You can save on a faucet by using a picnic tap. A paintball tank and regulator may also get you started economically. But you are probably better off catching something used on CL, eBay or HBT classifieds.
It's kind of like fishing--you have to be patient. A friend of mine JUST missed a deal a couple days ago: Two pinlock kegs, 5-pound CO2 cylinder, 2-gauge regulator. $100. If I'd have known about it I would have bought it. And I already have three tanks and three regulators.
One way to be patient--and with beer, it's really difficult to be patient --is to ask where you want to be six months from now, not a week from now. If that timeline can be held, you may accumulate kegging apparatus for half of what it would cost new.