Most weeks it's just consumables. I buy, like, maybe one cheapish glam piece a month. I only get craft gear at a new tier, made by static member so I only need mats, and even then I have to save weeks beforehand.
So, in this case, it was buy food and pots for raid this week with my bank of 300000 gil, or buy some ugly, crappy white gear which will be irrelevant after one leveling dungeon. Not a hard choice.
As to the rest, I am part of min ilvl LS's; however, usually only endgame instances or dungeons with strong nostalgia value (Vault) fill.
But that's irrelevant - I've already admitted that I was selfish here. I enjoyed the challenge, but my motive was primarily faster gearing. However, I still find my choice justified. In a world of healers who won't DPS and DPS who don't know what a rotation is, I figured that my undergeared is still better than incompetence. It saved me a LOT of time, seeing as days later I still wouldn't have had the poetics for full 270, while making the Siren runs a handful of minutes slower.
It's not something I do all the time. I did make sure to get full 260+ on DRK awhile back because I'm NOT a good tank and I have paranoia when relying on unfamiliar healers.
