that's exactly what SC want
it's take you 1hr to build your army without gem, right?
so gem the barrack and hero to reduce the time to 15mins then you can ride 4 times/village guide (with gem) + 4 times via shield (no gem).
without gem, no profit, that's they want from us. and that also ruin this game.
I wil share my schedule:
I raid at 11PM and log out without shield at 11PM before going to sleep -> after log out, instantly got 16hrs shield
I wake up at 6AM, do some stuff and eat breakfast until 7AM and raid one time, so I only have 5hrs shield left.
I go to work and have 1.5hrs break around 12PM, and that exactly end time of my shield, one more last raid via shield and I still have village guard for 1hrs (I can do other thing during 15min training without opening my phone all time)
I boost my barrack and hero and spell with gem to have 4 raids in 1hrs (I only eat lunch for 30 mins) then log out to get 16hrs shield again.
I come back home at 6:30 or 7 PM and one more raid before going to bath (7->8hrs shield left), enjoy my life with my family until 10PM and raid one again (no more shield but still have 1hr village guard) then boost again to have another 4 raid before log out at 11PM.
you can see, I raid about 11-12 times with 60gems/day (only boost 2 barracks, hero and spell, because my army include giants, wizards and 1 or 2 witches which is fast and cheap) ~ 1800gems/month ~ 16$/month.
what's your schedule? by the way, I'm TH9 in champion 1 with ~ 4000 trohy and I got ~ 900k gold and Elixir + 4000 DE every single raid (bonus included). I get hit mostly by TH11 and they can only get ~160k gold + 160k elixir 1200 DE for 3 starring me due to the loot penalties.
I've never run out of resource to upgrade stuff, especially DE.
I only donate to my clan mate when I'm under shield, just quickly login, donate and log out (20s). my clan is amazing, usually I request EQ spell with some archer or wiz or lvl3 witches and instantly have it.