great, welcome to the hobby, skulls go over there by the throne and if you ever have rivers of blood on offer let us know.
To get started you would needHow much money (USD) would I need to scrape together to get started in the tabletop game? $20? $120? $1200? How much have you spent? Do you think it's a good use of that money?
A rulebook
a codex
some units, a Battleforce plus some HQ units would be a good starter.
a starterset with paints, glue and other stuff.
if I toss together these things on Games-workshop.com I come at around $300,-
And yes this is a lot. Expect to buy more as I only covered the basics. If you want an armycase, ten more paints and an elite unit you will have to bring $100 more
The amount I've spent over the past decade is not something I feel like contemplating as probably it would amount to a nice long holiday in a warm country. And being a broke-ass student most of that time means I'm not even that big a spender.
Was it worth it? yes. Painting is a great meditative experience to me and many great night were had clashing armies with friends. As a hobby Warhammer is not that expensive. You can drop 200 dollars on a weekend rafting or spend that money on two battleforces spend three weeks painting and an infinity gaming with them.