When you start a game project, which is your choice for graphic and audio resources?

I must confess that I'm not a very good graphician neither musician or sound effect maker, what I do best is coding. So what to do, try make some not so bad graphics and audio, hire someone else to do that job or use free stuff? Take in mind that not every coder has a big budget (usually we don't have budget at all) for a starter project.

The other question is, do you start building the game or the resources?

If your thoughts tell to go the free way, which are the recommended tools of trade for graphics and audio?

On graphics I think that The Gimp is one of the best choices, maybe I'm wrong, but I know it well.