im thinking in order to get an inexpensive beer your going to have to use low price ingredients. the largest cost of all the above recipes is the grain bill. a dollar+ a pound for malt?? you've got to be kidding. i could work the next six months malting the stuff (by hand) and retire for life...
all those recipes seem to be well received and reletively cheap. low abv, except for the "sugar added" recipes, light to med hops, and dry yeast (or quality "used yeast"). but, its STILL a recession/depression (maybe your in grad school by now...) and i just HAVE to add that nobody has yet hit...