LG has all the pics so we must wait for him to read this and have time to post them. I will send him a note too.

Since we were attempting to see what a true bag would cost someone...we did not use anything that we already had. We decided to not skimp on the first aid kit and that was a chunk almost as costly as the darn bags since we selected the same one we bought for our own bags. Plus we added certain things to that too. I have a BOB that LG assured me will never function cuz of its size. It fits all my stuff though so I am being stubborn. I will not leave without a years supply of my thyroid meds/supplements and that alone fills what should be my clothes area. It is a trade off for me and I will wear the same darn clothes but without my meds I wouldn't be around to wear anything. Probably the one thing that we splurged on was the pocket sized SAS books. We figured someone without that knowledge could really use it and they are nice little books. I saw my first one at a gun show for $40 and I bought 2 of them for $14. That is a heck of a markup.

Yep, you're right, BOBs and GHBs can be very expensive.
When I built mine over the course of weeks/months the cost didn't seem to be that much plus, a lot of the equipment I've had for years and don't remember the cost then.
Like you, I stay away from the ready made bags and build my own tailored to my needs for a range of situations. At least as best as I can imagine realistically. The cheap red bags you mentioned are made for the beginners anyway as they are not always as knowledgeable as they will become over time and, for the kids who "just have to have one". Plus, what you decide is appropriate for you and your better half may not be appropriate for anyone else as you tailored them to y'all. The cheap ones are a "one size fits all" that fit noone. I do, however, use some of those cheap bags as a reference material to start my bag. I did that with both of the ones I displayed here.
Anyway, will you make pictures of your and LG's efforts available to us? Looking at what other people have in their bags has been a good experience for me as sometimes I see something I did not consider when I built my BOB or GHB so I use their information to better tailor my bags.
I do like your effort to equip your bags with quality materials, that's the best way to set one up. Even those of us with more limited funds to work with can obtain quality gear as long as we are judicious with our spending and don't settle for get-by instead of what's best for us.

LG (who is fully prepared with an excellent BOB and such) and I decided to purchase 2 good bug out bags and fill them with quality necessities rather than what is typically sold in kits all over the web to see what the true cost would be. So over the last few months we went to work on compiling the items. LG found two bags, actually sister bags with MOLLE (spelling?) system, on line but one was more expensive than the other. We shopped wisely hitting Dollar Tree for the small stuff, Wal-Mart for certain other things, and Dicks/Cabela's for a bit more. The rest of the items were researched and ordered on line. We pulled MRE's out of a case I had just purchased/stored and sat down to total up the cost of the two bags. One bag had a few extra goodies but other than that...they were the same. I was totally shocked at the end result cost. The positive is that I now have two bags ready to go for my better half and myself. Of course the cost we incurred did not include defense items, personal items, or clothing beyond a good poncho. We simply left room for those items to be added. This project is not an easy undertaking and is quite costly. I highly recommend anyone that hasn't put their bag together to get started now unless you are financially in a position to purchase everything at once. Even then it is hard to find a good bag that meets all the needs yet is small and functional.

Our original thought was to sell these bags but I do not have a lot of faith that they would sell for that kind of money plus a profit. The internet is rich with cheap bright red bags with lots of band aids and junk in them for your money. I am sure that will be the way for the majority of the folks. Sometimes quality is just too costly.