I would have to spend fortune to get so much cool stuff 
The trick is to know where to look when you want something. Online surplus stores like
this offer some excellent prices on certain things once in a while, and they usually take
PayPal (PayPal offers automatic currency conversion for a small percentage fee).
For example, they were selling 200 amp, 600 volt
cm200dy-12h IGBT transistor modules for $3.95 a few months ago. Needless to say they sold out in 36 hours, but the point is I look carefully and wait patiently for the cheapest opportunity for most of my equipment rather than spending all of my money at once. The rest is just luck and having a minimum-wage highschool job.
Of course, there are certain things I have that I have had to cough up some signifigant change for, like my
Owon SDS6062 and my
firefighting gear, but I have to save up for months before all of such purchases.
My point is, just keep your eyes and ears open, you never know where or when you might find something cool for a good price, regardless of where you live.
