WOW! Where did all this snow come from? It is the last weekend in November 2010 and our favourite city in the north sits beneath a heavy dusting of snow. Temperatures in Edinburgh are currently in the minuses and even the airport has had to close. The roads are grid locked and the A9 road to the Highlands has rather unceremoniously been closed.

What with these horrendous Siberian temperatures we all find ourselves enduring this week, I can’t quite believe it was only a mere 3 months ago, that we were strolling down a busy Princes Street in t-shirts and flip flops!

The Edinburgh Fringe 2010 was brilliant as usual boasting a packed array of incredible international talent IN SPITE of the recession and the ever-foreboding credit crunch! Money was tight but did it put us off? Did it keep us away? No, of course not!

However, that said, never before have we been so keen to welcome money-saving tips and vouchers as we were at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe. By saving money here and there we were able to enjoy more shows and to generally make our cash stretch that bit further.

The restaurants were packed not because we had all suddenly come into money/won the lottery/robbed a bank…but because we were all using the money-off vouchers we’d discovered on the Internet. Not a day went by without checking the latest hints and tips of the Money Saving Expert Martin Lewis and I am confident we were not alone!

Never before have visitors to the Fringe been more ‘up for’ saving money. We flocked in our thousands to hundreds of Fringe opening nights because you could buy tickets on ‘2 for 1’ deals.

The queues were smaller this year too, thanks (again!) to the Internet as we were able to purchase our tickets online.

Everywhere you looked, people were tapping into some Wi-fi and never before have we needed a printer more than during this year’s Edinburgh fringe! Even show flyers were being printed very cheaply courtesy of many a home printer. It’s true to say that never before have we needed so much printing ink!

A good job then that we were able to buy compatible inkjet cartridges because they are so cheap! Compatibles are ridiculously cheap!

You don’t need to be rolling in money to get the best of the Edinburgh Festival! Whether you enjoy a play, some comedy, some jazz or some magic, there is something for everyone during Edinburgh’s August. Not only can we actually save money thanks to ‘money off’ vouchers and Internet bargains, there is a way to cut the cost of ink to print out all these vouchers!Y

Be seeing you next year, Edinburgh Fringe!