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The mini line has been discontinued, so what's out there is all there is, and going forward, prices could concievably go up in the secondary market.  Right now, though, you should be able to find D&D minis that aren't too expensive (except for the larger and 'rare' ones, but you don't really need those).

The counters in Monster Vault are adequate mini subsitutes for monsters.  For PCs, I still prefer the old-school hand-painted lead pewter mini, and since you don't need many, you can afford to splurge on them a bit but, if you're not into painting, that's obviously not for you.

There are several companies making minis for FRPG and other uses.  Reaper is pretty good, and they have a new line of pre-painted minis, also not cheap.

Of course, there are always cheap alternatives to minis.  The 'Bag o Zombies' accessory for the Zombies! board game, for instance, is 100 zombies at pennies each.  They can work for any horde of humanoid monsters or minions.  There's Steve Jackson Games 'Cardboard Heroes,' which are counters that are folded to stand up like minis.  And, of course, you can always use pawns or counters from any game, or pennies, buttons, M&Ms or whatever you have laying around....

I've only had two problems with the flat counters:  1) sometimes, if the light is from just wrong angle, glare makes it hard to see the images on them.  2) you can't just lay them down to represent being prone.   Both pretty minor.

Apparently a fair amount of the cost is in the number of 'paint steps'.  Army men are cheap, but to have to handle each several times (even in a factory in china) drives the prices up.