My tip without traveling through portals would be: Keep to two worlds and minimize your traveling. settle on a tier 2 world and rise up till you have enough iron for at least 5 hammers and a nice amount of food, then go to a tier 3 world (best would be a non-coal world (so not Grovidias Te or Groviathosa) and try to mine the hell out of that planet with what you got, so that you bring back enough iron and may be tech components to fill the hole you would feel on a tier 2 world. With that Iron you can then prepare for an even longer trip the next time. Iron tools are good up to tier 4, so you need silver and gold (only on tier 3+, and even there rare) only on rare occasions (for some machines for example) … Have a look at the map of the PS guys (** UPDATED ** Guild Portal Seekers / Hunts / Contracts/ Gateways / Recruiment) to see where you are and what planet is the next to you (that reduces travel costs).
So when you have problems with portals you should also avoid bigger settlements (which is sad, cuz there you can make some good coin by trading and also fill up with stuff you miss). But feel free to make a beacon on the 2nd world as well to have a warp point and also a storage so that you can haul more until you go back again 