Reddit mentions of Empire Level E250 12-Inch Heavy Duty Professional Combination Square w/Etched Stainless Steel Blade and True BlueR Vial

I would strongly suggest against most of those tools, especially that hand plane.

1. Get a japanese hand saw. A little more pricy, 100x better performance.
   
   I'm sure the stone is fine but I can't vouch for it. I'd rather recommend wet sandpaper w/ rough to fine grits. And some compound for stropping. Initially, you can strop it on anything -- even cardboard.
   
   That square is dumb as f and useless as f. Unless you're doing framing or construction. Yes, I bought one when I started out. I still kept it as an example of a stupid purchase. Get this instead or something similar. It won't be as accurate as a starrett, obviously, but more than enough for 99% of woodworking.
   
   Coping saw...eh, buy whatever you want. They're decent and better ones cost significantly more.
   
   Chisels....those chisels suck. They're made out of butter instead of steel. Get these instead.
   
   As for hand plane, buy a No4 pre WWII stanley from ebay or you'll have to fork over some serious cash to get a lie nielsen or a veritas. Don't ever touch the new stanley shit.
   
   So...sandpaper (buy them from wherever),
   Stropping: $12ish
   narex chisels $38 ish
   empire square $11 ish
   japanese handsaw $27 ish
   Coping saw: $6 ish
   
   About $94. Leaves you with a couple of bucks for sandpaper--maybe. Get em from home depot/lowes to get started. Be sure to finish off all cutting edge with stropping on the compound.
   

If you decide to go the hand tool route, money and space are a lot less of a concern. Rather than throw out hypotheticals, I'll give you some examples of tools you can actually buy right now:

Panel saw. Yeah, 10 bucks. It's actually a nice saw too. The only issue is the teeth cannot be sharpened - but it's 10 bucks. Use this for breaking down big stock into smaller stock

Back Saw. Also 10 bucks. Same as above. Disposable but cheap and will last a long time (it's disposable because the teeth have been hardened). This is for precision cross cuts and cutting tenons.

Dovetail/fine joinery saw. 25 bucks plus a 3 dollar xx slim double taper saw file to make it not suck.

Now for some planes. These may seem kind of pricey for "broke" status, but these aren't POS-get-you-by planes. These are lifetime tools. To get something comparable new, you are looking at 150.00 to 300.00 a piece. You can get better deals by bidding on some planes, but these are all "buy it now"

Stanley #4. Needs some love but that's a good user for 30 bucks.

Stanley #5 for 42$

Stanley #7. 90 bucks.

Pick up a 4 dollar card scraper too.

Chisels

Narex $36. Use one of these and a block of wood to make yourself a router plane also.

Combination square 10 bucks.

A cordless drill of some sort and some bits (assuming you have one already)

70 bucks in 2x12's so you can make a knock down Nicholson style workbench which doesn't need vises. When you are done working, break it down and put it in the closet.

35 bucks for a pair of holdfasts from Gramercy

30 bucks worth of F style clamps from harbor freight will get you started there.

14 bucks to get sharp (not at all ideal but completely workable on a budget)

So for 410.00 or the price of a decent sander and miter saw, you can make literally anything in a small space with a small amount of localized dust. The trade off of course it time and labor.

Down the road you are definitely want to get some better saws, maybe some specialty planes, different chisels, some better measuring/marking equipment. But this will more than get you started.

/u/whitetiger and /u/skinslip1 for helping me get through hours of solidworks on plug.dj. All of me, loves all of you.

http://amzn.com/B000ETUNEU , because I needed one in the shop today.

Tape measure: as big as you can get your hands on (at least 25 feet)

Combination square: This one is pretty good considering the low price

Chisel: Generally it's good to start with "one big and one small" which admittedly is very vague, but the exact sizes are generally not super critical except for certain specific operations. If you're going to be looking for used stuff at garage sales, really anything will do (as long as both the handle and blade are in reasonable shape from a structural standpoint; rust is not a problem) as long as you sharpen it properly.

Handsaw: For joinery you'll want a smaller saw with lots of teeth per inch (more teeth is slower cutting but a cleaner cut). Eventually, you will want a crosscut saw and a ripcut saw, but you can make do with just the ripcut saw for starters, as long as it's properly sharpened This video explains saws and saw sharpening really well.

Block plane: As long as you flatten the plane sole and sharpen the blade properly, you can use a variety of planes. I like the old Stanley #65 with the knuckle cap, but you can use others too. You might want to start with a low-angle plane to start, because it's particularly well-suited for trimming endgrain to adjust a piece to the exact length, squaring off the ends of pieces, or adjusting a miter cut to a really nice 45 degree angle. There are lots of videos on this on Youtube.

Sharpening: Look up the scary sharp method for starters. Eventually, you'll probably want to go to another method, but the scary sharp is the cheapest to get started with (but more expensive in the long run).

While engineer squares are usually the most accurate, and they're excellent for tool setup, they lack the functionality that a good combo square has.

If you need something that you know is square, find one of those plastic drafting triangles. Since they're cast in acrylic, they're guaranteed accurate, and they wont bend out of square (instead they'll just crack or shatter). Seems everybody I know has one left over from a geometry or drafting course.