Getting to 3* melding help!

I am a semi-casual player looking to get to 3* for my crafter and have some questions on how to go about melding. Currently I am able to do 2* with my 3 specialist as I have 180 gear for main and body, and the rest are 150hq fully melded. I am looking to replaced all my accessories to the 170hq as the stepping stone to slowly replace my leftside to 170 gears. How should I go about melding it once I have the gear? I am not particularly rich and would like to minimize on the gil spend on material. Thanks.

With full 170 and 180 you barely have to meld anything, honestly.

I've got a control IV and a Craft IV in all my accessories (and my offhand) and the rest is CP melds, for the left side I just filled it with whatever to meet 850 craftsmanship overall. Only time you'd have to go crazy with melding is if you wanted to meet requirements without food.