I got my tools right off Amazon. I wanted less expensive tools, as I just do hobby work, not professional work. The only tools that I would consider expensive were the nut files. You can use ordinary files to cut the slots, that's what I used to do. But the purpose made nut slot files do a better job. I bought four of them to handle the different nut slot sizes required for Soprano to Tenor size strings. I have no qualms about using regular files if I need a larger slot. I think I put my entire tool selection together for less than $200, including those "expensive" nut slot files. And, it's a lot of fun filling up the Amazon shopping cart with all of those cool little gadgets. I even got one of those "bits" for my electric drill to turn the tuning pegs so I don't have to sit there cranking them by hand.
