To Mia- I wouldn't trade using your main character, even if there isn't a risk of a ban. I just wouldn't want the personal contact to have follow up potential.
As far as spending $, I've considered buying a few things for two reasons. I'm still waiting for my bargain, but I don't look often enough to know when it's there, lol.
1) Gold ears : sometimes start for .99, and sell about $5, I think that's less than I'd have to buy a hat at WDW; I'm not sure if the Gold Ears will still be available in Jan. when we go; we have 4 players in our house and DON'T need 4 hats sitting on a shelf collecting dust.
I've seen others comment on buying a Stitch hat in that it was alot cheaper to buy than book a trip. I wouldn't personally buy something so extravagant, but never in my life have I stayed in a Disney hotel, so I guess I will never have a Stitch hat. Good thing that doesn't affect me the same as Cowboy hat!
2) Time : something I might want real bad, like a snowman or snow magic or cowboy hat or bird hat, if I ever find them cheap enough (not looking promising the couple times I looked), compared to the time spent playing to get tons of credits to buy multiples of the weekend specials in hopes of a rare trade that never happens for me, not to mention the time in trade rooms asking if anyone wants what I might have to offer ( a weak offer since we started late May)... I'm losing my train of thought, but you know where I'm going. Time is money, and I shouldn't be jealous of all you Zeta ladies in your cowboy outfits but that's probably what the pang is. I just don't get that feeling often in life!
Even if I spent a few bucks to make my character stylin like the rest of you who've been around all year, it would still be a lot less than what my BIL spends on X-Box games or most people spend on Game Boy or even computer game downloads! I've always stuck with the free online games and saw no reason to vear from them. Online Animal Crossing (we don't have DS and I'm not spending the $ for it) would be tempting, but vmk is so similar, just no friendly animals as neighbors.