Have to admit, if I'd known in advance just how much it was going to cost me I never would have started...
The real sting was the best part of a grand to get it on the road (£450 IVA, £90 retest, £120 tax, £55 registration, £150 insurance, couple of tanks of fuel...)
Do I regret it? Absolutely not!
It might have been frustrating at times, but overall I loved the build process, and learned lots of new skills.
I've also ended up owning the most entertaining vehicle I've ever driven, greatly enhanced by the smugness that comes with having built it myself
It's not for everyone though and I can see why many people give up.
It requires a massive amount of commitment, both in time and cash to build one of these. If you don't keep completely focused on it from start to end there's a good chance it'll never get finished. Two years into the project I was starting to get a bit weary, and if I wasn't as close to the end as I was I could have quite easily given up.
I would warn against too much penny pinching, I wasted a fair bit of cash buying cheap parts/tools that weren't up to the job and then having to buy the thing I should have got in the first place anyway...
I'll be very impressed if you manage it for £2.5k. Mine was very much a budget build (and looks it) and I easily spent double that.