Back to the original question.
Yes, it's possible to try to go the 'free stuff Daz route'. There are a number of free resources out there that don't involve pirating.
I visit renderosity.com and sharecg.com regularly. They have a lot of freebies. There is also this page:
You must be registered to see the links
Pay attention to the usage rights of the stuff you download. Some are unrestricted, others are personal use only, and the rest fall in between r.e. usage rights.
Googling can find you a number of other files as well.
As to whether it's possible to 'make do' on the free route, I think so but you will be a bit limited in characters, hair, wardrobe options and similar such. Especially if you use older models such as the Victoria 4 era models. Lots of 'free stuff' for V4, etc.
Another place that you may fall short is in setpieces/locations. With a bit of skill, you can find a number of royalty free images on the net, if you want to go the 'put character on top of background' route that is popular in RPGMaker, RenPy, etc. games, but if you want to 'natively render' the character in an environment, well your selection of environment/location models will be rather limited.
Should you decide to start buying stuff from the Daz store, definitely get a Platinum Club membership for your first year, when Platinum Club goes on sale. It usually goes on sale for 1/2 off for a couple of days every month or two... This will open the door to a whole bunch of freebies via the Daz store throughout the course of the year.
Unless you go the pirate route of course...
