Hydroponic Garden, Costs?

So I was wondering could I do like a nice Hydroponic grow of tomatoes and cucumbers, could $500 pull that off? Do you guys think its worth it, could I get lots of fresh veggies?

you could spend that much or more and get some nice veggies, OR you could spend half or even less and get some good organic dirt and plant them theri and get just as much plus its easier to care for, no gadgets or resavoir temp worries, water changes ect..

It depends on the type of hydro garden that you want to go with. DWC is the cheapest and will get the work done for the least but you should have the air pump on electric backup system just in case the power goes out. Here's a List of things that you would need to get a very basic setup done.

1 - Rubber made container ($3 to $5)
2 - Net Pots ($0.15 for small ones to around $1 for 4 inch ones)
3 - Air Pump (Get a 60 gallon or more and the 60 will run you about $30)
4 - Air Stones (green rock kind or the flat round ones seem to work best don't go with the stick because they suck and don't do a good job.) ( A pack of 4 to 5 will cost about $4 to $5)
5 - Water Soluble plant food (The cost will depend where you live)

I'm growing some veggies outside in DWC buckets. The air pump is the big expense. I'd reccomend getting the biggest one you can and using it to airate all your buckets, it's way cheaper than buying a bunch of little ones. It doesn't take that much O2 to saturate the water. The solubility of O2 is ~9.1mg/L at 20°C, it drops to 8.3mg/L at 25°, and starts dropping really fast beyond that. So temp control is important. My outdoor buckets are wrapped in insulation and white duct tape. It's doing pretty well and it's been in the mid 30s temp wise. I don't know if this will keep up, but the next step is to take bottles filled with ice and fishing sinkers (to keep them from floating and freezing roots).
Setting up an indoor garden costs more but can still be done for under $500. Especially if you look around for a used light. I just got a 1000W HPS for $100.

How many plants were you planning on growing? You can build a simple DWC setup from stuff you find around the house and recycling bin. Spend you're money on a quality air pump, air stones, a suitable medium and nutrients.

A single 15 gallon rubbbermate container cost me around $5 and you can have up to 12 4 inch net pots in it. You can go with smaller net pots and get more into one.