Here’s a valuable MoneySaving lesson – unfortunately its application is quite specific so I’m not sure how useful it’ll be for everyone. I was filming for ITV1 Tonight yesterday, a programme I’m doing for Friday 6 Feb on savings.
It’s being put together on a very tight deadline, so we’re doing quite a lot on the hoof. One scene involves my trusty savings fountain analogy, and we were using a Champagne fountain (lots of champagne glasses stacked in a pyramid) to illustrate it. The location was the very swanky champagne bar at the new Westfield shopping centre. It’d very kindly stacked the glasses and arranged them, which meant we couldn’t take cheap sparkling £1 a bottle fizzy stuff from a local shop.
And as befits an upmarket joint, the prices were high; so we selected the cheapest fizzy white wine at £15 a bottle. Even so, filling 60 glasses ain’t easy – so I suggested once we’d filmed the top glass being filmed, we dilute it, using empty bottles to go 1/3 wine and 2/3 water.
The suggestion was met with glee from the producer, whose budget it is, yet sullen faces from the crew who’d been looking forward to snaffling the drink afterwards. It was even worse for the bar, who were slighty worried people walking past would see them diluting their booze and think it was standard practice!