When I was on a student budget, I mostly asked my lab tutor kindly if I could help myself to the parts stocked by my university - the lab people were so happy s

When I was on a student budget, I mostly asked my lab tutor kindly if I could help myself to the parts stocked by my university - the lab people were so happy someone actually wanted to build something that I was basically given free access to the parts bins. Additionally, regional distributor ELFA had bins of 1000 1% 0805 resistors for ~$10/ea, so I just purchased a couple of bins at a time as I needed them until I had an E12-ish set. If there is one nearby, I'd strongly suggest you visit a maker space - chances are they have SMT kits already.