Hope no one minds if I add my two cents, because I've just gotten started and had to really stretch my money. I wanted to buy just enough to get up and going, to be sure that I could do it, before I spent very much at all.
I started off with 30ml of 100mg nic in a 50/50 base for $5.49, 240ml of pg for $3.99, and 240ml of vg for $3.99, plus 1ml, 5ml, and 10 ml syringes, all from Vape Wild. I don't taste anything nasty in any of those substances. I did buy a starter pack of 6 flavors from them for $10.75, but later found that I could get flavors for a better price from Bull City Flavors.
I'm just mixing in 10-12 ml batches until I get the kinks worked out, using the 5ml syringes for measuring pg and vg, and counting drops for everything else.
All in all I think I spent about 50 bucks for the nic, pg, vg, syringes, bottles, and about 15 flavors.
Also took advice from folks here after my first mix came alive on day 3 and turned out to have way too much flavoring in it. I'm doing better now keeping the total of all flavors at 9-10%.
I've mixed up 8 different flavors, 10-12 ml each, so far and haven't made a dent in any of my supplies. 10ml is costing about 45-65 cents, depending on how much nicotine is in the recipe (not all of them were for me).
ETA: Should also note that I'm making my own recipes and documenting them on e-liquid-recipes.com. There's a reason for this - I think most people really like sweeter flavors than I do, spices and beverage flavors are my first preference, so I'm mixing things like Sweet Cinnamon, Russian Tea, Grape Ice (grape and menthol with NO sweetener). I did make something I'm calling Fruit Juicy today, and it'll be sweet, but that and a nice heavy Vanilla will be about as sweet as I can go.
ETA2: I also took advantage of that "One Drop Flavors" weekend sale of 30 ml for 79 cents and free shipping if you spend more than 5 bucks. I ordered I think 7 flavors from them, but they aren't here yet. I get the impression that this offshoot of the Real Flavors company is new, so they're an unknown, so I may either have gotten a fantastic deal, or I've got 210ml of something to pour down the drain. I don't mind gambling 5 bucks.