On another forum there was a thread talking about a new source for 54R surplus ammo, and it was coming in at $1 per bang. Really that high for rot gut dirty surplus ammo, one person posted that brass costs so much he would just keep using surplus, and quoted a price on the brass.
Absolute truths here, but there's also some nuances in the breakdown. For me anyway. There are roughly three levels to my own hand/reloading efforts.
First string are 'volume' handgun cartridges: .45 ACP, .38 Special, .32 H&R and 9x19. I handle these with a Lee progressive loading press with preset turrets that I can just drop in and rock on. I have just one or two standard loads and make an effort at economy with these rounds, aiming for around .20/round (more like .25 lately). .44 Magnum is also a fairly high volume cartridge for me, but I use a single stage for better resizing leverage.
Then there are the 'occasional' cartridges. Reasonably contemporary stuff like .22 K Hornet, .308 Win., .270 Win., 30-06, .300 AAC. If I still had opportunities for hunting, these would be the first string. They see more variety in bullet selection and tend to cost more per round. I have some centerfire plinking handloads for these as well, using plated bullets and reduced loads.
And there are the 'reload or die' cartridges, that can't be had any other way. I have lots of those, mostly obsolete military cartridges like 6.5x53R Dutch, 9mm Browning Long and 7.5x23 Swiss Ordnance, plus some civilians like .32-40 and 8.15x46R. I don't even calculate the cost per round, but I usually figure on an initial investment of around $100 for dies and brass. Probably somewhere around $2-4 per round for the first loading. Often some creative caseforming saves money on the latter, but not always. This stuff usually doesn't get shot very often, so a small stockpile can really last, especially with single shot rifles.
If I was just into handloading and shooting on more of a strict budget, I'd stick with the first two categories -- there's still a few interesting surplus rifles that would fit that bill.
However for me, shooting a box of ammo through any one classic rifle or handgun in my collection is an infrequent privilege, even though I'm usually at the range several times per month. I rotate through the collection, and these days it's reached a point where it can take me years to get back to a particular rifle and cartridge.
FWIW, I've got a friend who spends more trading Pokemon cards (seriously!) than I do on shooting, and he'll freely admit I'm having a lot more fun.