Economy (EU2012)

Satellites

Your number one source of income in the game is satellite coverage. Because you get income from satellites at the end of each month and satellite uplinks and satellites have long construction times, you will benefit greatly from some planning to make sure you get the facilities up just before month end, rather than just after. Remember to factor in the engineers and power you'll need and make sure you build generators and workshops with enough lead time. Your satellite links should be your first priority for adjacency bonuses, because an extra satellite is considerably more valuable than +2 power or a workshop rebate. You will need 16 satellites to cover the whole world, so with 4 satellite uplinks and a satellite nexus (or 2 satellite uplinks and 2 satellite nexuses) you will need 4 adjacency bonuses.

While Managing Panic will be your first priority with satellites, fully covering Africa should be a major priority for the 30% increase in global income.

Gray Market

The Gray Market is your second major source of income. While selling things you might need later is a painful decision, it's almost unavoidable to be able to afford to equip your soldiers properly while keeping up with satellite deployment. Sectoid, Thin Man and Floater corpses are usually good bets in the early game, since you will usually get more. You should stop selling Sectoid corpses around month 3 and Floater corpses around month 4, because you stop seeing those alien types and you may want the corpses for the interceptor consumables. Thin Men on the other hand you'll always have a supply of from council missions. While it may be tempting in the first month or two, you should never sell weapon fragments because they're the main limiting factor on research and foundry projects. While less crucial, it's easy to run out of alloys and elerium to manufacture late game armor, so also avoid selling those if you can. After researching them UFO Power Sources are only really required for Firestorms; interceptors with plasma cannons will suffice until late in the game, so these can quite safely be sold off in the first couple of months.

Cost avoidance

Only buy or build what you need rather than what you want.

• You can manufacture soldier equipment instantly, even just before a mission, so there's no need to stockpile. If you find you need an extra nanofiber vest for your squad setup just back out, manufacture one and select the mission again.
• There's little reason to have more than one of each interceptor consumable in your stores. When you use one, manufacture a replacement instantly. Even if you need to use two interceptors in quick succession, you can still easily manufacture another between launches.
• Take the time to un-equip items and armor from troops to re-equip them on whoever is going out on the mission. It may take time, but it will save resources in the long-run. Note that injured soldiers who go to the infirmary automatically un-equip all their special gear. Soldiers in Psi training keep their equipment, you have to un-equip it manually or you won't have access to it for ten days.

Do I Really Need That?

Some projects are pure luxuries. Soldier recovery time in the Officer Training School is a prime example. It's available early, but it's quite expensive, and you can always swap in a new rookie or squaddie to get some experience. Some Foundry projects are also quite expensive, and worse, they often take Weapon Fragments, which are also required for research projects.