As of the battle sprites update which is cheaper, buying an item from the depot, and heating it to 10, or Crafting an item from 1* though 5* and then heating to 10?
Make sure to add recipe cost and all the crystals recuired by ALWAYS forging at 100% to avoid failure.
Assuming you find orbs and crystals, you only need to pay recipe costs which is sorta cheaper than having to get everything. 2* - 5*: (1k + 4k + 10k + 25k) = 40,000 crowns. Add (400 + 1000 + 2500 + 5000) which is the crafting cost on alchemisation and you require 48,900 crowns, including orbs found through loot, fire crystals and materials.
At the current rate of CE, you require (48,900 / ~86) about 568 CE. Only.
If you are lazy, decide not to work or grind for stuff, 3,500CE is about 6 times more expensive than what you actually really need. That's not including the costs for fire crystals, though I reckon if you took the effort to heat it in clockworks you're bound to at least find some fire crystals and at least one orb throughout the whole heating process of one item.