I’ll be the first to admit it: I’m cheap.

Back in the days when I didn’t get up before noon on weekends, I used to drag myself out of bed on Saturday at 8 a.m. after a friend told me about a Cambridge, Massachusetts shop called Dollar-a-Pound. On weekends only, the store cleared out its warehouse floor by selling clothing for a dollar a pound; customers were given giant plastic garbage bags at the door, and then we all rushed in to grab never-worn or barely worn castoff designer clothing before someone else got it first. Merchandise was weighed on a scale and paid for on the way out. I’ve replenished an entire season’s wardrobe in an hour that way—and had money left over for brunch (after a short nap).

I’ve waited all afternoon in the sweltering heat in Central Park for free tickets to see Shakespeare in the Park, and like most New Yorkers I’ve waited in the TKTS line for cut-rate Broadway show tickets. I’ve won tickets via radio promotions to live tapings of Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion. One of the big reasons I’m happy about the alliance between the Metropolitan Opera and WNET/Great Performances is there’s now more opera on television—and it’s free. Or at least free after I’ve paid my monthly ransom to Verizon.

At the Metropolitan Opera, I’ve saved money by getting standing-room tickets—for operas as long as Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades and Wagner’s Die Meistersinger (more than five hours on your feet for the latter, with all the cuts opened).

So my initial reaction to the Metropolitan Opera’s 2006 program offering same-day tickets for certain performances was: Finally, someone in opera heaven is listening. read more