It's not furniture grade PVC, I agree that stuff is expensive. But what I used is just the regular plumbing grade with red and black ink printing on the side (you can remove that ink with acetone or any nail polish remover). It's just $.56/foot, I might have paid slightly more because they had 2' sections for sale and I figured less cutting and still cheap enough.
There's only 8' of PVC used for the 2' frame above: 3 - 2' pieces for the top and 2 sides; and the feet are made of 4 - 6" lengths. The connectors range from $.50 to maybe $1 at most, so you can still make it for $11. To extend it to 4' long, I just needed 1 more 2' piece and 1 connector. At least that's our local prices at Home Depot right now in the Chicago area.
