Jeremymcon

I think about the cost of materials a lot too when tying just for myself. Hackle is obviously expensive, but it's also pretty much indispensable. So just find the cheapest source you can and suck it up. But for nymphs and streamers, you can definitely shave costs on materials. I tend to buy materials that are useful for a variety of things, and always shy away from the fad and super-premium materials. Off the top of my head, Cree hackles, zelon, and sculpin hemlets are things that I would never buy. They are overpriced, and I can make similar flies with cheaper materials. Well... Maybe I'd buy them eventually. But as a luxury, not as an essential material. One material in particular that I've been getting a lot of use out of recently is Congo hair from fly tyers dungeon. It's super cheap, and you get a ton of it in a package. I've used it for parachute posts, dry fly wings (esp caddis), streamers, twisted as a body in nymphs, as claws and shellback on crayfish flies, tails on gurglers and poppers, and pretty much anywhere you could use antron or zelon. Oh and I also use it to make yarn indicators.