Original General Dungeon Fighter Thread

About $3-5 is a good start. Tokens (aka lives/Wheels) used to be an issue for new players, but they made it so at lower levels you get more tokens per day. The NX will mostly be used to get a safe upgrade so weight is unlimited. As for cheap classes, I can think of a few that work for being cheap AND they are pretty good/strong at end-game:

-Female Mech: Expenses are mostly buying hat/hair INT avatars. However, they are VERY efficient with their MP and faceroll PvE pretty badly. Requires quite a bit of micromanagement as you're juggling cooldown on robots and G-series, but to me I find that very fun.
-Witch: Everyone and their mother says how good they are with little to no funding; in most cases will never run out of MP. It's a little girl though, which may not be to your liking.
-Nen Masters: Female character, but are loved in parties due to very good buffs and defensive bubble. Rapes PvE like an Female Mech, and probably even more MP efficient.

What Henry said is something I can vouch for. Top tier classes right here, with relative PvE ease and love. Not to mention what little funding or equipping they need as well. However, make sure you use a proper build because that's what these classes are dependant on. S'long as you do that you'll be an asset to any party and still be able to solo as well. Beyond that, sheer skill to do well in this game because bosses and dungeons only get harder. So don't hold off gearing too late.

Edit: First safe upgrade is probably the best investment for anyone, it's a shame it's independant per character but it's cheap and you lose the weight restriction. So the pros really outweigh the cons here.