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I agree with buy once, cry once - and I think that should be applied in the following order of priority:
1) dies
2) powder measure
3) press
4) brass cleaning solution
The dies you will have forever. There is no need to ever get rid of them - you might buy more, but unless you stop loading for a particular caliber, they stay - so buy good ones. There will be plenty of voices that say all dies are just fine and make quality ammo (including Lees). Even so, let's just take a micrometer seater as an example - this is VERY helpful for dialing in the depth you are after (and depths on either side if you are playing with jump/jam) vs. screwing the die in or out and tightening the lock ring again.
Powder measuring solution is hard to go super cheap on. If you want to go ultralight, try dippers (but of course with this or any other volumetric solution you'll need a balance as well to convert to/from charge weights). I have not used dippers but conceptually they seem fine to me (apart from the potentially agonizing slow measuring time). You will eventually break down and buy a powder drop - and I think the minimum you'll spend for one you won't hate is probably in the $75 - 100 range. Anything north of that doesn't buy you a whole lot more precision (and I say that as a Harrell's owner). A balance or scale is no-go for the range unless you have a sheltered area to load in (and an infinite supply of batteries if you use the GemPro that is pretty popular - that is a real battery hog). I was personally quite frustrated with those and will stick solely to a drop at the range.
Press, to me, is something you can go cheap on for a single-stage bench mount and not live to regret it. For the price of a Lee, you can buy once, discard or (more likely) keep around for decapping later when you buy the Forster (and this is a great press, but really there is nothing wrong for what you want to do with an RCBS or anything else). Arbor presses don't come cheap, at least relative to single stage presses at any rate. At least you'll never really need to upgrade one. I've seen a super luxe one advertised that is a combo arbor press and single stage die press (the single stage bit being for resizing) but it was pretty dear and I already had the Forster so I didn't bite.
Finally, cleaning. Lots of solutions, but ultimately one of the key operations will be getting the lube off your resized cases. Tumbling in corn cob or walnut is what you want for this, so if you have to buy one solution, make it this one. Later you can add a wet tumbler or an ultrasonic solution or whatever if you like. I have heard varying opinions about the quality of vibratory tumblers in the $50 - 100 range, but you don't need large volume with the type of operation you're describing and that alone will help keep the price down; the big tumblers are much more $$$.
I don't think you can reasonably come in at $300 for equipment and have stuff you'll care to keep - or much of it - as you decide to upgrade or add other things. Let's say half of that are dies - $150 or so. The powder drop and balance are another $200, the press perhaps $150 (or buy the RCBS supreme kit for all of that @ $350 or so). Tumbler + media for maybe another $50 - 100 and now you're talking about $600. There are a bunch of other tools which you may or may not already have (calipers, RCBS precision micrometer, deburring tool, lube) that will add on another $100 - 200 or so by the time you add it all up.
1) dies
2) powder measure
3) press
4) brass cleaning solution
The dies you will have forever. There is no need to ever get rid of them - you might buy more, but unless you stop loading for a particular caliber, they stay - so buy good ones. There will be plenty of voices that say all dies are just fine and make quality ammo (including Lees). Even so, let's just take a micrometer seater as an example - this is VERY helpful for dialing in the depth you are after (and depths on either side if you are playing with jump/jam) vs. screwing the die in or out and tightening the lock ring again.
Powder measuring solution is hard to go super cheap on. If you want to go ultralight, try dippers (but of course with this or any other volumetric solution you'll need a balance as well to convert to/from charge weights). I have not used dippers but conceptually they seem fine to me (apart from the potentially agonizing slow measuring time). You will eventually break down and buy a powder drop - and I think the minimum you'll spend for one you won't hate is probably in the $75 - 100 range. Anything north of that doesn't buy you a whole lot more precision (and I say that as a Harrell's owner). A balance or scale is no-go for the range unless you have a sheltered area to load in (and an infinite supply of batteries if you use the GemPro that is pretty popular - that is a real battery hog). I was personally quite frustrated with those and will stick solely to a drop at the range.
Press, to me, is something you can go cheap on for a single-stage bench mount and not live to regret it. For the price of a Lee, you can buy once, discard or (more likely) keep around for decapping later when you buy the Forster (and this is a great press, but really there is nothing wrong for what you want to do with an RCBS or anything else). Arbor presses don't come cheap, at least relative to single stage presses at any rate. At least you'll never really need to upgrade one. I've seen a super luxe one advertised that is a combo arbor press and single stage die press (the single stage bit being for resizing) but it was pretty dear and I already had the Forster so I didn't bite.
Finally, cleaning. Lots of solutions, but ultimately one of the key operations will be getting the lube off your resized cases. Tumbling in corn cob or walnut is what you want for this, so if you have to buy one solution, make it this one. Later you can add a wet tumbler or an ultrasonic solution or whatever if you like. I have heard varying opinions about the quality of vibratory tumblers in the $50 - 100 range, but you don't need large volume with the type of operation you're describing and that alone will help keep the price down; the big tumblers are much more $$$.
I don't think you can reasonably come in at $300 for equipment and have stuff you'll care to keep - or much of it - as you decide to upgrade or add other things. Let's say half of that are dies - $150 or so. The powder drop and balance are another $200, the press perhaps $150 (or buy the RCBS supreme kit for all of that @ $350 or so). Tumbler + media for maybe another $50 - 100 and now you're talking about $600. There are a bunch of other tools which you may or may not already have (calipers, RCBS precision micrometer, deburring tool, lube) that will add on another $100 - 200 or so by the time you add it all up.
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