Looking at two budget meters, the Dick Smith, available from AU for $44

US + shipping and the MATelectronics MUL-3333 for $50 + shipping.
Anyone have experience with either? Is the kit doable for a rank
beginner? I do have a Weller station, will travel...

I just built the Dick Smith kit. Very nice kit, I thought. The parts
seemed high quality, except for the battery holder arrangement, which I
thought was pretty lame (two multiple AA cell holders "mechanically
connected" by soldering a pin of one to the other). The instructions
weren't bad, although the reference numbers for the figures were
mismatched, which was a bit confusing at first.

The PCB layout matched the provided parts very well, and it ran
perfectly the very first time I powered it up (which, I should probably
add, does not happen to me very often.)

Cheers.