I recently had the opportunity to get a bit more of an overview of the history of my home town (Edinburgh, if anyone has any specifically applicatible answers), and it's really got me curious about what the daily lives of it's inhabitants would have been throughout history. So, if I didn't have enough money for private musicians and such, what would have been my medieval entertainment options, were there affordable theatres, public storytelling, general partying, or would I have had to make my own fun at home?
Then I hied me into East Cheap;
One cries "Ribs of beef," and many a pie;
Pewter pots they clattered on a heap,
There was harp, pipe, and minstrelsie.
"Yea, by cock!" "Nay, by cock!" some began cry;
Some sung of Jenkin and Julian for their meed,
But for lack of Money I might not speed.
...
The taverner took me by the sleeve,
"Sir," saith he, "will you our wine assay?"
I answered, "That cannot much me grieve,
A penny can do no more than it may."
I drank a pint, and for it I did pay.
Yet soon ahungered from thence I yede,
And wanting Money I could not speed.
This is London in the 1370s, but we can reasonably expect broadly similar entertainments and provisions throughout the period and in other cities and even towns, albeit perhaps to a more limited extent.