I noticed the Lowes food grade bucket a while ago, which is different than the regular Lowes and Homer buckets. While the Lowes bucket (food grade) would be fine, I don't know that they sell a food grade lid for it. (I use free and $2 buckets with lids from the local markets, mostly for 4 gal batches)

btw - while at Lowes/HD, you may want to pick up a PVC elbow for the bottling bucket, as shown in this thread:
Bottling_Bucket

For spigots and airlocks, a local homebrew shop would be good, if you have one - good to support and save on s&h. I'm pretty lucky in that regard.

I'm not sure what's in a siphoning kit for $11.99. If you have a few feet of tubing, you can siphon/rack your beer. I guess a cane may be nice, particularly if you use a carboy, but I've never used one.

And while on the topic of econo-brewing...
- Bleach can be used as an effective, inexpensive and readily available no-rinse sanitizer (follow threads on using it with water and vinegar).
- "no-chill" brewing is an option to consider - no wort chiller required.
- the money you save by not buying stuff you may not need can go toward buying a grain mill. $20-30 for a mill opens the option of bulk grains.

Since you want more of a challenge than MrB and seem to be budget minded, I'd say look into all-grain using brew-in-a-bag. It's a very low cost challenge, and you can decide how you want to scale up your batch size as you go along. You can probably start with a paint strainer bag and ferment in your existing MrB keg(s). This looks like a good option for an inexpensive ($30, free s&h) brew pot for larger than MrB size brewing:
32-Quart Aluminum with Lid

Cheers

I started out using spigots but the occasional leak forced me to fill them with water for a leak test before use which was more work and wasted water. Now I use plain buckets and an auto siphon.

My first pot purchase was a 22qt. It was OK for Mr. Beer batches but woefully undersized for 5 gallon batches so it is now my HLT. I bought a cheap 7 gallon kettle and it has been working great for over two years now. Maybe not as $exy as a Blichmann but much less expensive.

After much debate, and actually going out to different stores and physically looking at stuff, I have decided that I am probably going to buy a kit of sorts; but there were very valid points in this thread that I am taking into consideration:

1. Stop thinking so much about the fermentation process, and think about how you are going to get there first. i.e. a brew pot, materials, etc.
2. 5 gallon buckets from lowes although they may be a plausible option, probably aren't going to cut the mustard the way I expect them to. I remember reading somewhere that scratches in the plastic can cause unwanted toxins to enter into your mix, thus contaminating your beer. This is something that I need to be very wary of, when it comes to "building" a bottling bucket.
3. Someone had mentioned, buying a kit that is going to last...this makes sense and speaks for itself obviously. I guess if you are going to get into a hobby...rather if you are already into a hobby and you really enjoy it, invest in it properly and make sure that your equipment will last.
4. Not all kits are made for everyone. For example, there was stuff that I saw in the Austin Homebrew kits that I didn't need, but I would be paying for anyway. Why not just buy the stuff that I want, and build my own kit? This leads me to my final point:
5. Whenever possible, support your local homebrew store. This hobby although very new to a lot of people in prospective of hobbies in the last 30 years, is still in a very fragile state; and the internet doesn't help. The little guy up the road from me (although it will take me 45 minutes of conversation to purchase my kit) only operates 4 days out of the week, and 4 to 5 hours each day that he is open; obviously because he can't afford to stay open 7 days out of the week, and he is vesting his time and money in his small business...frankly living like a candle in the wind holding onto what used to be the "american dream."

So, if you took the time to read my drunken afternoon rambling, I will be buying the equipment that I need...not necessarily a kit. Furthermore, after running into my local home brew store guy on the whim chance that he was open (not for business necessarily, but he still catered to my questions) I will be buying from my little local brew supply store.

Salud!

Very well said.

I agree on supporting your LHBS whenever possible. If you don't, it won't be there.

Sounds good!