The Alien Bees seem to give you the most for the money along with a great value. But as for your color casts problems with hot lights, keep in mind that if you're shooting digital, then you can set custom white balance and you don't get any unwanted color casts. I shoot with cheap hot lights all the time and I just dial in whatever color balance I want either with CWB or by just setting a Kelvin temperature that I like. I tend to often want an overly warm shot, so that's what I set the WB to.
And here is the ultra cheap lighting setup:
The light is one of those $39.95 dual shop lights.
Cheers,
rfs