This is just too easy, you’ll be suprised, or maybe not. Whatever.
Let’s start by grabbing a widget. We’ll go here:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/

And grab… iStat nano. Now don’t install it just yet. Click on the widget file and rename it to “iStat nano.a”. Finder will prompt you about the name change, just click “Use .a”. Now, once was a widget is now a folder. Inside the folder is all the files that make-up the widget, in fully-editable form!
After you’re done, to repackage the widget, just change the “.a” at the end of the folder name, to “.wdgt”. Finder will prompt you if you wish to change the extension, just click “Use .wdgt”. And you’re widget is now ready to be installed into dashboard. Just double click “iStat nano.wdgt” to install.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/ — Great for utilities and games

http://www.macupdate.com/ — Supa for staying updated on apps, but also good for freeware

http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/ — A lot like macupdate, with more developed freeware

Backing-up is something that everyone who has important data should be doing. Archiving onto CD/DVD is effective, but continual back-up is important. Lacie, the maker of external Hard-drives and disk-drives, own a freeware app called SilverKeeper which is pretty timely and effecient at backing-up. It offers schedule back-ups, that can exclude keyword files, password protect files and access password protected files. All and all a good app well worth its price of $0.
Get it here.