If you have friends or family who garden then they can help you reduce the cost of buying plants and seeds.
Share seeds between you – there’s usually far too many seeds in one packet for one person to use up.

Buy plant offers together – if you’re buying bedding plants with a couple of friends then you can have more types and share them!
Bulk buying compost and pots can work out cheaper too – especially when the 3 for 2 offers on are.

Split and share plants with people too. Many perennials are divided up by splitting the root ball. Check the info for each plant as some like to be done at a particular time of the year.

Learn to save seeds from plants. This is useful for flower seeds as well as peas, beans and even tomatoes. Some thing need a little more than just drying on the plant and then being picked before they seed naturally but it’s not complicated at all.
Ask neighbours to save you seeds too – they might even offer to let you have plants from their garden! Offer something in return!
Sometimes you’ll see a garden that’s really lovely – if someone is in it doing the work then stop and say how much you admire their garden! Ask them about the plants – but don’t take too much of their time up! By making gardening friends you’ll find new people to get plants from and give your excess to!

Write a plan before you buy seeds. Otherwise you end up buying too many of the wrong sort of seeds. Remember rotating crops is good for the crops and the soil.

Grow your own herbs if you use a lot of them! Insects love flowering herbs so they have a dual role in the garden. Learn to preserve them too to get maximum yield from your plants.

Save pots for growing seeds in. Plastic pots and trays can be very useful. Don’t use ones that have had meat in though.

Scavenge old pallets to make a compost bin from. Spend time collecting leaves and compost them separately. Compost all your vegetable waste and lawn cuttings. You can make lots of compost at home and once you start you realise than every bin full of green waste that leaves your garden to the tip is a bad thing!