You may find that most of the $2/yd fabric is not as tightly woven as more expensive fabrics. This can show up when you cut strips, as less tightly woven fabric will fray a lot more along the edges.
I usually buy more expensive fabrics and see no threads hanging out of the edges when I rotary cut them. Currently I am working on a retro-style quilt and the thirties prints I wanted were on less expensive fabric. These strips have threads that stick out along the cut edges; if I pull on them, the thread comes completely out of the fabric and leaves a slightly frayed edge. I will be using off-white for the sashing on these blocks, so I need to be careful to purchase a better quality white. A looser-weave white would allow the threads from the colored fabrics to shadow through; a more expensive, tightly woven white, should solve this problem.