If you want your cake and eat it too, your gonna have to pony up and and spend some money, plan and simple. You sound like my Dad, "Tighter than 2 coats of paint"
You can either wait and wait and wait till the BIG LCD Tvs come down in price or buy what you want now and enjoy it.
..... WTF is all this talk about resale value of a TV? It's not a car, most people by a TV and have it for 10+ years. Most people think of resale value on big purcahse items (New car, House, land, boat, etc).
I have a Samsung 56" 1080P DLP and love it but if I had a big open room, I'd hate it because of looking at it on an angle, dull and dim. I view it straight on so no issues for me.
LED LCD is the future and will be the standard for many years to come...