Also, a fair amount of the 'in demand' mats for rank 40+ gears can be farmed by a character in the 20's range. Before that, shards can be your bread and butter. Lastly, while I realize crafting/gathering isn't everyone's cup of tea, it is possible to do both via leves and not use your own mats. But ranking either can and will net you some gils, sometimes fairly quickly I might add.

Another tactic, if you're a newer, lower ranked player, join a social ls that has a couple crafters. Ask the crafters what mats, etc they need. If you are able, go farm for them. If you supply ls crafters with mats they need, they usually supply you with the gears you need. And depending on the crafter/linshell and your gathering/farming abilities, this could net you 'free gear'