Truth is, if I was in your situation where I was barely half way to the lowest status on any airline, I wouldn't even try too hard to obtain status outside of the necessary flying. As others have stated you'd be better spent paying out of pocket for Economy+/FC on a needed basis versus trying to find additional flights to get silver status (which most of the benefits can be had from getting a UA CC with no fee). Unless you expect a heavy uptick in travel, such as work where you are not paying, I wouldn't worry too much about trying to hit certain thresholds at this time.