I'm in Higher Ed, low-level. How I afford home theater is by learning, shopping smart, and not getting wrapped up on having the best, but rather, the best bang for the buck.
I have a buddy who spent what I paid for my entire system on an LED backlight DLP RPTV. It's a nice TV for sure, but he has underperforming speakers, a cheap DVD plaer, and no room treatments because he spent al his money on the Best TV he could afford.
Buying HT is just like anything else in your life, you have to budget. A portion goes to paying your rent, a portion to food, a portion to clothes, a portion to cars. In HT, a portion to audio, a portion to display, a portion to source components, and a portion TO YOUR ROOM.
Even if you have $35K speakers, there will always be someone with a nicer pair, so instead, focus on putting together the best total system that you can for your budget.
Be smart about your upgrade path. You will want to spend money along the way, but if you have $500 now, it might not be a good idea to buy $500 speakers if what you really want is $1000 speakers. If you buy the $500 now, and the $1000 later, you just spent $1500. If you buy $250 now, and $1000 later, not only will you have only spent $1250, but you'll have saved up for your $1000 faster because you already had $250 in your pocket.
Stay away from snakeoil. Don't buy expensive cables, not even on a whim.
Don't fall for 7.1 unless your room and setup can handle it. For most, 5.1 will sound indistinguishable, and you just save $200 on speakers.
720p looks just the same as 1080p when your sitting farther away from a small screen and costs less $$.
Rent movies, don't buy unless you know you will watch it more than 4 times.
Cancel your cable during the summer. No I'm not kidding, it's all trash and re-runs and you should be playing outside. Not only will the company give you a promotional price to come back, but you'll probably save enough money to DIY treat your entire room.
Properly setting up your room is free and sounds better than new speakers.
There is no such thing a futureproof. Repeat: THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FUTUREPROOF (but speakers come a heck of a lot closer than displays or sources).
Read The Home Theater Shack, and listen to The Real HT Info Podcast
