Loads of you guys have been asking how much i paid for my new theme and where i got i done etc.. and up until now i’ve remained tight lipped.
It all began when i noticed the likes of Problogger, Shoemoney, JohnChow, JohnCow, Tyler etc.. all getting pimped out with custom made themes. I don’t have the bargaining power of those guys to get freebies or discounts. Little guys like me pay full whack if we want a theme of the same quality as those guys.
So i started searching and searching for anything wordpress theme related… i must have spent a few days at least looking for designers and packages from semi professional people as professional themes were out of my price range.
I stumbled upon The University Kid‘s blog and noticed he was getting a new theme. I then contacted him on the off chance his designer would be cheap and reliable. I then found nufrosh’s site which is owned by a girl called Myra. Check out her portfolio and you’ll probably see what i see – quality. The University Kid mentioned $100 and i wasn’t sure what exactly the terms of that were and i wasn’t going to poke for answers.
I contacted Myra directly through DigitalPoint forums and offered $170 all in as that was all i had in my paypal account at the time. I thought it was a fair price which i’d be happy with and which could possibly be attractive to Myra who is only a student herself. She then came back with two options – a .psd for $100 and i’d get the coding done elsewhere, or $170 for the lot and she’d look after everything.
Now i could have gotten coding much cheaper – perhaps about $30-40, but i thought it wasn’t worth the hassle. I knew with Myra i’d get peace of mind for that $170 and she’d get the job done to her own high standards, no messing about. That’s exactly how it went. I sent away a brief summary of what i wanted and 3 or 4 drafts later we had our theme.
Myra outsourced the coding to her coder Erik Gyepes who also did a top job and widgetized the sidebar despite me not actually requesting it 
From the moment i first contacted Myra to when i received my new theme it took 13 days and she actually had it ready in 10 days (i was away in Wales so offline). For something like this, i would have waited a month but thankfully the turnaround was super quick
I hope that answers a few questions and perhaps gives you guys some hope if you’re after a custom made theme. You *can* get quality without breaking the bank. I’ll also be adding custom bullet points and perhaps an RSS form on the site, just to finish it all off.