As I can splurge £20 most mornings before even arriving at work, living free for a day seemed implausible. What would I eat and drink? How would I amuse myself?

In our credit-crunched times, having to cut spending is a reality. Living costs are soaring and high interest rates are putting borrowing out of reach.

I have made the recommended lifestyle changes for the financially challenged. I take packed lunches to work and walk whenever I can. I also stay in rather than go to the pub. But higher bills have cancelled out such savings and my bank balance keeps shrinking. More drastic measures are called for. My financial survival is under threat.

Here's how I fared trying to go a day without spending any money.

8am: Going to the gym costs money. Why pay when you can run in the park free? Already a convert to the benefits of a brisk jog in London's public spaces, this is a relatively easy way to kick off my free day. At £40 to £60 a month for a standard gym membership, the savings you can make by not signing up are massive. I calculate that not going to the gym, based on a three-times-a-week habit, saves up to £5 per exercise session.

9am: The conviction that I have “nothing to wear” is often an excuse for a shopping expedition. Not today. I rummage around and find a white shirt my mum handed down and a skirt donated by a former flatmate. I hadn't worn either for ages, so they feel like new.

I walk to work. Living only half an hour's walk away, this is not onerous, especially on a sunny day like today.

I sometimes get the bus, which costs 90p a time, so I am making a small saving here for not much effort. Cycling is the other obvious free alternative to public transport, but my bike is at the office.

10am: I trawl the internet for free things. On gumtree.com and craigslist.org, I find advertisements for free haircuts from trainee stylists. I sign up for freecycle.org, where people offer stuff to exchange free, thus keeping it out of landfill. Bigwardrobe.com, meanwhile, allows you to perform free clothes swaps.

The internet is awash with sites offering free things, usually in exchange for your e-mail address. Free-stuff.co.uk offers goods of varying usefulness and quality, ranging from dog food to a Nicorette inhaler pack. It links to other sites, such as free-samples.co.uk, which offers free toiletry and cosmetics and comes with a “no-junk-mail guarantee”.

As it's the racing season, I sign up for a free £10 bet from William Hill, the bookmaker.

1pm: I cycle from work to a restaurant where I am due to meet a friend who owes me lunch. Living free means ruthlessly calling in debts and favours. It also means giving up luxuries such as taxis, so I arrive at the restaurant in a sweatier state than I would have otherwise. I eat a lovely risotto, which tastes all the better because I am not paying.

3pm: After lunch in East London I cycle to West London, where I have arranged to meet Jason Goodwin, a mortgage broker with Cobalt Capital. I am due to remortgage in two months and want to get as much advice as possible. Most good brokers do not charge for your initial consultation. After an hour, the affable Mr Goodwin has decided that my best bet will be to try to negotiate a deal with my existing lender, given the tough market conditions. This is gentlemanly, as it means that he will lose out on the fee for finding me a deal.

5pm: Getting around is taking longer than it should, owing to my poor cycling skills and sense of direction. I eventually arrive at my next destination, Catford, South London, where the hunt for dinner begins. I have arranged to go on a dustbin-diving mission with some “freegans”, who live entirely off goods that other people have thrown away.

Paul, a New Zealander, and Joe, from Los Angeles, invite me to their motorhome for tea and cake - both procured from previous bin-raiding missions - before we head out on our hunt. Freegans never eat food that is off, although some may be past its sell-by date. My apple pie, a week past its use-by date, is more crumbly than usual, but perfectly edible.

Paul explains that virtually everything you need can be obtained free, as long as you are prepared to hunt around.

Freegans find toiletries in the bins behind Boots and unwanted clothes and gadgets in household skips. And around the back of restaurants they find used vegetable oil - a diesel alternative that can be used to fuel vehicles. Freegans do not have paid jobs but perform unpaid work in return for goods and services.

After our tea we head to the car park of a nearby Tesco, but find nothing because the bins have been locked. Paul tells me that more and more supermarkets are locking their bins to prevent people taking food from them, which seems uncharitable. But at Somerfield we hit the jackpot: almost a dozen loaves, six bunches of flowers, six Mars Muffins and two lettuces. We put back anything unpackaged or that looks like it might have gone off and are careful to leave everything as we found it.

Paul and Joe invite me for dinner, but by the time we get back to the motorhome, I have to dash off again. This is just as well, as I have my doubts about whether it would be possible to combine the above items in a tasty way. So I take a bunch of flowers and say my goodbyes to the pair, thanking them for teaching me what resourcefulness really means.

8pm: I am at London Bridge, tired from all the cycling. I meet James, my boyfriend, to go to see a free film at Scoop, an outdoor amphitheatre by the river. The venue is hosting films all summer (see londonisfree.com). We settle down under some rugs to watch The General, a Buster Keaton film, accompanied by a live pianist. After the film, I say goodbye to James, who takes the Tube home, while I hop back on the bike. Its late and I'm tired, but laziness is not an option when you are living free.

Today has been fun, and rummaging in bins is not as bad as I imagined, but with all the planning and time involved, it would be difficult to repeat every day and there are obvious things, such as rent and the cost of my bike, to factor in.

The best things in life may well be free, but they are certainly not easy.

Money Central - 50 great things you can get free

But don't expect free financial advice

Beware of financial advisers who claim to offer their services free - they rarely are, David Budworth writes.

Most will receive commission from banks, insurers or pension providers. But this method of remuneration is flawed because it encourages advisers to recommend products that pay the highest commission rather than those that are best for the client. Because the commission is paid direct to the adviser, clients may not be aware of how much they have paid, though this should be disclosed.

The Financial Services Authority is aware of the problem and has proposed that financial advisers who wants to call themselves independent should not be able to accept commission. But with new rules unlikely to come into effect for another year or so, vigilance is important.

Currently, independent financial advisers have to offer the option of paying by fee as an alternative to commission. Tied agents, who sell products from one company, and multi-tied advisers, who sell products from a small panel of providers, are not required to offer a fee option.