A thrifty weekend: Sunday

Altrincham Sunday Vintage Market

Up early for a tram to Harbour City, or walk along the banks of the River Irwell to get there.

A walk around the basins at Salford Quays, looking at Media City where the BBC and part of Salford University have moved to. Then to the Lowry Centre to view the permanent Lowry exhibition and other galleries, including the wonderful Adolphe Valette exhibition on until 28 January. Great views of the area, especially if sunny, over a coffee. £2 plus optional donation to the galleries.

See http://mancunianwave.blogspot.com/2011/08/media-city-globemasters.html and http://mancunianwave.blogspot.com/2012/01/happy-mondays-hardy-january-sunbather.html and
http://mancunianwave.blogspot.com/2011/09/homage-to-adolphe-valette.html
plus my forthcoming posts on 26 and 27 Jan.

Lunch at 1847 Bistro in town- £10 per person lunch specials for a wonderful meal. See http://www.bistro1847.co.uk/  and http://mancunianwave.blogspot.com/2011/06/1847-vegetarian-bistro-booth-st-mosely.html

Work off your lunch at a vintage market. It’s held at Stockport once a month and in Altrincham the third Sunday of the month: http://www.vintagevillagestockportmarket.co.uk/ and https://twitter.com/#!/Altvtgmarket 

The Altrincham Sunday market mixes vintage with local food produce. You can buy beers from Tatton Brewery, wines from the Languedoc (ok, that's not so local), local honey and beeswax polish, recycled homemade jewellry, cupcakes, china, homemade cards etc.

I enjoy perusing the 1950's crockery stall with fine examples of Midwinter domino (white pots on white, Midwinter Cannes and Riveria and Enid Seeney’s Homemaker (featuring black and white design award winning items including a Robin Day armchair and a Sigvard Bernadotte sofa). From £5. Or a vintage dress for £10.

There should still be time to head back to the Northern Quarter to wander round some independent shops and grab a cup tea, people watch or look at the street art. See: http://mancunianwave.blogspot.com/2011/10/oklahoma-urban-prairie.html

http://mancunianwave.blogspot.com/2012/01/street-art-carrot-creature.html

http://mancunianwave.blogspot.com/2011/10/arty-old-town.html

http://mancunianwave.blogspot.com/2011/11/long-boat-on-stevenson-square.html

Then home for the rest of last night’s chilli and a baked potato and the wine left over from last night, And why not tune to local community radio station ALL FM on 96.9 or online. Their weekly Charity Shops Classics programme showcases tunes that can be found in charity shops. I love the variety and the sounds of some of the far from perfect vinyl that gets played. It’s a novel idea and can unearth some musical gems. It’s also is a great way of reusing old records and cassettes which otherwise would surely be destined for landfill: http://www.mixcloud.com/tag/allfm/ and http://allfm.org/

Finally a Sunday night drink at my favourite bar Dimitri’s- say £5 (photo right) and: http://mancunianwave.blogspot.com/2011/06/alfresco-at-dimitris.html

Total spend approximately £22 (a total of just under £50 for yesterday and today).

There are so many more suggestions I could make for cheap and exciting days out- walks in the Peak District, day trips to National Trust and English Heritage properties, more unusual galleries and museums.

I will continue to mention these here on Mancunian Wave anyway. Thanks for reading!