Annie, I also live in a small town so no Hobby Lobby, JoAnne's, etc. The fabric stores within a 75 mile radius have the same price fabrics as you found so I do most of my shopping online. I find most of Connecting Threads fabrics to be of good quality and I usually wait till they're on sale. Also Hancock of Paducah has a large variety of backings and fabrics but again I wait till they're on sale plus I'll order enough to get free shipping so save even more.
Plus I don't let scraps go to waste and will find patterns to make use of them. I call these "freebie" quilts as they're made from leftovers.