Hey all.

I've got an old steel frame that I may be looking to build up into something worth riding sometime soon. Before any of that happens I would plan to sand and repaint it, spread the back end, and get a whole new set of components. Since this is really just a fun project, I'm just looking to do it cheaply (ie cheap wheels, older/used cassette, rings, crank, BB, and microShift to see how that goes.) Granted it's summer right now in the states, but given how much free time I'd have and how long I'd expect this to take, I don't plan to have it done by the end of this season.

That being said, I'm not blessed with an overabundance of spare cash and before I tackle this, I want to price it out. Right now it looks like I could do it for about $550 (USD) which is kind of acceptable. Though it doesn't account for much going wrong. But since I've only just jumped into this recently, I've never priced parts in the predominant winter months. Do components like that (eg 105 cassettes and chains) tend to be any cheaper in the winter, or is it a mixed bag the whole way through?

Thanks for any input you may have. I'd appreciate it.
Also if I've missed something and this has been asked before, feel free to point me to the thread and that will suffice. Take care, all!