WordPress Memory Usage Issue

Hi guys,
I’m very new to wordpress, and I don’t have a lot of formal training when it comes to HTML and websites.

A quick background-
I’m using an older build of WordPress (3.1.4) and while it was working fine, I’ve recently started having a lot of memory issues.

I would keep getting ‘Fatal Error: Out of Memory’ On my installation while trying to access the website, or even admin page. I checked with phpinfo() and memory allocated was 32M. I also added wp_memory_limit 32M/24M/16M (various tries) but everything it kept telling me I had somewhere about only 9M allocated.

So after trying various things I gave up and emailed my host. A few days later now the allocated amount is nearly 28mb, and everything works, but I still keep getting random memory errors, which sometimes resolve on a refresh.

So I googled around, disabled all plugins (had only about 4) and Installed TPC! Memory Usage. It tells me that wordpress, in the admin page is using about 22.03mb out of the 32mb allocated to it. If i activate NextGen Gallery it goes to 24.8mb, post which i started getting the Fatal Memory Error everywhere.

Next, I installed a fresh copy of wordpress on the same server, using a new database (basically, a fresh start) installed TPC, and again I’m using over 22mb of memory just on admin page. Here, there are no posts, no pages, and no plugins except TPC.

I’m really at my wits end as to what to do. At this rate I can’t use any plugins at all. What could be going wrong?

Thank you for taking the time out to read this.