Four tips for saving money when patenting overseas
1. Don’t – the ROI on patenting is almost always negative
2. If you really have to, then only patent in the US (Europe costs a bomb and takes forever. Enforcement in China is still a pipe-dream. Who cares about anywhere else?)
3. Draft your own application and file it through the USPTO online system
4. When you are drafting your patent application all you have to do is find a very similar patent and copy it but making pertinent changes where needed. When you find such a patent to copy you should consider going back to point 1.
offshore westerly 
Well 1 contradicts your previous stories (although you are probably right in both cases)
2. Agreed but I can’t tell you how many people I meet where a patent attorney has convinced them to file all over the world
3. Not for the newbie
4. Again not for the newbie
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For newbies, see point 1 and stop