In all cases you have to take care if free is really free. Sometimes adapting is possible, sometimes there are a free and a licensed version as well.

I think, individual is the best way even for developers, because adapting an exsisting code is often more complicated than coding in your style.

Another point is inspiration. Creative people have ideas but looking at examples will give us new ideas, too. This doesn’t mean copy but modify and take parts. In the best case it’s just an idea and it doesn’t look as a copy afterwards.

Here are some resources for free templates and inspiration

TEMPLATES

http://chocotemplates.com/

http://cssmayo.com/

http://www.freewebtemplates.com/

http://www.styleshout.com/

http://www.freewebsitetemplates.com/

http://www.cssplay.co.uk/ – more a coding resource, but endless

http://www.templateworld.com/free_templates.html

PSD

http://freepsdfiles.net/

http://photoshopcandy.com/category/free-psds/

EMAIL

http://freemailtemplates.com/