I am Using regular tap water for mine. A lot of people talk about ph of water and stuff, but i've seen great results using straight up tap water. I've heard people using filtered water and i guess it's actually worse than tap water. For me, I just need personal medicine, thats why i grow, and regular tap water with compact flourescents are more than adequate. 3 - 3 1/2oz off 2 plants is pretty good. (well very good, 3oz will last me a very very long time)

About the nutes, i guess your best bet is just try to get your supplies off the internet. Where I live there are like 3 Hydroponic stores, but i always get better deals on the net.

Maybe think about getting a set up like mine. The "power grower eco" from hydro farm.
It comes fully assembled (you just have to plug in the tubings for the pump) & 2 months of nutes, it runs all by it's self. All you do is change the water/nutes once a week. Just set it and forget it. The bottom bucket is a 6.7gallon resavoir that holds the nutes, the top bucket is the 3 gallon grow bucket. the pump draws the nutes from the lower res. and pumps it up to the drip ring that is right above the grow bucket. then it drips down, the plant absorbs what it needs, then the rest goes back into the res and just keeps recycling the water/nutes. Then just once a week change the water and nutes. Couldn't be easier. I got mine for $55.