Five things for €500 that are better value than Oasis

One of 30 spectacular shows at Puy du Fou that cost way less than a ticket to Oasis and could be seen as a bargain.

• Live like King Louis XIV and be entertained like a Roman emperor at Puy du Fou in France as I was last week.

• Eir’s bargain broadband, TV and phone package for a year

• Snap up a Which? magazine Best Buy product for September – take your pick from a laptop, washing machine or iPad.

• Get a bicycle shed

• Put it in your pension

Definitely, Maybe should’ve been the tune played while Oasis fans queued online to buy tickets for the group’s concerts this week.

There was a big Maybe as to whether they could buy tickets at all. But if they did manage to secure them, they would Definitely have to cough up an outrageous price.

I logged on to Ticketmaster to see what was going on and was placed in a surprisingly small queue of 17 people, which compared to earlier reports of hundreds of thousands waiting.

I only had to wait minutes to get offered a ticket…for €516.25.

That’s around €100 more than the prices that triggered outrage earlier in the week.

The publicity seemingly has only served to drive prices around 20% higher!

And it wasn’t exactly a prime location either.  It was high in the upper stand, about as far away as you can be from the stage.

However, as I pondered this extraordinary price, someone else snapped it up.  It was gone within a minute. And the next day I found no tickets available at all.

Luckily, I wasn’t at all heartbroken, but a lot of Oasis fans are ‘Looking Back In Anger.’

And I can think of lots of things to spend five hundred euros on that are better value.

Here are a few suggestions:

Live like a king

Instead of paying a king’s ransom for an Oasis ticket, you could literally live like French monarch.

Last week I went on a two-day trip to Puy du Fou, a lavish mind-blowing extravaganza that’s a million times more entertaining (to me anyway), than Liam Gallagher snarling into a mic.

I didn’t begrudge one cent of the €375 spent on two days of unforgettable entertainment, including accommodation and food that’s literally laid out to be fit for a king - Louis XIV to be exact, famed for his lavish lifestyle and palaces.

Nobody puts on a show with such elan as the French and Puy du Fou is the piece de resistance of holiday entertainment.

The experience is a bit like wandering onto a film studio in Hollywood’s heyday, only instead of plywood backdrops, the props are real. A colosseum of stone stages four-horse chariot races and naval battles complete with burning ships..

Viking longships arise out of a lake with live and dripping Vikings onboard – and later submerge again, still beating their war drum.

The World War I experience is an authentic recreation of Verdun where you walk underground through a network of trenches that literally shake with artillery fire and sound effects.

Noches de Fou is a night-time extravanza where a pianist, violinist and ballet dancers emerge from the lake in a glorious spectacle of light and sound, the tutus somehow made from tiny water spouts springing from the dancers’ waists.

There are 20 mind-blowing shows, set on 500 acres with four period villages and 2000 animals,  trained to do impressive tricks, from hawks, eagles, owls and geese to a flock of little white herons.  

The three musketeers show alone is worthy of the West End while a jousting tournament with extraordinary horseback acrobatics morphs into a medieval battle with giant moving castles.

A two day pass costs just €75. A one day ticket – equal in time to four Oasis concerts - is just over half of that.

Everything is surprisingly cheap, even the hotel (by Irish standards) which can be in the style of The Sun King’s palace – or you can just make do with living like a Roman emperor or Medieval king.

And you can squeeze out more value by staying only one night in the hotel while buying a two-day pass to the shows.

Prices (per person)

Ryanair Flight to Nantes:                          €55

Car hire + petrol:                                           €50

Pou de Fou stay I night*:                           €165

Two day pass:                                                 €75

All you can eat 6-course buffet:           €30

Total:                                                                    €375

*Breakfast included

Get TV, broadband and free calls for a year

Eir’s TV/Broadband/Phone package has long been the cheapest around.

With this deal, you get a year of broadband, 68 TV channels and a home phone with free off-peak calls to Irish landlines.

Also included are Prime Video and a highly-rated AppleTV 4K device to use as your platform.

All that costs  €519.75  for one year – just €3 more than that Oasis ticket I was offered.

Treat yourself to a Best Buy iPad

Which? magazine is the consumer bible when it comes to picking the best value products. And there are several choice goodies on its September list of Best Buys that cost less than a few hours at an Oasis concert.

One of them is the 2022 64GB iPad with wifi. We all know Apple products are dear. But often, they bring out new models that aren’t that much different to previous versions. You can save money by opting for a slightly older device.

That’s exactly what Which? did as it rates the 2022 iPad as great value on its September list.

You can get one in Harvey Norman for €449 – €67 cheaper than an Oasis ticket. 

It is also, surprisingly, cheaper here than the average UK price quoted by Which? of £450 (€534).

Clean up with a top-rated washing machine

Which?’s Best Buy washing machine for September - the Zanussi ZWF142E3PW – also costs €449.

Which? says this machine is “energy efficient and fairly quick for its size.” 

It’s available at this price from Heavins.ie, an outlet that consistently seems to come up with low prices.

It’s the online version of Topline Heavins & Euronics, a family-run business based in Athlone for over 40 years.

Or snap up a top Laptop

Which?’s recommended laptop for September  is the catchily-named HP Chromebook 15a-nb0004na.

This “budget-friendly” laptop has decent processing speed but moderate storage at 128GB.  “At 1.72kg, it's not the lightest, but its specs are impressive for the price,” says Which?

It costs just €379 at Currys - €137 less than an Oasis ticket – and would be ideal for a student.

In fairness to Oasis, some things are dearer than their concert tickets on Which?’s September Best Buy list, such as the Google Pixel 8 Pro phone (which costs €749 at Harvey Norman), the Bosch KGN492LDFG fridge freezer and LG’s  OLED42C44LA television, that’ll set you back well over €1k each at Currys.

Yet other smaller-ticket items on the list are also way cheaper, including the Shark Stratos IZ400UKT vacuum cleaner, Tefal’s Easy Fry Dual Air Fryer & Grill EY905D and the Sleepsoul Cloud 800 Pocket Memory mattress.

Buy a bike shed

There's one on Amazon for €400, which cost an awful lot less than the one outside the Dáil that cost €136k. The catch is it only holds four bikes.

To get one for 12 bikes - nearly as big as the one the Govt. paid €340k for - you’d have to pay a whopping €1400.

How did the Govt.'s bike shelter cost €136k. Was it gold-plated maybe?

Put €480 (net) into your pension

Putting €820 into your pension would cost only €492 after tax relief, if you pay the top rate...which is less than the cost of an oasis ticket. And while the Oasis ticket will be worth nothing in the morning, that pension contribution will probably multiply several times over by the time you retire, depending on your age.