I just bought a $35 set from Nashbar. Good enough for me. I think it was the $70 kit on sale.

As for the chain, when I get to the point where a new chain skips, know what I do? I put the old chain back on and run it until things start acting up. I mean, what the heck, the cassette is wrecked anyway, I may as well use it as long as it's still working OK.

I normally have to get a new chain every 1800 miles. Last time I tried to put on a new one, the skipping started and I put the old one back on. I'm now at about 5200 miles on that chain and it's still running fine. I have a new cassette on the bench but at this point I'm curious to see how long it'll run.

Worst case is that the chainring will want to skip when I finally put on a new chain. If that happens, I just flip the chainrings over and start wearing out the other side of them.