http://homemadestrength.blogspot.ca/2011/05/strongest-bench-youll-never-buy.htmlhttp://homemadestrength.blogspot.ca/2011/04/more-than-just-squat-stands.htmlhttp://homemadestrength.blogspot.ca/2011/04/saw-horse-safety-stands_28.htmlI was inspired by this guy's setup, and basically copied it (changing some of the designs how I wanted 'em) for my home gym. Building the bench, squat stands, and then picking up adjustable saw horses to act as safeties will take you a couple weekends. The ones that I built are significantly better than the cheap commercial ones I was using before. I've had well over three hundred pounds on the squat stands, and at least 500 on the bench with no wobbling/creaking. The adjustable safety stands work pretty well for me too . . . and I can raise mine all the way to the top for enough height to do weighted dips.
Here's the bench I built out of some scrap 2x4s and a piece of an old door (After sanding the door down, it was actually pretty comfortable so I just stuck a towel on it rather than go to all the effort to upholster it):
Cool thing about this setup is that it's easy to fold up/move out of the way when you don't want to use it any more.
It should be possible to pick up a barbell, dumbells, and some weight for cheap on craigslist. Steel weights will last FOREVER and don't really drop too much value as they age, it's really worth getting a set. That said . . .
If you don't want to get a weight set, then you're going to have to be pretty creative. I'd look for some sandbags of differing weights to pick up/throw around. Or maybe something like a beat to snot punching bag in the 80 - 120 lb range. Lifting/putting it down will be awkward, but there are a lot of exercises you can improvise with that (cleans, overhead presses, bench presses, various lifts). Wrap a couple belts around it if you need handles Go down to the dump and pick up a bunch of strong buckets of various sizes with the steel handles. You can fill these to various weights with concrete and use them kinda like dumbells for several exercises. In the long run though, I think you'll find that getting a weight set is worth it. It's just so much easier to slowly increment your weight and to perform a wide variety of exercises.