Well let me give you my perspective on that. I've been a poor married college student and it was great: the best time in my life in many ways. I have lots more money now and I'm pretty happy but not more happy than I was back then. Money is not requisite to happiness.

But I think you can cure you gear lust, lighten your backpack, conserve your meager resources, and enjoy the outdoors more in the process.

The trick is to learn to hike with less and to make the stuff you do take.

For instance you mention the hammock you hope to make. My homemade hammock cost less than $20 to make (material from the $1 bin at walmart and webbing from walmart as well). I have several professionally made hammocks but I don't like them better.

Ditch your heavy old stove and make a new one for free out of aluminum pop cans. It's fun to do and you'll like it better because you made it. Make the potstand of coat hangers and the windscreen of aluminum foil. It's more fun and lighter weight!

The thing is that the lighter your backpack gets the more of it is made of junk you find and think "hey, I could use this for ...". Look inside any lightweight backpackers bag and you'll find ziplock bags instead of cookware, old water bottles instead of canteens or nalgenes, keychain lights instead of flashlights, and pop can stoves instead of fancy stoves. And we use garbage bags for almost everything. Now I admit that I have a titanium spork. But that's because the $20 it costs is nothing to me. I remember when I was in your position and $20 was a lot of money. Take a plastic picnic spoon instead. It's lighter and you can always get a new one.

My advice is to stay away from those stores. It hurts me every time I go in and see people getting "oversold" with stuff they don't need. You can't really blame the salespeople, that's their job. They will try to convince you that this gadget is the thing that will make your wilderness trip worthwhile. They are wrong. The experience of hiking is it's own reward. Lightening up makes it easier to go farther and see more. But it doesn't take money to do that. It just takes smarts.