Absolutely Fabulous

Saffron has a plan to get her mother to cut back on the excesses of her lifestyle and arranges a meeting between Edina and her accountant, Malcolm. Edina is independently very wealthy and no longer merits alimony payments from her two ex-husbands. When Mrs. Monsoon decides to leave, Edina confronts her about taking her clothes and giving them to a charity shop. What Mrs. Monoon had found in a bin liner and thought was unwanted was actually Edina's dry-cleaning.

Patsy arrives in a hurry, desperate for a light for her cigarettes; all four, that she proceeds to smoke as one. Her journey to Edina's house, chauffeured by an asthmatic taxi driver, has been a nightmare and she wants Edina to have him fired. She had covered herself in nicotine patches but they don't seem to have worked. In fact, they have been leeching something out of her skin, rather than the other way around.

Thanks to Saffron, they arrive early for the meeting and find Bubble asleep in Edina's office. They get rid of her when Malcolm arrives and the meeting commences. Edina tells him to find out how much money she has and to make it look like less so that Marshall and Justin can't cut her off. However, the question of alimony has been settled and she is no longer receiving payments. Malcolm esplains how much money Edina has without giving her a definitive answer as to whether or not she is poor. The technical jargon and over-explaining eventually cause Edina and Patsy to leave, but Malcolm imparts some advice. When Edina is unwilling to sell her businesses and live on the proceeds - for fear of the government forcing unemployed people to do community service, fitting loft insulation into old people's homes - she must cut back on her monthly expenditures.

After the meeting, Justin visits his daughter. Saffron explains that Edina isn't poor and has more money than it's safe for her to know about. She and Malcolm have simply frightened her into trimming things down. The first item on the list is to get rid of the limo and driver. Edina misunderstands Saffron's definition of "smaller" and gets a physically small and very expensive convertible, which she must drive to the supermarket herself since she is no longer allowed to get her shopping from Harrods. Edina manages a number of traffic violations, including speeding through a red light and not stopping at a zebra crossing. She and Patsy get out of the car to physically attack another road user for tooting her horn at them.

Supermarket shopping is a first-time experience for both women and they fill up three trolleys. By the time they reach the alcohol, Edina is exhausted and refuses to stick around and buy some. They steal a crate of champagne and go to Harvey Nichols, parking the car on the pavement outside where it is clamped. They continue to break more laws and are caught driving under the influence of alcohol by police. They end up in court and Edina faces a long list of charges. The charges of attempted murder and robbery are dropped. In total, Edina must pay £50,000 in damages and a further fine of £2,000. It appears that getting rid of her driver was a false economy. As well as a lifetime ban on driving, she and Patsy must install loft insulation into an old people's home as part of their community service.