If you are going to start off doing everything with the cheapest products and substituting the system products for cheap less effective substitutes then you will have a rough and rocky road to travel.
The least expensive way to buy your system products that work in the most effective way and that work synergistically for making the best and safest nails possible, is to buy a starter kit from the brand you want to use. CND have such kits and use them for classes and they are terrific value. It is the best way to start off right and use the things that work together for best results.
Alcohol is not an effective dehydrator ... It is a sanitiser ... Not the best to dehydrate. With CND you only need one Sanitiser/dehydrator (ScrubFresh) and you don't need to use any primer with the system. When buying better brands, you will find you also need to use less product, fewer solutions, fewer consumables etc. You will also then find, that using a better branded system, as opposed to cobbling together cheaper products as substitutes, will actually only cost you a few cents difference overall!
Particularly If you are just starting out, you should stick to a branded system. Neither you nor anyone else knows better than the chemists that create these systems and you gain nothing by trying to make your own. When things go wrong for you how will you know which of the cheap substitutions is causing your problems? For added confidence and better results ... Use the whole system.