Read every notice board and accept every leaflet offered in the street. Free events are often advertised this way. Look in shop windows for book launches, promotion days or art gallery openings. These often include free food and wine!

2. Use Bristol Freecycle. Browse its web listings for free things offered or put in a request for something you need. Someone out there will be glad of your unwanted items, too. Go to: www.freecycle. org/group/US/Connecticut/Bristol

3. Old-fashioned church jumble sales are much cheaper than charity shops. Try car boot sales too; these are all listed in the Evening Post small ads.

4. Log on to the websites of UWE and the University of Bristol: they have numerous public events for free, such as lectures, exhibitions and campus tours. The Evening Post's entertainment website lists community and free events, too. Log on to www.crackerjack.co.uk

5. Take advantage of free trials at gyms and health clubs. They are offered without obligation in most cases.

6. Become a guinea pig for student research. Volunteers get a small payment for taking part and sometimes food and drink, too. Students of psychology, medicine and sports science, for example, advertise on their faculty notice boards.

7. Market researchers on the street are worth talking to these days. In Broadmead, they may be offering a coffee while you sit and complete the survey in comfort. Others reward you with shopping vouchers, free product samples or chocolate.