1. You know all those American talk shows you know and love? Like Tonight with Jay Leno, the Dr Phil Show and more. Want to know how much the audience paid for their tickets? Not a cent! Audience tickets for most talk shows are given out completely free of charge. To get yourself on one simply visit www.tvtix.com.

2. LA has a host of free museums and free museum days giving you something to do when the good times on the West Coast have soaked up most of your dollars. These include the Getty Museum and the Hollywood Bowl Museum (both always free), MOCA (free from 5pm-8pm on Thursdays) and the Long Beach Museum of Art (free every Friday).

3. Wouldn't it be cool to say you visited Hollywood and you were in a movie while you were there? And wouldn't it be cooler to say it didn't cost a dime to do so? Log on to www.beinamovie.com, sign up to their newsletter to find out if there's filming going on when you're in town and you might just get yourself on to the silver screen for nothing!

4. If you plan on using both the metro and the bus in the one day, don't waste money by buying single tickets for each journey. Instead buy the Metro Day Pass. It costs $5 and you'll get all of LA for just five bucks a day.

5. Similar to most celebrities in the City of Angels, getting close to the Hollywood sign is quite difficult. To do so you have to trespass on private property. There are still some good, legal places to get that elusive snap though. These include various parts of the Hollywood and Highland Shopping Mall, on Beachwood Canyon Drive at Glen Holly, Glen Oak and Cheremoya, and on Gower Blvd at Melrose Ave.