I use a mortar tray from Lowes ($5.00), fish tank heater ($10.00), a fish tank bubbler from Walmart ($10.00) and recycle solo cups with holes in the bottom (free). 20 to 25 solo cups fit in there with your medium of choice. Fill mortar tray with water till it it is about an inch or two deep, let the medium soak it up for a day, adjust back to two inches. Make sure the stems are far enough into the medium that the bottom and first node are under the water line.
24 hours complete darkness then 24 hours mild fluorescent light.
Remove from the water bath after about a week.
When considering the cost of seed, I am surprised more people are not cheap bastards like me and clone the hell out of new seed stock. I start seed early indoors and clone from the top so I can not only create new plants, but to keep the height to light about the same. Get plants too tall under lights tends to create palm trees. Great if all you are harvesting is at the top, not so great for plants like peppers. Cloning lets a guy start their peppers in a sea of green sort of configuration.