Think of this way. First there are total polygons. The more you have the more memory you use.
Then there are the skeletons.
What people forget is that every piece of non dynamic cloth has it's own skeleton in addition to all the polygon it adds.

8 Fully dressed figures is really like at least 16 naked figures before you added a sngle prop or background.

What I started doing was taking my characters into a modeling program and making fully dressed stand alone characters with only what they needed.

But that's above a lot of peoples skill level.

mo·nop·o·ly  [muh-nop-uh-lee]
noun, plural mo·nop·o·lies.
1. exclusive control of a commodity or service in a particular market,
or a control that makes possible the manipulation of prices