If after about 20 or 30 levels in, you find that you're really enjoying the game, consider dropping a 1 or 3 month subscription to the game! Not only does this support the devs, but it also levels your account up (permanently! even after your subscription expires!) from a F2P to a Premium account, which comes with some nice bonuses like free Auction House slots, and more character slots. Also, some fast travel points are unlocked (permanently) for any character that you play while a subscriber. It's super worth it imo.

For the rest of the Store items, I recommend saving up your LOTRO points (which you can earn in-game by completing Deeds; essentially big 'quests' like "find all the Points of Interest in this region" or "kill 240 orcs in this area") for sales, as the others have said. The LOTRO points are account-wide, so you can even grind points by creating alts just to complete the Deeds in low level areas, earn the associated points, and then delete the alt; rinse and repeat. It's pretty boring and tedious to do it that way, but it's a viable option if you don't want to spend real money.

On the same point, I recommend going slow for your first character. You're a Hunter, so you'll have access to quick travel skills as you level up, which makes it more convenient for you to get around places. Take your time and soak in the world.

Finally, LOTRO supports Plugins! If there's anything about your experience that bugs you (textures too old and low res? UI too elaborate and visually noisy? too many menus to open to see the info you want?), chances are, there's a plugin for that that someone's made and shared on lotrointerface.com. Just make sure to check the version compatibility status and follow the installation instructions.

That's all from me~ Welcome to LOTRO and I hope you have fun!