If you go to "the krib" site, and do a search on PMDD, Poor mans dosing drops, you'll find some articles on making your own fertilizer for planted tanks. You can pick up the ingredients between a drug store and hydroponics shop. It seems like a lot of work but you can control the amounts of each ingredient so if you need less iron you can mix it with half the iron etc.
There should also be an article about making fertilizer balls. Red clay powder from an art supplies store works wonders but if you are going to try this WEAR RUBBER GLOVES while rolling the balls, your hands will be red for a week.
And finally, one thing I tried when I had planted tanks is to use sterilized garden soil on the bottom, cover it with unbleached paper (like the paper grocery bags used to be made from). Cover the paper with your gravel, then when you put your plants in simply poke a hole in the paper and your plants have access to an amazing substrate. If you try this make sure your soil is unfertilized, sterilized, clean, natural soil. Never hurts to bake it in the oven for a couple hours at 350 just to make sure it's sterile.
Douglas
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