Always believe in your dreams, little Bidoof.

You are most welcome!

Not sure honestly. I started playing before it went free to play (had a free month), stopped playing until it went free to play, created a bunch of characters, bought the Moria expansion (which gave me a free month of "VIP" - which unlocks a lot of things permanently for any character you have at the time), and then went back to free play for a long time. At that point, the only thing I "needed" to buy were quest packs (new regions) and I used the Turbine points (now LOTRO points) I earned in-game for those. Later, more expansions were released and I bought those (though you can also get them via LOTRO points). There have been a couple times as well where I created new characters, got them to level 20, and went "VIP" again for a month in order to get those unlocks (mounts, traits, inventory bags, currency cap removed).

Right now, I have all the questing areas except one and over 2000 LOTRO points. The one region I don't own would cost 795 points, but I prefer to wait for sales (they have new store sales every week, when quest packs go on sale, they're usually 20% off). The expansions regularly go on sale 50% off as well. I've also spent LOTRO points on some silly things instead of saving them only for quest packs and such (e.g. I bought a horse speed upgrade so all my horses have 78% speed).

Between everything, I'd estimate I've spent between $150 and $200 on the game.

Breakdown: Moria expansion was $20, Isengard was $20-40 depending when I bought it, bought Riders of Rohan at launch for $40 iirc, ditto for Helm's Deep = $120-140 for expansions, then throw in 2 to 3 times of going VIP for a month or few for those unlock - $15 per month or $30 for three months.