Good stuff, Lhix
I'm also rather frugal-minded when it comes to my stuff, even though it's not all cheap.
A fun way to reduce costs, I think, is to buy used stuff. There are obvious risks and downsides, but I love the treasure hunting aspect of second-hand buying and you can often sell stuff at more or less the same price as you got it if you no longer want it.
I bought a 2~2,5k USD stratocaster for half price that I had for a year and then sold at the same price. Not long ago, I bought a used Godin LG for about ~290 USD and sold it again for ~410. My last mic-buy was a mint condition SE Electronics GM10 acoustic guitar mic which also was about half the price. I got my studio monitors dirt cheap too. The guy who sold them had problems with the speakers humming a lot when no sound was playing, but he'd hooked it up in his living room with some strange phono cables and TLR adapters. He was using them as speakers for his TV and not in a good way. No wonder he didn't like them! I bought them, got them home, hooked them up with some proper cables. The dreaded hum was gone and they worked perfectly.
Having to mail stuff is a bit bothersome, so I usually only keep an eye on the used market in my local area. If I find something, I can just take the car and pick it up.