Costs are going to depend heavily on feeding costs. When we live fed rats I was stuck paying $4.99 a rat...no matter what size. Very expensive, not at all cost effective so we now breed our own rats and are self-sufficient on all the snakes other than the big BCI and the tiny milksnake. When we used to feed f/t I picked up a nearly new small freezer for $50.00 and it was perfect for the orders from The Mouse Factory.