Setting the Stage...

First impressions are key. When in the business of women, it's important to always make a good impression, because with some women, if you blow the first one, you will never see the second one. Even beyond just trying to get a girl is the concept of setting the stage for how the relationship is going to go. If you're opening doors and buying her ticket, then she's going to expect that from you. If you set the tone, (as I do) that you're broke, then she will expect it from you. Some women won't go for that kind of guy. Don't worry about them. The closest they're going to get to a meaningful, lasting relationship is going to be the day their meth addiction drives them to meet A Pimp Named Slickback.
Now one thing is for certain, though you can't literally have two first impressions, you won't always be completely buried by a bad one. Surprisingly enough, most women aren't as shallow as men are. Of course, most women are shallow, about 99.9 percent of women are shallow, but men are actually worse in most circumstances. Women mainly go after strength, emotional or physical. If you have the swag of a king, most women can't resist. That's why you see those situations where there's an ugly guy with a fine girl. Or she might have the self esteem of a suicide patient.
What needs to be understood, is that with women, you have plenty of opportunities to set the stage right. That's almost the best thing. But, of course, not all women are the same. You don't have forever to make her stop thinking you're an ass of an ass with the brain of an ass. Or even for her to understand that you're not made of money. The first thing that I do, personally, with setting the stage with girls, is let it be known, that I am BROKE. Yes BROKE. With all capital letters. This is my own personal tactic of weeding out all of the gold diggin, I-want-a-baller-type women. Now I do this for two reasons. The first, is because I actually am BROKE. There's no way I'm supporting any I-want-a-baller chick with what I get(as of the summer of 09, that's about $20 a month). The second reason is that gold diggers tend to carry other undesirable traits and requests, like the expectation of chivalry.
I understand what you might be thinking. Why would chivalry be a bad thing? Now here's the deal. Chivalry entails that I sacrifice certain things for my girl. I can do this. But I will grow into wanting to do these things when I'm ready. From the beginning, you get your time. and maybe I'll open a few doors. I'm not going to go out of my way to give you my last little bit. I expect you to come out the house with enough money to pay for your own damn movie if you want to go. There's no preset rule that I'll be paying your way, and there's definitely none of that pouty face, can you buy me this crap.
Anyway, that's enough about me. Back to the topic at hand. The impression you make when beginning any relationship is very important. It can be the precursor to a lot of future events. The smartest thing you can do when making a first impression with anyone, is be yourself, that way they won't expect anything from you that you can't, or won't deliver. Unless you're a serial killer. Then you should probably try to be someone else. Like a sane person.