Ebay is a great place to buy second hand miniatures.
Miniatures by post is a good place to buy new warhammer it has a 20% discount on most games workshop products.
Unit fillers can help to stretch the models you have further, for example you could have a 40x60 base in a clanrat unit with two clanrats pulling a chunk of warpstone.
save up the rats you get in the boxed sets until you have four or five then make an other rat swarm.
how to make a 1000 point skaven army for £54. buy one unit of night runners and two units of clanrats to make the chieftains just make a clanrat that looks more nasty and to make the assasin nab a cape off one of the night runners to make the rat swarms take the rats you get in the clanrat sets and split them between two bases and stick some skulls on the base and paint them plague like. use unit fillers in the clanrat units to get the extra 8 models. use this list
chieftain 45
chieftain 79
foul pendant
heavy armour
assasin 155
cloak of shadows
25 clanrats 175
spears
fc
20 clanrats 145
spears
fc
10 night runners 140
extra hand weapon
slings
throwing stars
night leader
10 night runners 140
extra hand weapon
slings
throwing stars
2 plague rat swarms 130
