I have a tactic that is working a bit too well, I feel like I might be accidentally cheating.
I started off unemployed and got a job with Woking (in the Conference) and have since gone to have 3 consecutive promotions, so now we're in the Championship. I've had a minimal transfer budget, so...
I managed to sign Michael Essien on a free for Brighton in the first January transfer window, I completely blew my wage budget for him and annoyingly he's been pretty poor so far.