The lendingclub blog has 7 (Slightly Crazy) Ways to save money, they’re all a bit too far for my tastes. Especially the one about unplugging everything… I mean… then how would I blog?

On the slightly more serious side over at early retirement extreme is a list of 25 money saving tips. This site is run by a guy who has achieved financial Independence and semi retirement, at the age of 33, all through saving money and reducing expenses, now that’s quite an achievement. In an especially nerdy moment he recommends using Linux rather than Windows operating systems. A very good idea since Linux is open source and free for anyone to download and use, and mirrors most of Windows functions…. but I’m afraid I’m a little too attached to my copy of XP to part ways just yet.

A little closer to home, just across the channel, lives Captain Frugal and his Money Saving Blog! He takes a humourous look at 30 extreme ways to save money. Personally I’d skip the part about not washing.

And the absolute winner, it has to be said, is Bankrate.com. They’ve compiled a list of 20 of the strangest money saving tips submitted to them. This list comes with the disclaimer “Some are illegal; some could be dangerous to your health. But mostly, they were too much fun to ignore.”

I guess the moral is, that we’re all for saving money, but you can go too far.*

Extreme insurance savings

*Note: Nononsense insurance does not condone the use of golf clubs, or any other piece of sports equipment, for use in financial negotiations. No insurance agents were harmed in the making of this blog.

Posted in Humour, Saving money | 6 Comments »

Cheap affordable restaurants in Dublin: The Italian Corner

June 9, 2009

For this weeks review, we’re going just down the road from Ciao Bella Roma to The Italian Corner. The Italian corner restaurant is located on the corner of Eustace Street and Wellington Key, just at the Millennium bridge. The plastic vines and Italian murals make the decoration seem a little forced, but it is bright open and airy, and the staff were very friendly.

Photo owned by JMRosenfeld (cc)

Myself and my friend settled down at a table by the window, looking out on to the liffey and millennium bridge. The Italian Corner’s Early bird is €14.95 for 2 courses or €18.95 for 3 courses. Certainly a reasonable price, we ordered with hopes of it proving worthwhile.

My friend ordered the Polpette Al Sugo, Italian meatballs in a rich tomato sauce, followed by Carbonara. I went for Insalata Del L’Angelo, a spiced chicken salad, followed by Lasagna.

The starters arrived and I was very impressed with the presentation, even before we ate the dishes looked gorgeous. My friend loved her meatballs, especially the sauce, which I tasted and found full of flavour. My salad was wonderful, the spiced chicken contrasting beautifully with the cool refreshing salad. We each cleaned our plates completely by the time our main courses arrived.

For the main course I was not expecting anything special, as we had both ordered pretty standard fare, I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised. My friend could not resist raving a little about her carbonara, she found it creamy and Delicious. I must say I found my Lasagna equally exqusite. I’m used to lasagna’s being meaty with a deep tomato flavour. This lasagna was smooth and subtle, creamy and soft. It was a delight to eat and I am determined to return and enjoy it again.

In summary, The Italian corner was a taste explosion at a surprisingly affordable price. The menu had a smaller selection than many we’ve seen (No vegetarian options), but the food was absolutely devine.

Price: 8/10

Taste: 8/10

Atmosphere: 7/10

Putting the Italian Corner out in front with a score of 23! So for a great affordable early bird, head to the Italian Corner.

Have you had a bargain Early bird in Dublin City? Is there a restaurant you think we should review? Let us know and we might just give our verdict.

Posted in Saving money, We like | 1 Comment »

Cheap affordable restaurants in Dublin: Ciao Bella Roma

May 19, 2009

This weeks Early bird is from Ciao Bella Roma on Parliament street. I have received numerous recommendations for this restaurant, including one from an actual Italian, so I went with high hopes.

Photo owned by wetwebwork (cc)

We arrived at the restaurant and I have to say I was impressed with the atmosphere, the tables are quite cosy, but the decoration makes you feel warm and welcome. The staff were all italian, as were a lot of the customers, so you definitely feel like you’re among people who know what they’re doing.

We ordered from the weekend special lunch/early bird, and I have to say I was impressed by the selection of main courses available and the price. it was €12.50 for starter, main course and a glass of house wine. Without a doubt this is the most affordable Early bird I have ever partaken of.

My fiancé (did I mention I proposed? no? how could the blog have missed it?) had Bruschetta Mista and Penne Caprese, while I had Crostino al Frosciutto and a Cotto Pizza. The starters arrived quite quickly, along with our wine, which was quite nice. My fiancé was impressed with her bruschetta (and it being her favourite starter, that says a lot). My Crostino al Frosciutto (bread toasted with mozzarella and parma ham) was superb. I am not usually a fan of parma ham, but I thought the dish sounded nice and I was proved right. The saltiness of the parma went perfectly with the Mozzarella to create a mouth watering starter.

Our main courses did take a while to arrive, to the point of annoyance, and for me personally it was a slight disappointment. My pizza (mozzarella, basil and baked ham) was a little undercooked, surprising considering it had taken so long. However this may have been to do with my celtic tastes, as I have been assured on previous occasions that what I call undercooked, italians call perfect.

My fiancé loved her main, which was pasta with fresh tomatoes, basil and mozzarella, they had even used tagliatelle instead of penne as she requested. Were we to return, I think I would try one of the pasta or meat dishes rather than the pizza.

In summery, Ciao Bella Roma certainly seems to be one of the most affordable restaurants in Dublin, and though it wasn’t the best food I have ever tasted, it certainly was surprisingly good for the price.

Price: 9/10

Taste: 6/10

Atmosphere: 7/10

Leaving Ciao Bella Roma with an overall score of 22/30 … Tying it with Toscana.

Unfortunately Ciao Bella Roma don’t have a copy of their early bird online, but if people are curious, I can always post it here.

Don’t forget to check back, as I’ll be reviewing more restaurants around Dublin, trying to find the best deal on a meal.

Posted in Saving money, We like | 9 Comments »

Cheap affordable restaurants in Dublin

April 24, 2009

My Girlfriend likes to eat out. Don’t get me wrong, I like to eat out too, I just don’t like having to pay. So lately I’ve been trying to find a happy medium, somewhere to bring her where it feels like a treat and she can enjoy herself, but that doesn’t leave me with empty wallet syndrome.

Photo owned by Geoff604 (cc)

As every good gastronome knows, with this kind of search, early birds are your friend. So I’m going to sample some of the early birds available in Dublin city centre, to see if I can’t have my meal and eat it too.

This week, I’m reviewing Toscana on Dame St. An inconspicuous little restaurant, Toscana has been one of my favourite restaurants for years. Their food is full of flavour, with portions big enough for any appetite, but how does their Early Bird compare?

The Early bird menu fit’s onto one page. It’s 17.95 for starter and a main course, or 20.95 if you want dessert as well. It’s quite a nice selection with chicken, beef, fish and vegetarian dishes. I went for the Suppli, followed by Tagliatelle alla Toscana ( chicken and Tagliatelle in a white wine and coriander sauce).

The starter comprised of two pieces of suppli with garlic dip and a small side salad. The suppli was divine, the crisp breadcrumb contrasting with the melting mozzarella, and the sauce complimenting the flavours. Nothing was left on my plate.

My main course took a while to arrive, as can sometimes happen in Toscana as it is a very busy restaurant, but to be honest I needed the time to prepare my appetite. When my main arrived it was on a large plate and seemed (in my imagination) to be served by an aunt who thought I needed feeding up. The sauce was creamy and full of flavour, the chicken succulent, each and every mouthful was savoured. I have to say I was very full at the finish, but oh so happy.

There was no way I was going to fit in dessert, I think you would have to have quite the hearty appetite to go for the 3 course option. Apart from the food, the atmosphere was lovely, with soft lighting and Italian music in the background. While it is one of the dearer early birds I have sampled, the food is some of the best I have ever tasted.

Price: 5/10

Taste 9/10

Atmosphere: 8/10

Leaving Toscana with an overall score of 22/30

If you want to have a look at Toscana’s Early bird, you can view it here

Don’t forget to check back, as I’ll be reviewing more restaurants around Dublin, trying to find the best deal on a meal.

Posted in Saving money, We like | Comments Off

The cheapest hot chocolate, or the best hot chocolate?

March 27, 2009

Trying economic times have led me to give up much, but there are a few luxuries that I refuse to relinquish, one of them being a nice hot chocolate.

Photo owned by dan taylor (cc)

But I’ve been thinking, I shop around for everything else, why shouldn’t I shop around for my one last luxury?
So I decided to do an analysis of all my possible ports of call for a Grande Hot Chocolate. Who is the cheapest? Is this necessarily a good thing? Lets find out:

McCafe (Kylemore) – There is a 24 hour McDonald’s just round the corner from our office. Top marks for convenience. The McCafe doesn’t provide the best Hot Chocolate I’ve ever tasted, but it is good and (equally important) consistent. At €2.90 it is also the cheapest of all the Hot Chocolates I surveyed.

Convenience: 9/10 (I mean, it’s not actually BESIDE my desk, right?)

Taste: 6/10

Price: 9/10 ( well it’s not Free.. is it?)

McCafe Score: 24/30

Starbucks (Dame Street) – I usually avoid Starbucks. This may be due to watching too much foamy the squirrel, but determined to give every coffee house its chance, I ventured into Starbucks Dame St. Immediately I hit upon my first problem. Even before I figured out what the hell a ‘Venti’ is, I had to decide what TYPE of Hot Chocolate I wanted! They have Classic (€3.40), Speciality(€4.30), Caramel(€4.80) and Hazelnut (€4.80). I went for Caramel, with a sweet tooth I thought it might be the best one for me. My Caramel Hot Chocolate was almost bitter, with a disturbingly long after taste. To me it felt like Hot Chocolate trying to be Coffee, it was also the most expensive of all the Coffee houses. I don’t think I’ll be returning

Convenience: 4/10

Taste: 3/10

Price: 2/10

Starbucks Score total: 9/30

Insomnia (Jervis Street Luas Stop) – With the Luas right outside work and Insomnia right beside the Jervis Luas stop, they score fairly high for convenience. They let themselves down on taste though. While I have had some amazing Hot Chocolates there, I’ve had some horrible ones too, and I need consistency. Also at €3.40 it’s just as expensive as a Starbucks Classic.

Convenience: 7/10

Taste: 6/10

Price: 4/10

Insomnia Score: 17/30

Coffee Society (Liffey st) - I left the best for last, this used to be my favourite hangout, I’d head into town after work and relax on one of the couches with a book and a good Hot Chocolate, and they are Good! Coffee Society top the Poll for consistently good Hot Chocolate. Being just round the corner from Insomnia, they don’t do too badly on convenience and they are only 5 cent dearer than McDonalds at €2.95.

Convenience: 6/10

Taste: 8/10

Price: 8/10

Coffee Society Score: 24/30

And we have a tie! So do I go for the best Hot Chocolate in town at Coffee Society? Or the ultimate convenience of McCafe?

Well, I’m afraid with the pace I’m going at these days, a quick Hot Chocolate on the way to and from work will be all I have time for.

… But I will miss those couches.

Posted in Humour, Saving money | 3 Comments »

Cutting down on winter bills

February 11, 2009

You know, I never realised how much things cost till I moved out of home. Specifically I now understand why my parents were always giving out to us about leaving lights on or putting the thermostat too high.

Photo owned by karpov the wrecked train (cc)

We’ve almost got the electricity bill under control, we always check the apartment before we leave or go to bed to make sure that the lights are off and the Christmas tree is unplugged (Yes a Christmas tree, yes it’s February, any expressions of disbelief can be directed toward my girlfriend and her Christmas tree forever campaign, she says it goes well with the Halloween pumpkin lights that she still has up).

But where we have been really falling down is on our heating bill, suffice to say that the last one could have paid for a small holiday. So we’ve decided it needs to change and started looking at what we could do.

The first thing I came across was Envirofriendly Heating limited. These guys provide a range of environmentally friendly home heating solutions that save you money as well as saving the planet. From Geothermal Heat pumps to underfloor heating systems, while its not an option for me (pretty sure the landlord would go spare) I think it’s great that there are such innovative solutions out there.

The folks at change.ie have some less radical advice. Mostly focusing on when you heat your home and how much. Following their advice we are abandoning the thermostat. Since both of us are out of the apartment from 8 – 6 everyday, I’ve set the heating to come on for an hour in the morning and an hour just before we get home. If it gets cold in the evening we’ll turn it on manually.

I also noticed there was a fierce draft coming in the front door of the apartment, I asked my mother if she still had the draft excluder from when we were little (the one that looked like a snake complete with cloth tongue sown to one end… sure we all had one), unfortunately it had been thrown out. But who needs a fancy draft excluder? We’re using an old scarf and it has stopped those freezing drafts in their tracks.

So no drafts and no heating when we’re not there, lets see if we can get the bill down to something that doesn’t have me clutching my wallet in pain when it’s opened.

Posted in In the news, Saving money | Comments Off

There’s snow business like blog business

February 5, 2009

The snow went away! Then it came back! Then it went away again and now it’s snowing. I don’t know about you but I seem to remember Met Éireann saying at the begining of the week that we’d only have one day of full snow… maybe two. Could the collective prayers of every schoolchild in Ireland (and me) be keeping the snow with us? If we all clap and believe could we end up with a white St. Patricks day? Probably not, but I’m on three snowmen and counting.

Irish Blogs Awards Long List

In totally unrelated news, the weather outside may be frightful, but Nononsense has not been left out in the cold. We have made the long list for the Business blog category in the Irish Blog Awards!!! It’s wonderful news and we are delighted to be in the long list. There are some really great blogs in our category and we wish them all the best of luck.

I’m off to build a snow insurance policy in the car park… that counts as work.. right?

Posted in Humour, In the news | Comments Off

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

February 2, 2009

I awoke this morning at 7am to the blare of the alarm, which I promptly turned off. What was I thinking going into work early on a Monday? I turned over in bed determined to go back to sleep and awake at a more civilised time, when my girlfriend got up and uttered those immortal words “It’s snowing!”

Photo owned by preciouskhyatt (cc)

Fast forward 20 minutes to us up, washed and dressed and throwing snowballs at each other (quite small snowballs admitedly, but it’s not the size of the ball that matters, it’s who you aim it at that counts). We walked to the bus stop crunching over every bit of snow that we could.

In short, I am exuberantly happy about the downy flutter that descended upon Dublin this morning. And with more on the way we best be prepared(I wonder if I could stockpile snowballs to throw from the balcony?).

So buckle down Dublin and prepare for more, RTE have a host of Snow Survival tips for us, particularly important is their section on not eating snow of a certain colour.

The Indepedant is reporting on The Chaos that the weather is causing. Reading about all the delays and problems it’s causing almost makes me sorry for wishing for more snow…. Almost.

And should we get enough snow, don’t bother with a boring old snowman, have a look at this online article on snow and ice sculpting, and do something creative, here’s some pics of past international snow sculpture champions for inspiration.

Right, I’m off to daydream about igloos… I mean.. work really hard, yeah.

Posted in Humour, In the news, Test | 2 Comments »