Can any cubing guru (*cough* Tesiqurasa *cough*) offer some advice here?

I understand that I can cube upwards through normal, rare, epic to unique - and that I can never cube downwards to a level below.

But, as a mage, I might cube my staff and find I get 3 rows of STR or other not so worthwhile stuff.

If I am well funded, then I would just have to keep cubing until I am satisfied with the result. If I am on a limited budget, that is not so easy.

So, I was thinking of keeping two sets of all equipment (or maybe just two the equipment I am currently cubing).

For instance, I currently have 9% INT on my staff and I wouldn't like to lose it. Perhaps I could get another and cube that until the monthly budget is spent or until it is better than the current staff.

Is that the way to go? If I leapfrog two equips I can't find myself in the situation where I cubed, ran out of budget and have bad stats until next month.


Advice, please?