How do you keep track?

I have a Word document. It goes back to 2004, which was when I first started getting into theatregoing, & is now 20 pages long. I list dates, show titles & location if it's not the West End. I also am obsessive enough to count up how many shows I've seen each year & keep a note of that so:

2004: 10
2005: 23
2006: 24
2007: 46
2008: 83
2009: 126
2010: 43
2011: 81
2012: 68
2013: 70
2014: 88
2015: 88
2016: 101
2017: 85 and counting...

Mines pretty boring, its a word document with every show I've seen listed, split into play and musical, with in brackets next to the show, the number of times I have seen it if it is a repeat visit.

I just keep my programmes, and since 2011 I have also blogged about all theatre I have seen.  On average I probably see about 40 productions a year but it very much depends what's on.

Excel spreadsheet.
Show title, venue, seat location, price and date. Back as far to 2005.

Binders with programme/ticket/cast list for each show.

Plus a private blog of sorts with all my London (and few New York) trips that also includes touristy stuff I do between seeing shows. Started that mostly, so that I didn't need to tell the same stuff several times when people ask "How was the trip?"

I recently recapitulated how many shows I saw in London within one year and how much I paid on average and thanks to day seats, fringe productions and the odd cheap balcony seat it came an average far lower than I could manage here in Germany, so that actually made me feel good about traipsing across the channel so often.

I'm impressed that some of you have the nerve to keep track of what you've spent on tickets. I wouldn't! (Especially as I've just booked for 19 Mischief Movie Night performances this evening...)

19! Blimey that’s dedication.

Some of these systems sound incredibly impressive.

I no longer keep track of the shows I’ve seen. If they were worth remembering, I remember them! I used to keep ticket stubs, in little memo books, and used selotape to stick them in. Now very yellow and crispy. Then ticket stubs died out... The little memo books became misshapen, ‘fanned’ and were difficult to store. They're in the loft somewhere, along with all the programmes I used to buy. I no longer buy programmes unless the show is really special.

Dates of upcoming shows are written in several diaries, and tickets are pinned to a pin-board in date order, reminding me that I’ve got some treats to look forward to. Lots coming up in 2018...!

I wish I could remember how many times I’ve seen Superstar and Les Mis, but I can’t, so now I make up a number. Nobody else knows if I don’t!

Thus far this year, I am on (new as in new to me!):

19 new Musicals
10 new Plays
14 return visits

So total: 43 trips to the theatre. Which actually is surprising. I don't live in London and my highest thus far is around 50, so by the end of the year, my record is likely broken.

I've got all my tickets in three tins but they are just chucked in, all jumbled up, info can be found if I need it though but it'll take a while!

Then I have two very incomplete spreadsheets. The first is simple, it's got show, date, time, price and seat. The other is even less complete and was meant to be an amazing spreadsheet with a pivot table where I could search for a cast member and it would tell me what shows I've seen them in, what role they played, when, where and so on. However it's such a big task that I got bored! It's tempting to try and spend some time on adding data though. Annoyingly it wasn't ever 100% accurate because I don't always know who was on and have to go with the cast in the programme. I'm rubbish at identifying cast so if there isn't a cast board I can't know for sure (and they aren't always accurate). I do have a folder on dropbox that I upload photos of cast boards to so I can look back at those for more detailed info if I need it.

I also have a private blog which contains the info in the spreadsheets and looks pretty (scans of the programme coverincluded) but again it's not updated!

I don't tend to write down future tickets anywhere because I'm crazy, I just hope my brain remembers them all because I don't have a diary/calendar/.. I leave it all to memory which is going to get the better of me one day. As far as I know I've not missed a show yet! However I very very rarely buy a ticket for a show more than a couple of weeks in advance because my work schedule is all over the place and I can't hope to know what I'm doing in two weeks time let alone half a year or a year in advance and with the work I do. When I'm working I'm working, no holiday time or time to go to the theatre which is why I make the most of it when I'm between jobs and go lots in a short period of time.

I've seen 22 shows this year which isn't as impressive but still works out at around 2 shows per month, I like going to the theatre but I prefer to pace myself and I don't do return visits.

Excel spreadsheet. I only started it this spring, after I missed one of my theatre trips because I simply forgot about it. And that was "Harry Potter" by the way, booked maaaany months in advance.

I choose to buy theatre tickets rather than going to the pub or the football or on holiday or whatever else the normal people spend their fun money on, but I still don't want to know how much I've spent because I rather fear I could've made a down payment on a house with it all, albeit a thoroughly joyless house because I never indulged my love of theatre and can't work out how to be happy.

I have 4 notebooks with everything I've ever seen since I started attending the theatre in 1974. I list name of show, theatre and date. Both are in chronological order.

Several years ago I transferred the data to a spreadsheet so it can be searched e.g. How many times have I seen x show? How many times have I been to y theatre? How many shows have I seen per year? etc.

I still keep both up to date.

For the past 20 years I've averaged around 85-90 shows per year but I fear that's increasing.

While it would be interesting to see how much I've spent on tickets over the years, inflation inhibits comparisons year on year. A £7.50 ticket in 1974 would have been what today is a premium seat!