Building up a Magna is like building a house on sand. I couldn't afford much either when I first started biking but I did find a 2000 Gary Fisher Wahoo on craigslist for $60. It's lasted me well since I got it in March. After a while I got bit by the bike bug & just had to have a nicer bike. So I've been building up a full suspension bike. When I get done, it will still be cheaper than buying the complete bike, but certainly not cheaper than buying a used FS from craigslist. There's no arguing that buying complete used will almost always be cheaper than building a bike piece by piece.