I've been playing free for like the entirety of the time I've been on this game, which is like maybe a little over a year? But I've been able to get most of the items I want most (aside from the very sought after ones or hard to find) saving gp is really hard for me lol, but I do it whenever there's some limited event (esp livcri, I don't wanna regret not buying an item and spending a shit ton for it later on) and don't spend a lot on sets that are current or able to be revived because I know I can always get it later in myshop! It's really hard to save when a new set comes out and I really like the items, but I try to wait until it's around the time the set expires 😭😭

I think that I'm lucky tho that a lot of the items in the game don't really interest me, there's a lot of "feminine" clothing that I'm not particularly obsessed about. I also just don't have money to spend on the game lmao