I think what this thread shows is that the costs of commuting vary widely. Its fun to calculate stuff and hear other people's opinions.

When I first started commuting it was with a grand total of $5 for a crappy kids huffy mountain bike with a broken shifter which meant i rode artound 5 miles each way with 6 speeds on a bike way to small for me. I guess my total spending should have been another $5-$10 for a lock, but I didn't think it would get stolen a couple months later. The next bike was a $10 Panasonic road bike and a used helet for $15 total. I didn't know what a good bike I had so I spent $20 on a pretty decent used Huffy mountain bike (I think it was the top of their line when it was built LOL) a few weeks later and loaned out the Panansonic and never saw it again. Still with all my floundering and lack of basic knowledge I commuted for over a year to school and work a few times a week for less than $50. Heck I loaded up that Huffy with a tent sleeping bag etc for a couple nights of camping (without a rack of any kind) and rode over 10 miles one way to one of my favorite camping spots in the summer. I rode what I could afford at the time (I have never been more poor in my entire life than during that period) and honestly those bikes served me plenty well.

Bottom line is if you have a bike ride it to work or school. It doesn't have to cost a ton of money. Spending more money can certainly make the expereince better there is no doubt about that, but its not always nessasary. I have no problem with people who spent what the OP has mentioned and more, but you don't have to spend that kind of money to commute by bike either even longer distances. To me its just great if people are out there riding whether its full kit road bike riders or someone with regular cloths on a squeaky ratty looking Huffy mountain bike which would have been me 10 years ago riding through the neighborhood I now live in. =)