Girl Scouting: Brownies

You need to buy what you and your girls and their families have decided on. The binder situation has gotten a little crazy with inserts and seperate Journeys. Try to borrow any Journeys you do and ask other Brownie troop leaders which ones the girls liked. Also try and get a feel if your district or an older troop will put on a Journey (unfortunately it seems the new setup doesn't encourage the older troops putting on events for the younger troops anymore). As far as uniforms, it used to be that only the trefoil pin was needed to be in "uniform" but I think they are requiring more now. Our girls want and can get all that stuff but I'd check if you have objections to it. Just a few somewhat jumbled thoughts on a Friday evening.

I have been a scout leader/volunteer for many years :)
I think it's REALLY important to have your first meeting of the year WITH the parents, so things like cost and expectations can be discussed.
Generally I set up a Sunday afternoon meeting at the park. The girls would play and have snacks while we parents discussed the coming year. We decided which projects we would focus on and how much money we needed to collect to cover expenses. I also had a sign up sheet where parents would sign up to help/bring snacks to meetings, drive on field trips, serve as cookie mom, treasurer, etc. EVERYONE had to sign up for something, even the working moms. You can't and shouldn't do it all, you will get burned out!
As Brownies we collected about $50 per girl for the school year, up front. This covered petals, patches, badges, pins, craft supplies and program fees. If we did anything more expensive than that (like a workshop or camporee) then parents paid for that separately, and those things were always optional. As far as the badge books, my co leader and I each had one, but we didn't require the girls to buy them. When I was still leading we were still doing the traditional badges, I have never done a Journey, so I can't help you there.
Good luck, I hope you have a great year!

All of our girls have a sash (we have 2nd year Brownies and most of our girls are almost out of room on the back of their sashes so if you plan on doing a lot of fun things I would get the longer sash) and a journey book. We use troop funds to buy the craft supplies. We did not get the Girls Guide to Brownies but we do have a copy.

The girls have earned their first aid, panting and snack badges. They really enjoyed painting we made a mural for 100th anniversary and in our city we have a kids painting studio and she gave the girls a lesson.

We have the World of Girls book and we think its ok. They are more like a school lesson then something fun for the girls to do. We have completed the first journey patch. Which we found to be grueling. It doesn't seem like our girls need the books but they can there are pages they can fill out.

I am a volunteer helper with my daughter's Juniors troop. Last year was the first year of Juniors, and everyone was responsible to pay for their own sash, council patch, troop # patches, pins, etc... We did not get the books. Our leader bought one herself and we made photocopies for everyone. It worked just fine. We did a journey. The girls were okay with it, but I think they found to be a lot of work and they have voted against doing one again this year. I think it kind of takes away from some of the other fun stuff they can go because every meeting is focused on the journey. Just my opinion.

I agree that you should have a meeting with the parents right at the beginning to let them know what costs are involved. They have to expect some costs like in any other extra curricular or sport.