Electric brewing will always be more expensive than gas. That much is true. You can't build an electrical brewing setup for $50. There's no way. There are many reasons to go electrical including (a) brewing indoors, (b) control (usually a PD), (c) less cost over the long term since electricity costs less than gas.
I'd say setup costs for electrical setups the way most people would want to be set up are in the $500 range once you factor in everything. You could easily spend $200 just in getting a 30A+ electrical outlet installed from your breaker panel.
The point of my site isn't to get non-brewers people to be interested in brewing or how to do it cheaply - there are a bazillion sites and books out there for that. You can brew on your stove for basically next to free. For example, see the first video here:
http://brooklynbrewshop.com/instructions
For what it's worth, I know lots of people (not rich people) who spend more than $5K on a hobby. You'll easily spend more on golfing, skiing, etc over just a few years. Remember that this brewery setup cost is one time cost. I also know a lot of brewers who have spend more than that over the years because they buy cheap stuff that doesn't last or work right and they are constantly changing out stuff. Pay once, do it right. Then use it forever. IMHO, $5K to pay once for hobby that you'll do for the rest of your life is cheap!
There's still the malt/hops/yeast cost that but that's really cheap if you buy in bulk. I pay $25 for a 50lb sack of 2-row. Hops are $6-10/lb. I get together with a bunch of local brewers and do bulk oders. We spend many thousands direct from the maltsters and hop distributors and save. I figure it costs me about $100-150/year to make as much beer as I and all my friends could ever drink. Brewing (even with a high-end setup) is one of the cheapest hobbies I know about!
Kal