Cheap Terrain for my bases

Since I am new at this and try to save money where I can I decided to try and find a cheaper alternative to buying hobby sand which is quite expensive. So I went to Michael's and looked for some things since I didn't find them the first time.

I found these 2 pound bags of coarse sand in the dry flowers section which is pretty big. I got some colors that I wanted my homeworlds terrain to look like. Its sort of a savanna plains world with high grass and a reddish sand. So I bought a bag of terracotta and tan color planning to mix and match. I think I got each bag for 3 dollars, pretty good in my opinion. 

So I based some of my AORB tactical troops from my box set and I liked how it looked, I asked some of my new friends and they recommended a painted base compared to the "natural" color of the sand after the model is primered, I'll probably try both but I did the basing before the primer for now. 

The Sand 

Mixed

 Based

First coat of black primer (did three coats, two on top of box)

So I did not do so bad with this batch of primering, the only problem was reaching the undersides of the model. I ended up putting  on a glove and moving the model around accordingly and doing quick sprays. Then just spray where I was holding it to match the rest, worked pretty well but needed to come up with something better.