+1 for craigslist. Also, I'd recommend asking some of your family... I know a whole bunch of relatives who had fermentation odds and ends when I got started with mead. Thankfully, the basics -- what you absolutely need -- are ingredients, 1 pot, 1 fermentation chamber, bottles (see above), 1 way of getting the wort/beer from pot to fermentation chamber to bottle. Everything else is added value, but not absolutely necessary. I do recommend a hydrometer, bleach, Star-San, and a half-decent kitchen scale, but those can be gotten on the fly, as you get more funds.