Good point about the jeans. I failed to make that consideration.

As for the hiking pants. It's true that they get pricey. I would keep an eye out for sales on the REI and Bass Pro Shops websites. You can probably get lucky and find a nice pair for 25-40 dollars. I personally don't mind spending a little more on a quality pair of pants. Just because I would never need more than two pair for any distance/amount of time.

Consider shorts, too. five dollar running shorts from Wal-Mart are a certainly within most budgets.

I assumed your socks were cotton, sorry. I will still press for liners. Being on a budget, I would recommend inexpensive synthetic dress socks. If they are thin, they will do the trick about as well as a purpose-built ($5-10 a pair) sock liner.

Finally, here is a tool to help the walker with quantity control. Amazon link