I will admit that I wouldn't usually play for less than £250 for myself per gig..... but I see where your coming from..... I think the Thursday night pub gig with good friends just to play for the sake of loving what your playing is very satisfying..... did this a couple of months back where me and a few friends got together and played a local pub so we could be completely self indulgent and play the music we wanted to such as Toto, Brand x, Van Halen, Spyro Gyra, Bros Johnson, Funkadelic, Level 42 (early stuff) etc.....
At the end of the night..... we still got requests for Mustang Sally..... We left the stage shortly afterwards!