It's amazing how hard this is to get some people to understand. But then again, part of the confusion comes from the difference between a new player and an new alt of an experienced player.

I am one that preaches the "stay out of the AH" sermon to newbies. On the other hand, when leveling my own alts, I do take them into the AH about every 10 levels or so and drop around 100g on the best stuff I can find. It does make leveling a bit easier - especially survivability. But that's only because I can easily make that 100g in about 30 minutes on one of my 80s. The trade-off versus reward is just NOT worth it, if you don't have a (relatively) endless supply of cash from a main). 100g is nothing to an 80 who is already in full epics, enchants, and gems, and the ability to purchase that kind of swag for a lower level toon is just a perk of already having leveled at least one toon to the max and leveled some professions - a lot like heir loom pieces.

If you have not done that yet, you won't have that perk, but don't worry about it. It really doesn't make THAT much difference to your leveling experience. You WILL get everything you need from quests and, if you run them, dungeons to allow you to keep leveling just fine. Ignore the overgeared alts around you. Those are just seasoned players trying to shave a few minutes here and there off the leveling time of an additional character, by paying chunks of gold for *slightly* better stats.

**One caveat to this, though. If you have the willpower to resist the temptation to buy all the shiny stuff you can't (and shouldn't) afford, you might venture into the AH, especially after level 10. I have leveled/am leveling around 8 alts, and sometimes I do find decent low-level gear for very, very cheap - like just a few copper or silver - that help fill a slot I haven't filled questing, yet. That can really boost survivability. It's worth a look, but if it's not an absolute, steal, don't waste your cash. You'll need that for more important things - like training and mounts.