People are a bit, well, rude about the game here I think
You do not have to stick to such a small gun like Bukins Rifle to not loose longterm.
Parsed
I agree with Mace9 and another problem is that everyone plays EU differently and some haven't figured out open ended gameplay is what you make it.
* Eco well how eco are you going to play? Lightly eco and buy clothes, vehicles, plots, or will you play accountant eco while worrying about SIB items with charts and spreadsheets and pinching every pec???
* Will you find others that play to skill up and keep you motivated, do you compare certain skill stats ie MindForce or overall Total skills points? And is it skills you add freely like sweating, or swunting, or visiting ol' Mulcy at Zychion Citadel, or by chipping in?
* Find someone missing a TP and do a vehicle free TP run, question is can either of you do it without weapons?
* Grab some clothes lot's of good tailors out there plus doesn't hurt to stand out a bit and just be social.
* See how long you and maybe others can play EU on a certain amount of ped for several days, ie. 10 ped for 7 days!
* Will you find repairing UL items more preferable to looking for your preferred L items.
etc. etc. anyways lots of ways to play EU.
Also if you still have old weapons and equipment they can be worth a bit.
There's always someone who'll say that old stuff is worthless and just dump that imp mk into TT lol even though its worth a lot of ped on market/auction... funny that.
But from reading what OP wrote, it seems to me the replies are from players in different playing brackets.
And 40 ped weekly is very doable I've done it.
First off there's a pretty handy website that can let you know about stuff. Recent updates = good!
http://www.entropiawiki.com/
Go without armor except for the few medium mobs that attack or when saved up a week or so to be able to repair it after. Plus hunting without armor will bring up your skills.
Keep the amps off the weapons for small mobs, the repair bills just add to cost of playing and aren't worthwhile for punys. Sure the bean-countin' eco hunters will cry foul on that but try without for a bit.
Use any limited weapons you loot, however not all Limited weapons are more eco then what you may already use... Just keep an eye on ammo/shot vs damage done and decide if it's worth using it or better to sell it and get more ammo from TT.
For weapons maybe try Chon pistol, or Z12 laser carbine (start packs), the Bukins Rifle, or if you wish to get it the Gold starter pack (webshop $$) has Adjust Harrier armor with its acceleration boost, everything with it is pretty economical imo.
Note: Rocktropia starter pack has a Tommy gun is BLP but last I checked it still gave laser skills except for that I do like this pack and that tommy gun is same as Z12 stats and eco!
Don't care about "eco" or playing the "SIB" game just want something initially cheap with low repair bills and more damage to defend against the odd larger mob in puny spawns then maybe try something like Mar-Lighter Davidov laser carbine? Plenty of ways to sort and then choose from at:
http://www.entropiawiki.com/Chart.aspx?chart=Weapon
Whatever larger weapon you choose put amp and scope on it, again recommend gold starter pack amp/scope.
It's boring to wait for health to replenish so Faps are important the S10 from gauntlet and 10 pulse from starter is good, both cost little to repair but there's other more eco faps to get if you've the ped.
Refurbished H.E.A.R.T. from Cyrene missions is good and pretty easy to do but expect to cycle approximately 700ped in ammo to finish that mission chain, and (imo) only the nimet's need armor (but depends on evade skills).
The Caly daily missions tend to be all over the place in skill needed.
My first one sent me to cave north of PA to hunt ?Maffoids? anyways EWE1 pistol didn't do much to them. lol
Anyways grab all the missions you can and hunt the smaller mobs and work your way up. Camp Icarus puts you on mission chain to get some CDF armor rewards.
Regardless of what you do and how you decide to play, good luck and have fun.