Calisse, it adds up fast. I'm in the same boat - just got a bb today so I can start putting it together (this is after a bb I bought through the mec gearswap never got here, sent uninsured with no delivery conf - Pay the extra buck!)

If you want some commisseration:

It all started out because (everything in Cdn here):

frame and fork: $30 (because it needed a h/s, which I still have to work on)

b/c of that I thought I could get something together for around $300, having no parts to start with.

So:

bars: 25
tape: 10
stem: 15
crank and chainring (which maybe won't work, old Ofmega, we'll see tonight): $25
single stack bolts: 8
crank bolts: 5
seatpost: 15
brakes (only came as a pair, but Sheldon Brown said they were the best ever, so why not?): 50
levers: 20
cog: 30
bb: 30 (plus another 35 if you want to count the one Canada Post ate for breakfast)
wheels: 200
rim tape: 8
saddle: 45
brake hoods (not absolutely necessary, but they were pink, and I've got a pink/black thing going): 7

Now in the $525 range to build a bike with a 30+ year old spraypainted frame with rust that's not even really my size (in the 64c-c/62tt range, which like all you tall ones know, forget finding something used) with parts that are nothing special. This is because it would cost way too much to ship an IRO to Canada, and I didn't want to wait until May or June till the next time I'd be in the states (sigh), the Bianchi I tried in Philly was way too small, the Fuji in TO seemed to have really junky parts (though the frame was on the right order of size in 64cm), Langsters aren't availabe in Canada at all, and afaik no Mtl KHS dealer here can get a Flite, or don't want to.

Still need tires, tubes, chain and a seat binder bolt, and probably something else I've forgotten. Was going to get cheap mec tires, but the helpful bike fellow at the Mtl mec (Robin) suggested that if I easily wrecked sidewalls on Panaracer Paselas, their cheap ($14 Panaracer or Continentals) ought to be avoided, so I'm thinking of going to the like 35-40 buck a tire range. Plus I'll find out that my h/s races are pitted when I got to rebuild it, so throw in an h/s and installation. And not counting all the stuff I'm going to break putting it together.

Sigh. I'll be in Philly in June, and am considering going in hock and ordering an IRO just so I'll have a whole bike with parts that are all new all work together, and the pink nightmare can be a project/weird bike/rain and snow bike.

The things we do for love?