Low budget triathlon ... would you race?

Minimal course support would be fill your own water bottle on the bike (for a sprint or an olympic distance) and perhaps one water station to fill your bottle on the run. Once race I did this year required that you carry your own hydration on the bike and run but provided big gatorade coolers of water and electrolyte replacement for you to refill on the bike and run with 2-3 volunteers at the aid station. I liked this set up and it seemed to save a bit of money along with all the trash that is usually generated by little paper cups.

60 dollars is not really low budget.  I did a trail run series, it was $20/race, $36/2 races or $50/3 races.  You still got a shirt, there was minimal course support (usually 1 or 2 aid stations w/bottles of water) and post-race snacks (cookies & fruit).  Even our local sprint tri's with schwag & course support are only around $45-50 (~360 participants).

I enjoyed the trail run series, it was very small, only about 12-30 people did each race.  They offered 2 distances, the courses were fairly well marked (key turns) and bottles of water over little cups is always good!  They gave series awards, but I only did 2 of the 3 races so I didn't qualify. 

I've never gotten a finisher's medal at a triathlon. Many races do not give them out, so that's not something I would expect.

Probably, in fact I'm more likely to race a low-budget (as long as it's safely managed) tri because I can do more of them.  I ran my first 5K in 3 years this past weekend.  Why?  With the focus on longer distance tri's, I didn't see a need to spend $20-25 for a 5K.  When my mom asked about doing the 5K, I told her I'd go to cheer her, but would probably skip the race.  Turns out registration was $8 instead of the $20-25 I was expecting, so I paid the $8 and ran it.  A shirt, if I wanted it, was an additional $8 (I skipped it). 

My brother is part of a running club where they have weekly and/or monthly races for something like $3.  Show up, pay $3, sign the release, and run.  Not sure if they're providing water during the 5K (they have it at the end), and I'm pretty sure they're not using timing chips and probably not race numbers either. 

Wouldn't really care for a low budget race.  I mean race entry fees are not that much compared to all the other money spent on this sport.  Also, one of the things I like about doing Tris is that a Joe-smo like me can race in what could very easily be, and sometimes is, a professional race.  Balloons, announcers, T-shirts.....  I like it.  

If I have a choice between a nice decked out race and a budget race, I'm going for the decked out one.  If it's between a budget race and no race..... I’ll go budget.

However, as the guys here at work tell me, my opinion doesn't matter because I’m a DINK (dual income no kids).

Well, I've never gotten a finisher's medal in a triathlon (only for the half marathon I did), and t-shirts are mostly for the principal of the thing, I certainly don't need yet another race t-shirt.  As long as they had adequate support for organizing the race and ensuring safety, that would be fine.

The Camp Pendleton races, by the way, have pretty good support.  I did an Oly there last year, and they had plenty of fluid stations offering both water & sports drink.  They're pretty skimpy on the schwag, but otherwise good support.

Adding to the question--what if the cost tradeoff was that you only got your finish time, no splits?

It really depends.  Where is the 35-60 going, if everything is minimal?  A charity?  I can provide my own minimal support and do my own tri for $5-10 if I go the fancy beach and then treat myself at DQ later. 

I would require timing with splits, some purpose to the money (charity), lifeguards, some bike course support like at busy intersections, and one water stop on the run.  Otherwise I would just do my own thing.

This. I have a couple of nice tech shirts that are gigantic on me, so I can't even wear them to hang around in. The cotton tees I get at most races, I use as pjs. It seems like for running races, they tend to have more female-friendly sizes. All the shirts I have that actually fit, cotton or tech, are from running races (and one swim/run biathlon thing).

Actually had another thought, we have a summer aquathlon series (800 yd swim, 3.1 mi run) and it costs $5/race.  Nothing fancy, stopwatch start per wave, you get a swim and a run split (with the normal human error).  There is water and snacks at the end.  Tshirts are optional, <$10 if I recall.  If you do more than 5 races (8-9 available per summer) you can qualify for the championship race which is usually just a fun race.  Top 3 per AG get series awards (& top 3 overall).  There is a kids race as well that costs $1 (200 yd swim, 1 mi run).