Excellent question! I just found out about Arduino two days ago and ever since I have been browsing and gathering info for about 20 hours already.
I wanted to know this same info. Not because of cheap but because I am located at Costa Rica and it seems that these boards are not available in my country. I have to order them on Amazon and have them shipped to a PO Box and where it will be forwarded to me. This whole process takes about an extra week and a half and at least 12 dollars for shipping and handling plus customs taxes.
So if I have to buy a board for each project it's not that fun to get started.
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@CrossRoads, I read that the mini is for advanced users, requires additional components and assembly and powered by a battery. This means that there might be some stuff that the mini isn't able to do? Such as large projects that require a greater power supply?
Sorry if the question might sound dumb but I am a newbie here...