I would start with a smaller kit with the right products than a larger kit of the wrong products. Figure out the best you can afford for skin first.
Cheap Cheats:
Primer - Monistat Anti-Chafing Gel
Toner - Neutrogena Alcohol Free
Powder - Camera Ready Cosmetics or Ben Nye (costume shops carry this brand)
Don't skimp on moisturizers, eye cream or foundation - don't buy the most expensive, but don't buy too cheaply either. I carry Kiehl's moisturizer as well as Cetaphil. I carry both RCMA & Cinema Secrets foundation palettes. I use the CS more because it is quicker to work with when I'm in a hurry but I like RCMA just a bit more.
Lips - pay less here but just depot the lip product into pans and palettes. If you catch a sale of Revlon l/s at buy 1 get 1 free, then stock up. But honestly one of the Graftobian or Cinema Secret palettes should serve your needs. On the less is more theory:
Pink, Nude, Red, Deep Berry, Peach - Make sure these are all cream formula, then carry a pearly shade and mix.
Lipliners - I love WNW, honestly. Their color range is great. That's all you would need. But if you have an issue carrying that brand, look for a brown pink, a brown orange, a plum, red, & mahogany. Anything beyond this is a bonus. Oh, and Rimmel l/l are great!!
If you become a master at mixing your products, you don't need as much.
Think of multi function things too - for awhile you can get away without a highlighting product if you use your frosty eyeshadow or lipstick to highlight. What about cream lipstick as a cream blush? Or pick really vibrant lip colors and mix to mute them or mix with moisturizer to soften them.
Eyeliner - you only need black and brown. I think the gel formula is the most versatile and you can get them for $9/jar on camerareadycosmetics.com - the jars are smaller, but that works well becuase you don't have to worry about it drying out. I also like to keep a pale yellow pencil.
Mascara - with a good mascara wand, Great Lash will cover your needs. But I also like MF 2000 Calorie & L'Oreal Voluminous. If you watch for sales, you can find amazing deals. One time at Ulta I got Great Lash 4/$3.69 I think. They had a 2 pack and a b1g1.
I like the NYC Matte Bronzer, the packaging is cute too. If not, just use a darker foundation & skip the bronzer altogether.
For e/s, I say try to get the MAC discount card and then get pans and you're only looking at $6/shadow. Just find the minimum shades you need to complete the looks. Their matte2 line is great for kits. Also, for e/s primer, all you need is one - I like TFSI because of the sanitation issue, but you could use Bare Canvas paint, Painterly pp, or UDPP just as well. Or, simply use concealer. On really oily lids (like mine) this trick does not work, but for the vast majority of people it should work.
Also, most pro foundations are used double duty as concealer & foundation, so don't worry about concealer to start (as a matter of fact, I heard MAC Full Coverage is exactly the same formula as their concealer pots). However, you do want to invest in color correctors. You would want a salmon colored one for sure. It may be nice to have the greenish & yellowish ones, but I've never had to use those, just the salmon/orange/peach one. Graftobian sells a great kit for $20 that would cover all your color correcting needs at camerareadycosmetics.com. I also found out a local costume shop carries that line. I would actually check out a costume shop and see if they carry Graftobian/Ben Nye/Kryolan for color.
Blushes: peach, light pink, plum, pinky-brown, raisin. You could probably start out with these and be fine, and again matte is better. You can add shimmer yourself.
I would say anything beyond these minimums you could just add as needed.
