What you shouldn't do: Drop every single item you own. I did this when I became f2p and I'm so sorry I made that choice. Took me hours on end to get everything back.
Personally I find most skills "hard." Even if it is training cooking or something, once you go up in levels it takes a lot of time that I don't really have. It is hard because its boring. :lol:
Most of the summoning monsters aren't great. You really need to spend a few hundred thousand gp to get some good familiars. I don't think most pkers will bother.