I'm havin problems getting up enough damage to even solo... i'm lvl 43 and my wep does like 205 damage (keep in mind i'm too poor to afford the best of the best). Is there any way I can up my damage in a low-cost way?

not really i would recommend doing cata until u can afford a better ee weap

str/dex armors/charms help alil but wont make much diff if all u can hit is 200

How is it possible to afford something just by gaining levels? o_o

My problem is, I can't do the solo thing to FIND the items I need... and i'm not jumpy enough to grab anything worth a damn in catas. lol.

you wont find anything in cata... you could join a guild that pays for mq's and just cata ur way to mq over and over eventually you will have enough to kill monsters at lvl 40 u can find mutables and sell possibly good items this would be your first step =D