Pretty much upgrade every level where it makes sense too, I either craft greens, and may buy the odd blue or purple if the guild store is not overpriced. I figure until I hit max level there is no sense really making equipment a priority since it changes every 1 - 2 levels completely
I keep the best dropped gear and decon everything else. Currently <vet. Alot of the drops are upgraded anyway, so I get better IP when decon it later with a good chance tp get the upgrade mat for it. Farming for mats at this point you could say.
PC NA
VR1 - Jar'eed - Khajiit Dragon Knight - AD
VR1 - Broad Tail - Argonian Templar - EP
All-Star Crafter Guild
In TES games I try to craft everything...in MMOs I rarely even touch crafting.
My first character I played like an MMO, I never crafted, wore quest/loot/guild store equipment only. He's vet-9 atm, pre-vet I only went to look at the guild store if I noticed an item was more than like 8-10 lvls below me. Other than that, it was just upgrade as I go.
On my second toon (lvl 32), I've been researching traits to make sets, she wears a mix of heavy & light armor to help the researching as that's two different crafts (atm, I have staff, chest, head, gloves & shoulders with 4-5 traits researched each & working on legs as well, so that I can have two 3 set bonuses). I upgrade all of my armor to at least green whenever: I hit the next material (as a way to get rid of all my old material before trade/deconstructing it all), when I make it to a new crafting location with a set I want to make for myself, or if my old set items are like 6 lvls below me (the set items I make, I upgrade to blue, so that they last longer).
Overall, it feels like my second character is much more powerful (though, that could also be because my first character is a healer & my second is aoe DPS).
I used to upgrade my gear every time new stuff was available, then around level 25 or so I pretty much stopped wasting mats and upgrading gear, this game's pve content is so damn easy I can solo content with gear that is 10+ levels behind and still take little to no damage.
Early on I did not fix my armor. I would scrap the set and craft a new set when it was broken, and save the gold. The cost of fixing low level armor seemed quite high. Now I upgrade when fights get hard. I think I am in level 34 crafted armor, with three mixed higher level drops, I bought some purple level 37 weapons, I am on level 38 quests, and I am level 41.
At VR4 and have not made an upgrade yet everything gets looted so quick no need. I have a couple of pieces of equipment that guildies made when they decided they wanted me to tank out of the blue. Pulled equipment out of the guild bank and they made the rest. I will probably make a set finally at VR5.
I try to keep my weapons max for my lvl...usually this is obtained by random drops. I haven't crafted anything on this toon..saving mats for, honestly no clue. I should probably craft some stuff.