Gathering basic mats offline isn't too bad for me. I usually do the first quest (deliver 5 unique mushrooms) and go around collecting the spiderweb from areas 5 + 9. Then I go around and hit up the honey areas while collecting shrooms. I usually can get about 3-4 flashbugs, 2-4 spiderwebs, maybe 1 thunderbug, and 10 honey within 7-10 mins. I just have my farm pumping out honey or whatever else I need.
I need to find out about the rare commodity trade works or how you even trade for the items. I have yet to get a double bbq for the bbq cha cha mask. I also need to get funky pheromones to make my bug producing better. I also need a super sized dung for another town request to make the fields produce more.