Making that Mount Money:  Budgeting for the Low-Level Toon
 By Tennetty

Many of us have found ourselves in this situation with our first character in World of Warcraft:  we reach level 30 and spend nearly every last coin we have on the large amount of training skills.  The quests aren’t giving us that much money.  The mobs definitely aren’t, either.  And now we only have ten levels to save up approximately 100 gold for ride training and the purchase of our first mount.  For the next ten levels, we’re obscenely frugal with our purchases, desperately trying to avoid spending any money.  Still, by the time we reach level 40, we’re usually about 30-40 gold short of what we need.

 My friends, it doesn’t have to be that way.  Through experimentation, I’ve found the surefire way to save money for your mount, while still supplying yourself with the gear you need to stay current in your character – all legal, all within the confines of the game as Blizzard welcomes it to be played.  Here’s the brief rundown, followed by a lengthier explanation of each point.

 

THE BASICS

1)     Install and activate the recommended mods

2)     Choose gathering skills for both of your primary professions.  One should be skinning.

3)     Invest in all three secondary professions (cooking, first aid, and fishing)

4)     Open and take items from all chests along your travels

5)     Use your bank for storage!

6)     Sell in the auction house

 Sounds simple enough, right?  It is!  All it takes is a bit of organization and thriftiness.

 RECOMMENDED MODS
 I recommend adding the current version of Auctioneer and Gatherer.  Both will help you tremendously as you push forward.  When you first log in after using Auctioneer, you’ll want to go to the Auction House and “scan” all auctions.  This can take about ten minutes, so log in, start the scan, and then go get your drinks and munchies.  I don’t recommend doing this scan on Saturdays, when prices tend to run a bit higher, unless you plan on doing all of your selling on Saturdays.  I do recommend occasionally redoing this scan to update current auction prices.

BEFORE LEVEL SIX
 This is the frustrating time for all characters.  You barely have any money.  You’re scraping by just to train your new skills.  You don’t have spare bags to carry stuff.  It’s annoying—but it does pass.  Quickly.  At these first levels, just remember to pick up everything.  Sell anything you don’t immediately need to vendors each time you come into the starting village.  If you’re asked to kill ten things, go a bit further and kill fifteen.  It’s good for both the XP and the precious copper pieces that add up to those initial skill purchases.

CHOOSING YOUR PROFESSIONS
At level six, you have your first option to select professions.  Traditionally, many characters have chosen a gathering and a crafting profession that compliment each other.  It’s a logical choice, but not the best financially.  That crafting skill will cause you to spend a lot of money on supplies so you can gain skill points.  While those five glass vials don’t sound expensive in the short term, they add up to dozens of gold over time.  You’ll start creating that beautiful leather breastplate, only to be short one piece of leather.  And the higher your skill, the more the items cost to create.

 Instead of falling into that vicious cycle, select two gathering professions at level six.  Make one skinning, and the other either mining or herbalism.  The reason for selecting skinning is simple:  you can’t track both herbs and minerals at the same time.  Begin developing both of these skills immediately as you go forward with your quests, gathering items as you go.  Also pick up grey items (“vendor trash”) to sell in the towns as you turn in quests.

 

EARLY INVESTMENTS AND BANKING
Good savings plans require some upfront planning.  You’ll start off by spending a small amount of money for personal development, but in the long run, it will pay off.

 Two gathering professions requires quite a bit of bag space as you go running around the world.  Your first investments in your character should be to purchase 12 or 14 slot bags.  If you can find a guildie who will make these for you, great.  Otherwise save all of your money to purchase four bags.  Any smaller six or eight slot bags should be used until you can purchase the larger ones.  Then purchase a spare space within your bank, and use the smaller bags as your spare storage.  You can phase the smaller bags out as you have the finances later.

 Remember to go to your bank regularly!  Drop off the items you find in your bank.  Use your bank space to “build” stacks of items.  Those two or three jewels you found mining don’t need to stay on you at all times.  Let them collect within your bank.  Try to keep your bags as clear as possible when you go back out to quest.  You don’t need to bring every piece of food with you, for example.  Conserve your bag space and just go back for frequent restocks from your own storage.  Keep a habit of finishing your sessions by the bank if possible, cleaning up your bags and banks so that you’re ready for your next session.

 

USING THE AUCTION HOUSE
Alongside the small increments of money you make questing, you’ll make the bulk of your money through selling in the auction house.  Here’s the basics:

-       Gather items into full stacks of 10 or 20.  Once you have full stacks, put them in the auction house (for the 24 hour maximum).  Do not sell anything that is not in a full stack.  Use auctioneer to find the appropriate price to better ensure a sale.

-       Equip yourself using only soulbound items you get through quests and instances, plus things within the drops you find from mobs that are significant upgrades from your current gear.  You want to keep as many things from being soulbound—if it’s only a one point increase in armor, it’s not worth it.  If it’s a two or three point jump in agility, strength, etc., then it might be worth considering the upgrade.

-       Sell all BoE items through the auction house.  Again, be wary of your prices (and the level of the item). 

-       Sell vendor trash (grey items) to city & town vendors.  They don’t look like much, perhaps, but think about how much you sell back over a period of time.  It does add up.

-       Sell cloth in its pure form (individual pieces or bolts).  Don’t sell them as bandages.  Make sure you keep a single stack of twenty bandages on you, but sell the rest.  Wool and higher tend to sell quickly and for a good amount of cash, since they can be turned in for reputation or be used for crafting skills.

-       Sell excess food to vendors.  Conserve your bag space.

SECONDARY PROFESSIONS SAVE MONEY
They do, honest!  Your secondary professions can help you save small amounts of money along the way because they don’t take a lot of money to maintain. Work on these as active side projects each time you play, and it won’t seem like they’re taking up your time. Make sure to train for your beginning levels in these as soon as possible, in this order:  Fishing, first aid, and cooking.

 Fishing and cooking work together.  You’ll save a bunch of money on food costs by cooking your own meals.  And you’ll save even more money by making fish your primary cuisine.  Most fish don’t require the purchase/gathering of any secondary materials to cook (spices/fruit, etc.).  Fish up a stack of 20, then cook that 20.  You’ll quickly gain both skill and the supplies you need as you quest. 

Fishing also has the additional advantage of being a third gathering profession.  Once you have the skill, make sure you fish the concentrated pools, oil spills, and floating wreckage piles you encounter along your travels.  Often times, you’ll find things that you can sell in the Auction House.  The Venture Logging area in Stonetalon, for example, has oil spills along the river.  Within these, you can find Firefin Snapper—these sell for approximately a gold per stack of 20 – huge money for a low to mid 20’s character.  Oily Blackmouth schools sell for just a bit less than that.  You’ll also occasionally pull trunks and other items out of both fish and wreckage piles, which will provide you with more money, healing and mana potions (that you should keep for personal use), and additional items to sell. 

 First aid decreases your need to rely on potions.  Other than the ones that you find through your questing and fishing, you try to avoid purchasing potions at lower levels.  Make sure to keep your first aid skill current.  Make yourself a stack of 20 bandages to keep on you for healing.  Sell the rest of the cloth, with the exception of the stacks of sixty to develop your reputation with the cities of your faction.

ONCE YOU HAVE YOUR FIRST MOUNT
If you follow the instructions above, you’ll have purchased your first mount at exactly 40th level.  Continue both gathering professions for a couple more levels to recover some money from your big purchase.  Then re-evaluate your professions if you’d like, and switch one to a crafting profession.  By level 40, both of your gathering skills will be at maximum, which means you’ll be able to gather your basic items for any crafting skill, making it far more cost-effective to develop.  Continue to use fishing to help fund your projects—the pools along the coastline of Stranglethorn and Tanaris can net you over 300 gold in a week, simply by devoting some time to it and selling things in the auction house just as you did at lower levels.


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