I do not mean to be taking this off track or beating a dead horse - but I think my point may have been missed here so i wanted to clarify for teh record. I absolutely agree that all that stuff could stack up to 2.5-3k in no-time flat, esp if you are buying it peice-by-peice from junkyards, board members, etc.
What I was reccomending is that you can avoid this by just doing what the junkyards do - buy a whole truck that already has everything you need on it; tranny, axles, springs, yada yada. No trips to junkyard, AND you get a template to see how it's all supposed to fit together.
For example, I bought a whole '88 Runner that had been used as an engine donor for $800... came w/ eveything minus V6. only reason I even paid that much was 'cause it was in good shape and came w/ many spare parts. Now I have taken eveyrthing I need off of it and sold many parts, and it still has everything in the suspension/driveline that Beginner would need and I'm letting it all go for only $300 b/c I want this thing out of my garage. I know guys that do this all the time. In fact if things work out you can sell teh parts you don't need and make back soem of the $$ spent on purchasing the junk/parts vehicle. The sum of the parts is always > the whole.
Now this is assuming that an IFS setup is okay. To me, this would be fine as it would cost much less up front and fit the bill fine for the type of use stated. Certainly doing SAS instead would get costly very quickly, it's just not clear that it's necessary.

Beginner, I agree with the others, it sounds like yo uare onto a good plan. 4Crawler's linsk above are good, the BJ spacers will start to get it up in the air pretty cheaply. Also I believe the 2wd rear is a spring-under-axle style, you should prob be able to get a kit to convert to spring-over, I'm sure that will net several inches in the back.