Are cams really a must do for first time trad climbers. Im looking at building up a basic rack over time and on a pretty low budget and would like to know if cam's in general are worth the extra dough? Im looking right now at a balance between nuts and cams, but if i can cut costs i'd love to. Any help would be much appreciated.

Short answer: YES! Cams are the bomb. Much to my girlfriend's dismay I sometimes bring mine to bed & sleep with them. Long answer: Everyone has it right with passive protection being the way to go. If I were you I'd buy one of the cams you'll end up double or tripling up on, such as the .75, 1, or 2... then load up on stoppers. The big issue with stoppers is they take a few pitches to really learn how to place fast. Start on the ground (of course!) & try aiding a little bit. When you head up the crag & start to get sketched, slot that cam and relax. With the cam having your back you can take all the time in the world to find a stopper placement. Once it's bombproof, take the cam out and move along! My vote goes for one or two cams, green to yellow, then double up on stoppers four to eleven or twelve. Once your passive style is dialed, THEN worry about having tons of cams.

I agree with the other climbers on learning with passive protection first. I spent over two years leading on nuts and hexes while saving for a full set of cams (cheaper to buy a full set or two full sets when some one will cut you a deal versus one at a time). The biggest advance for inexpensive pro in the last 20 years (my opinion) is large wired hexes. Large wired hexes handle the bigger cracks and are way easier to place than hexes slung with cord--don't bother with cord. On moderate multi-pitch and alpine routes I carry more large wired hexes and less cams for weight issues. You can also buy 3 or 4 of a single size versus one cam. Cams are a god-send in dire moments or in parallel sided smooth cracks, but I place the hexes and nuts when at good stances or where ever the rock allows and save the cams for terror mitigation. Also, think about where you are climbing and what kinds of pro issues the area serves up. Small cams (CCH Aliens under 1") have saved my bacon more so than my larger cams because small cracks tend to be harder for my fat fingers and toes to deal with. So when you do buy your first cams, think about the routes you want to attempt that are challenging your passive pro skills and buy those sizes first.

You could probably get away with not having cams at first depending on where you go and if you pick your routes wisely. Ultimately though like Matt said you will need to get cams but collecting them over time would work because they are kind of expensive. I'd almost recommend starting out not using cams at first because then you learn to use nuts, hexes, tricams appropriately. I've seen people who overuse cams and probably wouldn't be able to set great pieces using the non cam methods.

Try and Build up a rack slowly if you don't have a lot of money. If you have other people to climb with that have gear then its easy to use their stuff and find out for yourself what you will want on your rack. I know a lot of people including myself that start with cheaper stuff like a set of nuts, hexes, and tri-cams. These are all pretty cheap. Then you can start buying a cam or two here and there when you have the money. In the end though you need cams, there is no good way around it if you want to be a part of the modern sport.