Well, my mrs is an accountant, so I pretty much had to run everything by her before I paid for it!!!
I also kept receipts of everything.
I estimated, apart from a few things here and there, that it cost me roughly £6500-£7000.
First off, me and Bone (Graham) bought ours at the same time for cash so got some reduction on price.
The next I found a good donor, XR3i, for dirt cheap off ebay, £120 as it had a blown head gasket. I stripped and rebuilt the engine and had the head skimmed for free in work, I also sold the stuff I didn't use off the car so the engine cost £80. I obtained another donor for free, a Sierra minus the engine, again from work. I work in a college.
I also purchased a lot of bits and bobs from ebay very cheaply, motorbike carbs, fuel pump, etc, even managed to find things like full rear diff with disc brakes from a Sierra Cossie for approx £100, just cos they wouldn't post. Petrol cost me about £25. I also scoured different cars for bits at local scrapyard.
I made a lot of parts such as inlet manifold. The only thing I really spent money on was the kit itself and gauges.
So I do think it can be done cheaply, but I do like the thought of making something myself to do a job instead of buying something.
Timescale picked up in July finished by March next year, 9 months, but that was because I wanted to get it in for SVA rather than IVA, cost again you see!!!!