Home made lighting kit?

[edavies]

I would like to try taking indoor potrait photographs and would like to try and make up my own lighting kit. I have a very limited budget and therefore need some advice on what to buy in the way of lamps (that is what type of lamp, wattage of these lamps, what type of holder and reflector I should use etc etc. Can anyone advise me on this as I am getting frustrated with shadow created on the background from using flash. Once setup what would the advice be for white balance setting etc. Should one use a custom setting when using lamps? Any advice would be appreciated. Many thanks - Evan