I would suggest saving about 500 polys by turning the hands into mittens instead of fingered. You're not going to see that much detail anyway.
Take a look at a model I did a while ago (not trying to hijack here by the way)
http://www.mentalillusion.co.uk/picture.php?path=./Models/Characters/&name=Female
Might help. You might want to look at where you lay out your polys for uv mapping afterwards. For example, put the waist band for trousers etc as a seam in your polys, that way you will have a nice clean line to texture from etc.
Take a look at a model I did a while ago (not trying to hijack here by the way)
http://www.mentalillusion.co.uk/picture.php?path=./Models/Characters/&name=Female
Might help. You might want to look at where you lay out your polys for uv mapping afterwards. For example, put the waist band for trousers etc as a seam in your polys, that way you will have a nice clean line to texture from etc.