I think I've never bought a piece of gear or a weapon, I'm level 15 in Novigrad and have like 9000 gold.

Don't really know how I'm supposed to spend it, but I guess by the endgame I'll figure it out.

Yeah, even in the beginning of the game the prices were unreasonably high. I made it my business to either create swords or take them from my fallen foes.

True, but id rather use my resources as I haven't found the bag upgrade yet to hold more weight like in part two. If I have a lot of supplies on me its much better for me to part with it to save myself the extra pounds. I sell whatever swords I take to make even more than I should. Sometimes after taking out a whole gang i'll return to even the poorest town and profit 200 crowns off of them at 15 crowns per weapon. I feel bad for the businesses, because I actually see how much money they have and as I keep selling they keep losing (LOL).

Noted, I will keep this in mind when I pick up the game.

If you have 9000 crowns by level 15 I am assuming you're going for the platinum. Am I right? I am at level 12 and I have around 3400 crowns. I haven't completed all of the side quests though and have only slayed two beast. I am planning on killing them all off in bulk after I gather all of the oils. I skipped the werewolf mission so I could get beast oil. Once I got it he couldn't heal after I cut him with my sword. I also tend to use an overabundance of potions in fights so I have to keep leveling up so I can add upgrades to ward off toxicity.

You get better weapons from witcher contracts anyway, but after I started crafting witcher sets the 3 witcher school ones, it's been the only thing I wear until the end main quest.

I was doing the griffin school gear only to find that the random armour I found in chests was better than it! Hopefully the witcher gear gets better.

off-topic. I just made a level 24 quest being in level 5, in very hard.

LIKE A BOSS!!

I am in Novigrad too, but I am in level 5 :D.  And just did the quest from swords and dumplings.  I havent done any story quest aside of meeting with the emperor and talk about Ciri.  Bloody dwarfs I hate them lol XD

The equipment you have right now is something you forged or found in chests?

Well I'm playing on the 2nd hardest difficulty level, so no plat for now. But I am trying not to miss any interesting side quests.

I have upgraded Quen's secondary mode, which allows you to put on the shield, wait till you get hit and gain a good portion of the health you would've taken, since then the game is much easier and I almost don't use food for health anymore.

For a lot of coins I suggest selling all the armor and swords you pick and don't use, and most important sell your "old money" to the banker in Novigrad. Brought me over 4000 coins.