The best free and legal way (without farming) to save tokens is to spend less on transfers. 1st and the most important rule is avoid token wars. Bid max 2-3T per auction, avoid auctions for most wanted players. Eg. It is sometimes easier to buy 18-19y.o. Q85% player than 25y.o. Q95% player. High Q attracts bidders. Also, nor tokens neither money payed for player can guarantee that he'll be useful. I've spent over 10T on negotiations for ST which scored less than MC and bought some mildfielder for 1T who scored as much as top-Q strikers.
I've managed to save over 200T on each of 3 profiles because I spend less than 35T per season on transfers + I spend some T on match schedule adjust. Also sometimes strong competition helps so if my team doesn't get promoted, I don't need to buy new players.