I'm not quite sure if I'm normal cuz I have a save file of almost 4 hours all quest completed that I could do (ep. 5) and I have 250+ shells.
I know but it took me from waking up in the jungle to that point almost 4 hours and I had to grind at least 150+ Schell's for the quests. My grindpath was help Tara, help Mary and go fishing after that was night and I repeated that way untill I had enough. I also sold the emerald I found in the ruins.