I hear about gas prices being a hold back a lot. We (that includes me) get all crazy looking at a 30 cent per gallon price increase, but we need to keep things in perspective.
We just got back from a trip across Iowa, We live in IL. That trip was around 804 miles round trip I've tracked my gas (and mpg) over the trip, and included everything except about the last 60 or so miles. The day before we left, my wife checked the gas prices across Iowa. The day we went, the prices all across the state jumped 30 cents a gallon. We traveled 774 miles across Iowa, and bought 44.186 gallons of gas ( the total cost was $169.10)) with that extra 30 cents added on. (those keeping track, the truck got 17.516 mpg). That extra 30 cents a gallon cost me $13.25 more then it would have a few days before.

Granted, we were going any way, but the big gas price jump (.30 in one day is pretty big in my book) cost less then a single meal at a fast food joint to travel that 774 miles. If $13 (or $170 for that matter) is going to break the hot rod budget, You probably can't afford it anyway. Real life experience: 12 years ago, if you could do everything yourself, and were resourceful, you could put a drivable ride together for $3,500 (it probably wouldn't look pretty, but you could safely drive it). 2 years ago, that same ride cost $8,000 to get road worthy (and still looked rough). I'd be pretty surprised if the same ride could be road worthy for under $10,000 these days.

This is not a cheap hobby, never was. Don't buy into the BS about how cheap you can build something. The big ticket items are less then 1/4 the cost.