So what would you suggest if I want to skill up after 88, but not spending like 200k per Synth?
You can dodge the bullet for a little bit on troll pieces, (although camping the AH for a day for 10 pauldrons and then only getting 2-4 ingots out of them, and then getting zero skill off of those ingots will make you hurt someone) but eventually there's no way to not lose tons of money finishing smithing. But whoever said now is the time to level it is right, adaman is about as cheap as it's gonna get.
Of course, that means everyone and their mother has 100 smithing now so the market is flooded on just about every profit snyth. So... G'luck with making your investment back once you finally hit 100.