Nearly 300 councils in England are offering free swimming as part of a new government scheme. If your nearest pool isn’t taking part, you can still swim for free at another participating pool. Each has different terms, so check these before you go.

While some will simply ask for proof of age, others will issue a special card you’ll need to bring each time. They may also issue a one-off charge to cover the cost of the card, but this should be no more than £2. You can swim for free as many times as you like.

The deal: Free swimming. Valid: 16s & under / 60 & over. How: See participating local authorities, check at pool for times available. Expires: Thurs 31 Mar 2011. Excludes: 17-59 year olds. Offer from: Free swimming. Restrictions: 16s & under won't be able to swim during school hours.

This is great if you'd buy the chocs anyway (around £3.99, 2 for £6 in selected Thorntons). Use it to get an adult and child in for £18.50 (adult on the day price), saving £10.30 on the online high season price (18 Jul-3 Sept: £16.65 adult, £12.15 child). Factoring the chocs, you'll still save £6.31.

The deal: 2 kids go free tickets to Woburn Safari Park. Valid: On the day. How: Get tickets from promotional boxes of Thorntons Moments chocolates (250g), available throughout summer whilst stocks last. Expires: 31 Dec. Excludes: N/A. Offer from: Thorntons. Restrictions: Each ticket valid for one free child admission with full paying adult. Excludes pre-bookings, Tesco deals tokens & other offers.

Get activity sessions, including tennis and martial arts, and experience days, including quad biking and skiing. Just use vouchers from 33 promotional Nestle cereals, sweets and bottles of water. One voucher or three single wrappers’ll get you an activity. Alternatively, swap five vouchers for an experience.

Get an activity for as little as 75p with three Rowntree’s Jelly Tots wrappers (approx. 25p each). Equipment hire isn’t included, so check what’s provided before you go. Remember to bring the vouchers or wrappers on the day!

The deal: Activity sessions with Nestle tokens. Valid: Call to book. How: Choose activity and venue on Nestle’s website, then call to book, quoting the promotion. For experience voucher, get corresponding experience code from website or helpline & send off five activity vouchers. Expires: 31 July 2010. Excludes: N/A. Offer from: Nestle. Restrictions: See Nestle's 'offer terms and conditions' for all promotional products & no.of tokens on each.

Collect tokens on promotional Ribena drinks for sports gear and UK-based activities. Six tokens gets you activity equipment (eg. juggling balls, football). Eight tokens'll get you an activity set, (eg. cricket, rounders), twelve'll get you an activity (eg. canoeing, archery).

Each collector card has one free starter token on it, meaning you only need to get five, seven or eleven Ribena tokens, depending on what you’re collecting for. The cheapest item with a token is likely to be the 4-pk cartons, at around £1.19. There's max. five claims per household. See full list of activities.

The deal: Activities & sports gear with Ribena tokens. Valid: Collect tokens. How: Sign up & print collector card, choose activities/sports gear online, send off tokens with £2.50 p&p. Expires: 1 Feb 2010. Excludes: N/A. Offer from: Ribena. Restrictions: 1 starter token per claim. 600ml bottles & 4-pks of cartons = 1 token, 1l bottles & 10 pks of cartons = 2, 2l bottles = 4.

Promotional caps are on special packs of 750ml still sportscap bottles and 500ml still and sparkling bottles of Schweppes Abbey Well water. Each entitles one free swim at a participating public pool/leisure centre for anyone of any age on a Monday. Stockists include Morrisons, Asda and Waitrose.

As under 16s and over 60s can now swim for free through a new government scheme, this is a great way for adults aged 17-59 to swim cheaply. Though prices vary, one forum user's found a promotional bottle for as little as 54p. For each free swim, Schweppes'll donate £1 towards getting Britain swimming.

The deal: Free swim with Schweppes Abbey Well water. Valid: Phone ahead. How: Hand over special bottle cap at participating pool. Expires: Tues 2 Feb 2010. Excludes: Bank Holidays. Offer from: Schweppes. Restrictions: Entry's at the pool’s discretion, so it’s worth phoning ahead. Caps will be recycled. Find participating pools & more details on Schweppes' website, or share your views on forum discussion.

Kids can take part in free community sports through this promotion. Activities include football, martial arts, dance, golf, bowling, swimming, laser quest and gymnastics, depending on your area. It runs during school holidays, re-starting at the beginning of each.

The deal: Free sports events. Valid: During school holidays. How: Get voucher online / in store, choose activity online, phone to book, bring voucher. Expires: Ongoing. Excludes: N/A. Offer from: Asda Sporting Chance. Restrictions: See terms. 1 voucher per session. Subject to availability. Check for individual age limits & other restrictions when you book.

Visit England’s official tourism website, Enjoy England, and you’ll find a feature that allows you to search offers on attractions and accommodation across the country by region. There are a variety of vouchers that you simply need to print out and bring with you to the attraction.

Offers on the website include 2for1 skating and skate hire at Bristol ice rink (undated), and kids go free at Cadbury World, valid until Wednesday 30 December 2009.

Make sure you check the terms and conditions, exclusions and use by dates on each voucher, as whilst some are undated, others are valid for a specific period. It’s also worth checking with each attraction before you go.

This is a great deal that gets kids 95p tickets to selected morning screenings. Adults can also get 95p tickets as long as they’re accompanied by at least one child. Adult tickets start from £6.10 and child tickets start at £4.30, so you'll save at least £3.35 per ticket with this offer.

This Kids am offer’s on every weekend, as well as weekdays during school holidays. Though you can buy on the day, this is likely to be popular so it may be worth booking in advance. There’s a 60p online booking fee (90p for phone bookings), though there's no fees if you buy at the box office.

The deal: 95p am screening tickets. Valid: Weekends, weekdays on school holidays. How: Find a film and book online / by phone / buy on the day. Expires: Ongoing. Excludes: Adults not accompanied by a child. Offer from: Vue. Restrictions: Selected screenings only. Kids tickets valid for ages 2-12.

These £1 tickets are available for selected Saturday morning screenings. Adults and kids can both get in for £1 per head, though adults have to be with a child in order to get the offer. To find £1 tickets, visit the Movies for Juniors offer page, then choose your film and cinema.

Though you can buy £1 tickets at the box office on the day, you may want to book as these tickets can go quickly. As it's only for selected screenings in selected cinemas, check your local Cineworld's participating before you go. Kids tickets are valid for 14s and under.

The deal: £1 cinema tickets. Valid: Sat mornings. How: Book online / buy tickets from box office. Expires: Ongoing. Excludes: Sundays only in Union Square, Aberdeen. Offer from: Cineworld. Restrictions: Offer on Sat & Sun in Bolton, Falkirk, Liverpool, Northampton & Wandsworth.

OR...

If you’ve got a Tesco Clubcard, you can now use your Clubcard points to buy Cineworld tickets. Just go to the Tesco rewards website to exchange £3 worth of rewards points for one Cineworld adult token, or £2 worth of points for a child token. For a full explanation of how this works, read the full Boost your Loyalty Points guide.

Your tokens will be send to you within five working days. Take it to the box office in your nearest Cineworld to exchange them for the ticket. Cineworld rewards tokens are non-transferrable, and can’t be used in Dublin, Jersey or London’s West End cinemas (Chelsea, Fulham Road, Haymarket and Shaftesbury Avenue).

It's worth noting you can get 2for1 tickets at cinemas nationwide through Orange Wednesdays. Just text FILM to 241 from your Orange phone and Orange'll send you a code which you show to the cinema staff.

If you use a different mobile network, why not sneakily buy an Orange SIM card, which cost just £1 to qualify (read the article '2for1 Films for Non-Orange Customers' for a full how to).

Companies such as See Film First, The Film Factory, Momentum Screenings and Tell Ten promote new films by offering tickets to advance screenings of films before they’re released. To get tickets, you need to sign up with the companies online and you’ll be sent a code for free tickets when they become available, which you then enter into the website to access the tickets.

It’s worth noting that these free seats tend to go quickly, and there’s likely to be a wait between each set of free tickets. See the Free Cinema Tickets forum and Free Cinema Tickets discussion thread.

This is a great deal that’ll get you Student Standby tickets to The Royal Ballet and The Royal Opera at London’s Royal Opera House. Tickets are generally £25 - £200, so these are a bargain, though as they’re unsold tickets they aren’t guaranteed for specific performances.

When they’re available, you’ll get an email with a code and link to a booking website (approx. once per month, sent a minimum of 24 hrs before the performance). If you’re interested, you’ll need to get in quick as they’re subject to availability.

The deal: £10 ROH tickets. Valid: Students only. How: Register, book online when available, collect from Box Office. Expires: Ongoing. Excludes: N/A. Offer from: Royal Opera House. Restrictions: Non-transferable. Max. ten tickets per student. Each ticket holder needs valid student ID.

If you’re aged 25 or under you can get free tickets to shows across England. Just go to the Arts Council website, enter your postcode and choose a participating theatre, then choose from available free tickets. Then call to book at the theatre’s box office or book online.

Don’t forget to bring proof of age with you when you pick up your tickets from the box office. It’s worth bearing in mind that tickets are allocated on a first come, first served basis. The promotion's part of a pilot scheme by Arts Council England, running from February 2009 - end of March 2011.

Each theatre has a different number of free tickets available. Although it’s aimed at 16-25s, under 16s can also get free tickets, depending on the show’s age rating.

Expect discounts on a range of offers including days out deals from £2, experience days from £7.50, restaurant deals from £10, hotel stays from £10, and 2for1 spa days from £20.

There are many websites out there designed to get your bums on seats to watch the recording of TV shows, sitcoms, comedies and chat shows. Just sign up online and apply for the tickets for free. Some shows offer travel and some even provide a cuppa and a biscuit when you arrive. Here is a list of some of the bigger ticket companies and examples of the shows you can see for free:

• The X Factor, The Sunday Night Project & others. For big shows like this, register your details with Applausestore. The very big shows such as X Factor operate a reserve list system where you register your interest in the show and if you are successfully chosen one of the site's researchers will be in touch with show dates.
• Deal or No Deal. If you go to the Deal or No Deal website you can apply for tickets to the show, or, if you're feeling brave, you can also apply to be on the show on Deal or No Deal's contestant page.
• Anna and Katy Salute You. Visit TV Recordings. The shows on this site are predominately filmed in the London area.
• The Graham Norton Show, Countdown, The Alan Titchmarsh Show & others. If comedy and game shows are more your thing register with SRO Audiences. The shows on this site are also filmed in London and the South East, but it does also offer tickets for Countdown which is filmed in Leeds.
• Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps & others. The BBC website has tickets for BBC programmes, although these tend to get booked out quickly, and for radio recordings for shows such as Friday Night is Music Night for Radio 2.
• The Paul O' Grady Show, Noel's HQ and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. If you'd like tickets for these shows, register your details with Lost in TV. The shows on this site are also mostly filmed in studios around the South East of England.
• University Challenge & Countdown, Manchester & Leeds. Many of the above recordings are based in or around London and the South East; however, ITV has tickets available for shows in their studios based in the North, including University Challenge and Soapstar Superstar in Manchester, and Countdown and Through the Keyhole in Leeds.

A lot of these shows tend to overbook, so make sure you arrive at least one hour before the show is due to start to ensure you get a seat. Often, if you do get refused entry due to over booking, the organisers will try and arrange for you to get priority seating at the next week's showing.

Some of the bigger shows have a waiting list so you might have to wait for a cancellation to get a seat at a very popular show. Always make sure you check out the lists for these free ticket shows so you never end up paying money for them on ebay or other ticket sites. Depending on availability you should always be able to get them for free.

We don't have any of these deals at the moment, but we'll update this as soon as we do.

The tourist board for South East England has 2for1s, kids go free and 20% off vouchers for a range of attractions across the South East. Just go to the South East Offers website, select the offer you want and fill in the online form. You’ll then be emailed a personalised voucher to print out and bring to the attraction.

Each offer has its own terms and conditions and dates that it can be used. Offers include 2for1 at Birdland, valid until Saturday 31 October, and 2for1 at The Canturbury Tales, Kent, valid until Friday 31 July. All the offers are subject to availability so it’s worth phoning to check before you go.

There's a sneaky loophole to get 2for1 tickets for a massive range of London attractions (e.g. the Zoo & London Dungeon) through National Rail's Days Out Guide scheme. The catch is you need that day's valid train tickets, yet as the saving can be up to £25 even if you're not using the train you can get cheap singles for £2ish and still qualify to save up to £25.

For example, a one way ticket from a Central London station (e.g. Marylebone for Tussauds/London Zoo) is £1.90, but entry to Madame Tussaud's is £23. That means a saving of £19 (both visitors must have a rail ticket). You can print as many vouchers as you like and currently offers are valid ‘til Wednesday 30 September 2009. Check the individual offer pages for full T&Cs.

Visit the tourist website visittheheart.co.uk and you'll find loads of 2for1s and discount vouchers to be used on days out across the West Midlands area. Just visit the website, click on your desired location and print your vouchers straight off.

Offers include kids go free at Cadbury World with a full price adult ticket, saving you up to £29.85, 2for1 at the National Sea Life Centre, saving you up to £12.95, and 2for1 at Shakespeare's Birthplace, saving you up to £9. Just visit the website, choose where you'd like to go and print your discount voucher.