ive priced out some useable stuff from wallys and came up with some similar things. the starter soil hes talkin bout is coco coir, i dont know if its ph buffered or not,if not you need to buffer it. you can use the mg perlite from walmart with the starter soil since theres no ferts in the starter soil. from amazon you can get stuff like thermo/hrgro's for 15 bucks. a ec and ph meter for 20-30 bucks for both if you are looking at the very bottom of the price range. keep in mind they wont be the most accurate things but they will keep you in near proper range but not optimal.
as for cfls they are only really good for veging and cloning from my exp. i clone and veg with cfls at just under 100w. for cloning with 2 27w or 2 13w will work. it just depends on how fast you want the plants to grow, sometimes slower is better if you dont have the rest of the room ready(low budget grow). vegging with cfl can help you keep the plants short and tight like t5's if you know how to use them, if not they will stretch like crazy.
for foil i have found that it works fine and does not raise temps like some say. mylar is just aluminized plastic. if you dont want foil in you box or walls, you can use potato chip bags which is just thick aluminized mylar or use white paint. but keep in mind this kind of cheap set up will only get you through 2-4 weeks of the grow. after that you should be ready to invest more money or figure out growing is not for you.