Here is the deal... You can spend as much or as little as you want on this hobby. For me the DIY side has just as much appeal as the brewing and drinking of the beer. There is damn near nothing that you can not build yourself for the same as or less than what you can buy new. I might have a grand total of 1K dropped into my brewery and I have: A 2 tap-3 line (gotta force carb the next batch before the 1st one is gone!) keggerator, grain mill, brew stand, 3 keggles, 2 cooler MLTs, march pump, fermentation rack, 2 sanke 1/2bbl fermenters, 3 sanke 1/4bbl fermenters and 2-6+ gallon glass carboys, water filtration and yeast ranch, not to mention more swing top bottles than one person should legally own... Ya, and it is all 100% weldless!
Granted my stuff is not pretty and may look like it was all DIY but I am happy with that! and so far I have had no complaints as to the quality of my brews...(Huge shout here to all the HBT gurus and folks that have posted up the seemingly never ending pool of knowledge, I do not need to call names because you know who you are!)
I am 1000% sure that you can spend HUGE dollars on this hobby and still make piss beer! HBT and the knowledge gained here, has saved me tons of cash and made me a decent AG brewer in less than a year. If I can do this anyone can.
PS. If SWMBO has issues with your hobby, I point out the total cost of hunting or fishing in comparison, I have sqat invested in this hobby in comparison...not to mention SWMBO has a soft spot for beer that are "Brewed just for her."