Hey Canadian Rocky, we meet again.
For monitor calibration I use an HP branded Eye One Display 2 that I got used off ebay; like 60$ if I remember. I use windows and the eye one software is pretty good I think; it has basic and advanced modes; it installs the profile automagically; it reminds you to profile again in x number of days; the manufacturer also has a diagnostic app to let you know your device is functioning properly. this particular model also calibrates multiple monitors; some do not. I think some won't even let you do single monitors on multiple computers but this one will.
the only other monitor calibrator ive used is my own eyes and those little gamma apps; not really good I discovered. haha
I have a cis and 3rd party inks but havn't started using them. Its my birthday soon and I'm angling for a spuder3 print for a printer profiler. this one is quite cheap but pretty good if you put some hard work into it. it also gives special attention to b&w. this one uses an optical device to measure your printed swatches. from what I gather it's mid range performance and affordable.
another option ive read about and heard gives acceptable results for some peoples purposes is
Profile Prism. its actually just a piece of software that profiles your printer; it works by scanning your printed swatches. I've heard good things about it but I don't have a scanner, let alone a good one.
Nothern Images is a great place to get
reviews on calibration tools, its very articular and the reviews are thorough. 2 reviews I will further point out, for the colormunki and the spyder3/datacolor; these are very cost effective items but from reviews and research i went with other options due to poor performance.
as for software........... I'm not 'married' to any particular image editor but photoshop is winning me over. gimp I like and is under good development but its color management seems a little immature. ive actually had some success printing with a bundled vista cm program called windows photo gallery. i was really surprised when i discovered its cm options.
for raw importing i use ufraw for gimp, also light room and canon ddp.
the same company that makes profile prism has a printing cm program called QImage. if you've done some windows printing you'll notice that it dosnt like to save settings in the printer driver, even if you set them as default! QImage seems to take care of this and is pretty straight forward and does a great job. Its free to try but I dont do a ton of printing so I'd never buy it.