Nowadays I'm so much more of a snob, though. Still, you could get one that is a little less fancy to keep the cost down, and possibly do some of the work (like the liner) yourself.
Of course, for myself, my tastes have grown beyond my abilities, so I would rather pay someone to do it right instead of me attempting it, then never being quite happy with it.
I'm totally in the same boat. I just don't have the skills to do it right. It's easier (not necessarily easy, just easier) to just pay for someone else to do it properly. But at least I can defer the helm part a little while.
At some point I also need to think about gauntlets. Hourglass or Wisby? Hmmm...
I have those really junky hourglass gaunts I use in class... but I don't consider that a permanent solution. All the rest of the ones I have are out of period. I can probably defer this for a little while too.