If you care about collecting minions, some of those can be bought for a pretty penny. But back to one of your original points, almost all of those can be farmed if you want to spend the time and hope RNG is on your side.

The few, new 3star crafted minions have some ridiculous material requirements atm. They both need the super rare gardening materials, and even if your server has them for sale it's likely you wouldn't spend what it being asked for them. The Magic Broom is up on my server right now for about 4 million.

Our FC saved money for housing, and got it. Now we are in the midst of furnishing it. Once we have the rest of the Haukke Manor instruments and the Protection Module (the Purification Module is AWESOME!) we will most likely be done furnishing until new stuff comes out. Getting the rest of the minions I don't have is the only thing I can see myself spending money on, unless I decide to gear another crafter.

I'll be saving my bankroll for the casino