A few questions...

I'm planning on having someone lend me the parts to a Prusa, then use them with a set of vitamins to make 2 new sets of printed parts an send one set to the person who sent me the parts I used and the other to the next person in line.

The only thing is that I can only afford the required set of vitamins, the steppers and possibly a hot-end.
I however can't afford a set of electronics. The solution I came up with is to use an Arduino Mega 2560 and have it act as a interpreter between a PC running some custom software and the 3D Printer.

Will this work?

Also does anyone have any spare prusa parts that they could lend/give to me? (mainly printed parts, but anything else will be great!)

One last question.
What is the approximate cost of vitamins if purchased from the "Home Depot", "Sears" or other hardware store? (In USD plaese)

i cant help you too much with prices, but a good source of steppers and some other stuff are dead office printers, there a great source for allot of parts. but you need to get the bigger ones.

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[mike-mack.blogspot.com]

If you're going cheap and know your way around arduino, you might be interested in [reprap.org] which runs on a regular atmega168 (arduino diecimila and clones).

If you have an arduino mega already, the ramps pcb is pretty inexpensive. One seller is here: [xyzprinters.com]

Depending on where you live, getting loaner prusa parts would be easiest if you drop by a local hackerspace or reprap-entusiast. You can also drop by IRC [reprap.org] and ask us there. Note that people are naturally reluctant about giving away parts to random strangers on the Internet, so taking the time and effort to drive a little distance and meet up with someone, shows that you're serious about the project, and gives you much higher chances of getting a set.

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-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic

I recently built a SAE prusa mendel and bought most of my vitamins from hardware stores.
I bought from a combination of stores since one store did not have all that is needed/one had lower prices.
Home Depot
2- 4ft 5/16 round rod $10.54
1 pack of 100 5/16 hex nuts $8.57
4 packs of 25 5/16 washers $10.72
6 5/16 fender washers $0.72
Lowes
3- 6ft 5/16-18 all thread $11.61
1 pack of a 100 #6-32 screw and nut combo pack $4.58
1 pack of a 100 #6 washers $4.58

Lowes and home depot don't carry 3mm bolts so just found then at a local hardware store for about $9
For the belt I could not find it anywhere (I went to about 8 stores) so i bought a belt at amazon [www.amazon.com] $13.72
it was an EXTREMELY tight fit ( the belt barely inside the belt clamps on the x axis and the belt clamps on the y were at the very end of the board)

it amounts to 74.04 without tax this is excluding the wades extruder which I bought in a kit and the 3 608 bearings which i took off an old skate board. I hope this helps

Assuming you're in the US, Fastenal carries 3mm bolts and nuts. I'm lucky that I have several local to me. They don't stock 3mm in the store nearest me, but they can order them in from the warehouse/distribution center to the store and I don't have to pay shipping.
Otherwise, McMaster Carr carries. But you have to buy in packs.
I've ordered from both places many times and have always gotten good service. (I'm a buyer for my day job).

Also, a larger, 'old style' hardware store might stock metric.