Bitz Budgeting

I've been busy generating a lot of armylists the last little while - I'm having a hard time nailing down exactly how I think a Khorne army should be constructed. I've also never run an infantry-heavy marine list, so there's a lot of uncertainty there as far as what would actually be effective. The problem with this list-flux is that I'm trying to get an estimated budget in place for the final armylist, and each change to the list (especially the unit upgrades) changes the shopping list. Bah.

Games Workshop does a pretty good job of supplying a range of weapon upgrades with its plastic kits, but it can get really irritating when they do not provide enough of a given upgrade. For example, meltaguns are very popular (and quite effective) right now, but they often come only one to a box. If you want two per squad, you're either out of luck or have to hit eBay or the bitz sellers.

The bulk of my foot forces are going to be constructed from the Knorne Berzerker and Chaos Space Marine box sets. Unfortunately, the Berzerker kit does not have weapon upgrades of any kind. The Chaos Space Marine set has some upgrades, but only one each of meltagun, plasmagun, flamer, powerfist, power weapon and banner. I don't think any of the other box sets I'm getting will have anything appropriate, so I'll definitely be short what I need. The question is: how short?

Let's use my most recent (and rough) armylist as a starting point:
15-man Blood Claw, meltagun, flamer, powerfist
15-man Blood Claw, meltagun, flamer, powerfist
9-man Grey Hunter, meltagun, powerfist, wolf standard
9-man Grey Hunter, meltagun, powerfist, wolf standard
3-man Wolf Guard, 3xpower weapon
Thunderwolf Cav, frost blade, storm shield
Thunderwolf Cav, frost blade, storm shield
Thunderwolf Cav, frost blade, storm shield
Lone Wolf, thunder hammer, storm shield

Here's the list of bitz I'll need, based on the above. I'll assume, for now, that I'll be constructing the majority of this list from 3 boxes of Berzerkers and 2 boxes of CSM.

Meltagun: 5 (Blood Clawsx2, Grey Huntersx2, Wolf Scoutsx1)
- only 2 from the CSMs so 3 short
Flamer: 2 (Blood Clawsx2)
- 2 from the CSM so got enough
Power Fist: 4 (Blood Clawsx2, Grey Huntersx2)
- 2 from the CSM so 2 short
Power Weapons: 5 (Wolf Guardx3, Wolf Scoutsx2)
- 2 from the CSM so 3 short
Frost Weapons: 3 (Thuderwolf Cavalryx3)
- nothing spplicable, so 3 short
Storm Shield: 4 (Thunderwolf Cavalryx3, Lone Wolfx1)
- the current CSM range doesn't include storm shields so I don't have any of these
Thunder Hammer: 1 (Lone Wolfx1)
- nothing applicable in the box sets so 1 short
Wolf Standard: 2 (Grey Huntersx2)
- 2 from the CSM so got enough

A bit of a mixed bag, really - I've got enough for a couple of the items, but I'm definitely short on the rest. The War Store is my bitz supplier of choice, so let's see what they've got available that can fill in the blanks.

Meltagun:
- CSM Meltagun for $7.49US each. Ouch.
Power Fist:
- 2 Chaos Terminator Power Fists for $3.99US
Power Weapon:
- Chaos Knights Possessed Daemon Sword for $1.99US each
- Chaos Knights Champion Daemon Sword for $2.99US each
Frost Weapon:
- 3 Chaos Knights CCW Blades for $2.49US
Storm Shield:
- Chaos Knights Champion Shield for $.99US
- 5 Chaos Knights Shield With Arms for $5.99US
Thunder Hammer:
- Chaos Terminator Power Mace for $2.99US

Most of my needs can be filled in at fairly reasonable prices. The total cost for these extra bits comes in at $44US, more than half of which is for the meltaguns alone. For now I'll plan on ordering everything except for the meltaguns, and scour eBay and other bitz sellers for those for the next few months to see if I can swing a deal. For today's budgeting purposes, tho, at least I have an idea of where I stand.