i work at a pet store and it's $1.59 for a live mouse or a live pinkie. that's not too bad. frozen are cheaper yet! but i set up two 10 gallon tanks to start breeding mice and i'm having fantastic results! i also have a yellow-throated plated lizard to eat pinkies, a savannah monitor that devours the full sizes, and a blue tongue skink that gets the occasional pinkie. my albino checkered garter is a bit too teeny to eat pinkies yet, he's still on guppies. but maybe look into breeding and then freezing the pinkies? it's pretty cheap and easy to get started on this route!