Havin' It on a Shoestring

No matter if you are a broke student or penny-conscious local, the price of club entry seems pretty daunting. You can however take advantage of the early bird specials and check out a club early on. The queues are smaller, the bar's less packed, you can sometimes find a seat, and you can test your more adventurous moves on the spacious dancefloors. Membership is another bonus for penny-watchers - it slashes £s off the entry fee. Aside from that there are a host of high quality, low wallet-impact nights.

At the Liquid Rooms there are The Snatch Social, Evol and Taste, with a reasonable sliding scale of entry fee. Evol on Fridays (10.30pm-3am), with DJs Kieron and Skoda playing out pop-rock and alternative, is an institution - the night's been running for over a decade now, proof that something is working. It's slightly pricier at £5.

For a bit more midweek fun, the Snatch Social (10.30pm-3am, £3 members/£4 students/£5 others) will oblige your needs for holiday camp fun with cabaret, karaoke, and kooky tracks. They advertise their drinks costs as being positively 1981, so get a few Thatcher-priced pints and shots in before returning to the 'noughties.

An example of earlybird savings is Taste (11pm-3am), which is only £5 between 11 and 11.30pm, before going up to £6 members / £8 others. This year they celebrated their 600th night. The club is a long-runner, having been established for over a decade, blasting out the antics of Fisher and Price, the not-so-child-friendly dons of funky tech-house.

Over at Cabaret Voltaire there's electro wunderkinds We Are… Electric on Wednesday nights (11pm-3am, free to members/ b4 12am (£2 after) / varies for guests), which has recently seen its first birthday, quickly garnering a loyal following. Residents Gary Mac & Flix have already been joined by the likes of Felix da Housecat and Andrew Weatherall.

Another Cabaret Voltaire night with zero door tax is Split, which appeared to fill a hole in the market on Edinburgh's Tuesdays. Motherfunk, with Gino & Fryer (now at Opal Lounge, George Street, every Tuesday, and still free) catered for your funk needs, but there was room for something a bit more abrasive. In stepped Split (11pm-3am, free), with its raucous mix of drum and bass, hip-hop, electro, techno and house - and there it has stayed for three and a half years. Resident and promoter Pyz says Split: "… is just about having fun without an ego", and the many sweaty and inebriated punters who have lapped up the club's 'anything goes' atmosphere would be sure to agree.

Trade Union (Mondays, 11pm-3am, £2/£1 Trade Union members and ECCF members) will come in handy for those who are working the bars and clubs during term time. If you're fed up watching everyone else have a boogie and get steaming while you slave away, then Trade Union is your saviour, with the sounds of DJ Beefy.

Moving over to Studio 24 you can find Fake (Monthly Fridays, 11pm-3am, free b4 12am/£5) with another early-starter special, and an electro set menu. Side-orders of synth pop, funk, rock, and electroclash follow. Another kind of club entirely is the Institute of Electronic Arts. Running an online forum for producers, DJs and punters (www.theinstituteonline.co.uk), this plucky bunch of musical innovators put on low-price shows with boundary-pushing live PAs at a variety of clubs. Their website is the best place to keep track of their events as they arise.

Your week just wouldn't be complete with a visit to Curious? at the Bongo Club (5pm-3am, free). It's an unusual club that runs for ten hours every Sunday afternoon/night. The music policy is flexible so there's something for everyone, plus there's free Internet access so that you can surf while you boogie. It's a great way to unwind the weekend while still managing to fit in some partying before studies on Monday.

There are also many pre-club sessions in bars across the city - quite often these are tied to club nights, such as the Switch-Up! sessions at City Cafe on alternate Fridays (run by BioRhythm / Bass Syndicate head honcho, DJ Believe). SwitchUp! are not the only promoters to run pre-clubs at City Cafe, which has a long tradition of entertaining clubbers before their evenings out. Pre-clubs offer a great atmosphere in which to party before you hit the dancefloor, such as Tuesdays at Baraka on Infirmary Street (formerly Oxygen / Boudoir restaurant). They have DJs such as Disko Pervert of Dogma fame spinning tunes from 8pm onwards, with free finger-food and cheap drinks.

We have only scratched the surface here: there is a wealth of choice in terms of venue, genre and price available in Edinburgh. Keep abreast of all the goings-on by picking up your free Skinny once a month - check the listings and our previews for un-missable nights. Just remember to keep your cupboard stocked with aspirins for those lectures the morning after.